This book isn’t about how to write a non-fiction book, but about how to write a proposal, the document that will get a publisher interested in selling it. As author, you have to have a very clear idea about the people who are going to read your book, how many of them there are, and how to get their attention. After all, if you don’t know who you’re writing for, and you can’t guarantee that at least couple thousand people will line up to buy it, why should a publisher be interested in investing resources in your project?
I read this book because I had a specific idea for a non-fiction book that I could write. Unfortunately I think the time to have published it was like the end of 2023, beginning of 2024, and it would also probably have required me to have a collection of followers eager for my opinions specifically on that topic. I think I may have missed the boat.
This is the 3rd edition of this title. I bought in a used bookstore in 2023. It was published in 2004, and says quaint things like, you might want to use a computer to draft your proposal, because word processor software can make it easy for you to move things around; or you can just use 3×5 notecards. It’s very likely the 5th edition is more informative for someone writing in 2026. There’s even an eTextbook.
When and Why I Read How to Write a Book Proposal (3rd edition)
Got it it New Orleans in 2023. There's a fifth edition out in 2017. Oops.
Genre: writing
Date started / date finished: 05-Apr-26 to 08-Jul-26
Length: 276 pages
ISBN: 1582972516
Originally published in: 2003
Amazon link: How to Write a Book Proposal (3rd edition)
