Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write

Elizabeth Lyon is great. She's down to earth, makes sense, doesn't condescent, tells it straight and seeks to be helpful, always. I met her at a writer's conference two years ago and agreed to let me interview her for a piece I was pitching. I've exchanged some emails with her, though not lately, and she always responds thoughtfully and thoroughly.

I've used her book and like it very much. I've used the other two main books (Jeff Herman's and Michael Larsen) and honestly, I think the trilogy works best because they each have strengths in giving you tips on how to put a nonfiction proposal together. I even emailed her a few times while I read the book to get clarification on how certain things might apply to my proposal.

I think she's worth reading, meeting and even emailing before you go to the conference, then she'll know the name and the face.

She has a website, but I forget the address. If you google her name in quotes, you should be able to find it.

Good luck! Where's the conference?

The book is absolutely fantastic! More information that you could possibly use. I borrowed this book from a friend quite a few months ago, and STILL haven't returned it.

wonderful book. It is the only one I kept on writing proposals. It's the best I've seen.

Chacounne said:

That was wonderful input, and I will email her before the conference. She's coming to the Surrey International Writers' Convention (that's near Vancouver) in October, and I think I will use her arrival as the deadline to get my book proposal in order, so she can, if she's willing, go over it before I start sending it out.

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That's exactly what I did before I went to the conference where I met her. I still needed to do a lot of work, but I was prepared to have at least a first conversation. They LOVE when you know about them, their rules and have an idea of where you are in the process. That way, they can help you the best, and in an efficient way for everyone.

This is the first book I seriously read on writing a book proposal. Elizabeth makes everything so logical - and she is a great motivator. In fact, I liked this book so much I just purchased another book she wrote about how to write nonfiction books.