Why Every Book Needs a Proposal (Even Self-Published)

I've read thousands of book proposals as an acquisitions editor and a former literary agent. I continually teach on the topic because I believe many writers don't understand the critical nature of this specialized document called a book proposal.

On the traditional side of publishing, editors and agents read proposals. It doesn't matter whether you've written nonfiction or fiction because this document includes information which never appears in your manuscript yet is critical detail in the decisionmaking process. My Book Proposals That Sell has over 100 Five Star Amazon reviews and continues to help many writers. My online course, Write A Book Proposal has helped writers around the world to learn the step-by-step techniques of creating a proposal.

As a book publisher at Intermedia Publishing Group, many of my authors have not written a book proposal because we work with full manuscripts. From my perspective of working in book publishing for over 20 years, every author should create a book proposal for their book—whether eventually they publish the book with a company where they pay to get it published (subsidy or self-publishing) or whether they find a traditional book publisher. In the proposal creation process, the author learns some critical elements about their book concept plus they are better positioned in the marketplace.

Here are four benefits of proposal creation (and I'm certain there are many more):

1. You Define Your Target Market. Many authors believe their book will hit a broad target—everyone. No successful book is for everyone. Each book has a primary target audience and the proposal creation process helps you define, pinpoint and write about this audience. It is important in nonfiction but it is also important in fiction. For example, romance is the largest fiction genre yet there are many divisions within the romance genre. Every proposal needs a target which is defined—yet large enough to generate volume sales. You learn and achieve this balance when you create a page-turning book proposal.

2. You Understand Your Competition. While creating a proposal, the writer has to take a hard look at which books are competing with your idea. This process helps you understand the marketplace. Many new authors believe they are writing something unique with no competition. It's not true. Every book competes in the marketplace and you will be a better equipped author if you understand your competition.

3. You Create A Personal Plan For Marketing. Whether you like marketing or dislike it, the reality is every author has to market their own book. It doesn't matter who publishes your book—whether you self-publish or go with a large traditional house. As you create a book proposal, you will be including practical, specific and measurable ideas that you can execute when your book enters the market. The proposal will be a valuable reference tool for you because you've done this important creation process.

4. You Possess A Valuable Tool To Pitch Agents and Editors at Traditional Houses. I've written it a number of times but it bears repeating here. Literary agents and editors do not read manuscripts. They read book proposals. Even novelists need a book proposal for their initial pitch to an editor or agent. And if you self-publish and are successful with selling your book, because you own everything, if you receive an attractive offer from a traditional house, then you can move the book. Without a proposal you can't properly pitch the concept and you've eliminated this possibility.

I believe writers should explore every option and keep their possibilities open. You've narrowed the possibilities rather than expanded them if you don't have a proposal.

If you make the effort to create an excellent book proposal, then you will be ready to pitch your book at any time and any place.

Ask Plenty of Questions

At first I didn’t notice the publisher name on my room key at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. It was Cross Books, the self-publishing arm of Lifeway.

Last Wednesday at breakfast I spotted several writers who I met originally a year ago during the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. One of the authors, a pastor’s wife of a Baptist Church had decided to publish her first book with Cross Books. I listened to this author tell me about her challenges producing the book, getting in touch with the publishing house and how with each connection she was speaking with a different person at the publisher.

Finally this author pulled her new book out of her bag and showed it to me. I immediately noticed the barcode on the book did not include the retail price of $16.99 nor was the price printed on the back of the cover. As I looked closely at the book, I noticed the publisher address on the copyright page: Bloomington, Indiana. Then the pieces fell into place. This author had published with Author Solutions. I located this article from Publishers Weekly. It points out Cross Books is an imprint of Author Solutions, the largest self-publishing company in the country—yet this author was unaware of Author Solutions and had never heard of them. Author Solutions is the parent company for several imprints including West Bow Press with Thomas Nelson, the largest Christian publisher. The PW article mentions that West Bow has published 50 titles with another 200 in the process.

Almost two years ago, I interviewed Susan Driscoll, who was then the president of iUniverse. Susan moved to a different publisher when Author Solutions purchased iUniverse. At that time, iUniverse was publishing over 400 books a month. According to this article in American Way magazine, Author Solutions brought over 21,000 titles into print in 2008 (or an average of 1,750 books each month). Self-publishing has only grown in popularity in the last two years, I can’t imagine the number of books they are publishing at this time. While I'm sure some authors have great experiences with Author Solutions and their various imprints, it only seems fair to be aware of their large number of books. This newly-published Cross Books author that I met at the writers' conference had no idea she was a small part of a huge publishing entity.

The experience reminded me again of the necessity of authors to ask lots of questions before they sign up with any publisher. You want to make sure it is a right fit for you and your publishing goals. The author at Cross Books left our conversation encouraged with some plans and action steps to take with her book.

I found the experience renewed my own commitment to my authors to be a good communicator and to be in touch with them about their questions in a timely fashion. Only through good communication can people feel informed and able to do good work in the creation, distribution and marketing of books. Once again, I learned and grew as a member of the publishing community. What active steps are you taking to grow in your knowledge of the publishing world?

The Publishing Route For Some

With a glance at my background, you can see that I've always been committed to traditional publishing. It's an ongoing part of my work to continue training authors to successfully craft their book ideas for the biggest possible publisher. It's why I love writers and have been continuing to answer their proposal questions through my new Ecourse, Proposal Secrets and other products like Editor Reveals Book Proposal Secrets and Book Proposals That Sell.

Many authors get frustrated with the slowness of the traditional system. Even after a book is contracted (which takes a lot of time for some projects), the publishers like to have the manuscript in house for a number of months before they "release" the book. The time factor allows the books to be sold into the various distribution channels yet can take months. Increasingly some of these authors are turning to self-publishing. Yet many self-published authors produce materials that flounder in the marketplace because of lack of attention to detail--like a basic foundation of good writing then getting the book edited and carefully proofread. I've seen many self-published books which fall into this category and it's one of the major reasons that brick-and-mortar bookstores don't carry these books (in most cases--and yes there are some rare exceptions). Other authors jump into self-publishing with no background in marketing and no ready-made audience to purchase the self-published books. They wonder how they will ever achieve their dream of holding a printed book in their hand.

In recent days, I've been learning about another publishing route that some people are taking. I read Aaron Shepard's excellent book, Aiming At Amazon. Shepard gives step-by-step instructions to by-pass the traditional route. Using his technique, you can forget about seeing your book in a brick-and-mortar store because he encourages his readers to target the largest online bookstore on the planet, Amazon.com. His book has TWO subtitles: The NEW Business of Self Publishing or A Successful Self Publisher’s System for Profiting from Nonfiction Books with Print On Demand and Book Marketing on Amazon.com. He explains in the book that he is quite intentional about those two subtitles and how they are picked up through the Amazon system.

With the route Shepard advocates the individual forms their own publishing company, writes and produces their own book and prints the book using Lightning Source. Why do you have to become a publisher? Because Lightning Source doesn't deal with individuals but only publishers. If you are concerned about the quality of print on demand from Lightning Source, I would not be concerned because they print quality books. Also the same parent company who owns Lightning Source also owns Ingram Book Group, the biggest wholesaler in the U.S. As Shepard says, "Almost every bookstore in the country, along with many libraries and schools, orders books from Ingram." People can get your book from Ingram. Here's one of the keys from Shepard, “And because Amazon draws book data directly from Ingram's electronic catalog, you are guaranteed that Amazon will automatically list your book. What's more, because Amazon regularly uses Ingram for drop shipping, all Lighting titles are normally listed on Amazon as in stock or available within 24 hours, even if Amazon doesn't have its own copies at the time.”

With Print On Demand, you don't have to order thousands of books to make it cost effective. Instead you order what you need when you need it. Lightning Source is the same company that many traditional publishers and self publishers are using to actually print the books. Effectively you cut out the middleman and produce your own books with this system. To learn more about POD and Lightning Source in particular check out this article in the January 14th issue of Publishers Weekly.

Now there are some cautions: 1) you have to make sure you have excellent writing as a foundation for success. You still have to work hard to shape your idea into something readable and targeted for a specific market. Without this foundation, you can still produce a lousy product. 2) you have to understand that all of the book production elements will be on your shoulders. You have to use an outside editor and proofreader (or at least you should take this step). Also you will either have to learn or outsource the actual book layout, cover and interior design. 3) you will have all of the marketing for your book.

If you have a speaking ministry or an Internet newsletter or another means to reach a particular audience, you may want to consider this publishing route. You will be surprised at the quality of the printed product. You would have trouble picking it out on a shelf of books from any other paperback.

As you can see from what I've written Shepard recommends this POD route for nonfiction books. There is a fiction book which is sweeping across the public with incredible word of mouth sales. Maybe you’ve heard of this book, The Shack by William P. Young. It is a self published novel which is going like wild fire. The book published in May last year and they've spent about $200 on advertising and the rest is word of mouth with thousands of sales. You can check their website to learn more and this podcast with the author.

Last month over the Christmas holiday, I read The Shack and was riveted to the pages. It was one of those novels which I could not quit until I reached the final pages (a rare experience for me with the volume of reading that I've done over the years). You can click this link to see my Amazon review but the book is an unusual reading experience and teaches incredible lessons for the reader. Eugene Peterson author of The Message endorsed the book on the cover saying, "This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It's that good!" I agree and could not have said it better. Get a copy of The Shack and see for yourself.