Book Proposal- The Overview

• Title page
• Overview
• The Market
• The Competition
• About the Author
• Publicity
• Annotated Table of Contents
• Sample Material

So now that the title page is complete, it's time to think about the body of the proposal. In 2-5 pages, you now get to summarize the book that took you 50,000+ words to write. Oh my! What is important about this is it's the first glimpse at your actual writing ability. So, don't even think about starting with, "My book is about..." Start with a bang. Start with something that says to an editor, "Oh my gosh, I've got to read on." Use the same style you used in writing the book.

For my particular book, this was a difficult part to write. I thought it'd be easy. But I'm in love with my book. I know it inside and out. I know all the great turns and twists. So why was it so hard? Well, because I know it inside and out...I know all the great turns and twists. I wanted to add every part that was interesting and compelling. So here's what I did; I gathered a pile of books from my bookshelf. I stacked them up and then read the inside and back cover of each. Since I had read them all, I knew what the stories inside entailed. And yet, reading the back cover was a great education.

Those short paragraphs, made me want to read the book all over again. It's the blurb you read in the bookstore. It's the words that make you want to buy the book, not because you already know all of the details, but because you don't. And you want to now. After my self-induced research, I was able to write the overview quite easily.

-Karen

Book Proposal - The Cover

I am not a graphic artist. In fact I don't even know what is correct, "Graphics Artist" or "Graphic Artist." Never-the-less, I learned a way to make my manuscript stand out. And all it takes is a little cut (Fiskars required) and paste (minty-fresh past required). Several hours, OK days, of trial and error and I came up with a cover page idea I like. So here are my tips along with how I did it;

• The Background Tells the Overall Theme- What is the theme that runs throughout your book? What is something found in every chapter, even if it's just a nuance? What is the feel of your book? What sort of feel do you want the potential reader to have when they first see and touch your book, while standing in a bookstore filled with thousands of books? For my book, that theme relates to the ocean, the sea, sand. So for my background, I scrounged up a piece of scrapbook paper from my ill-fated, "I'm going to scrapbook all of the photos from the last 24 years-stage." I found one that has a photo of an ocean scene, waves crashing on the shore, a stretch of sky above and sand below. Bingo-a ready-made book cover.
• Tell What the Words Don't - You obviously can't include 47 words in your title, so use the picture, or graphic to tell the rest of the story. My book uses the word "code." As someone recently noted, code could refer to lots of things; code of conduct; code of ethics; little orphan Annie de-coder ring (Can you name the Christmas movie I got that from?). The possibilities are endless. The code I am talking about is a secret code that my father broke during the war. It began with a version of our Morse Code. So I got an idea. I went to my good friend, Google and asked the question. I found a site where all I had to do was put in english, and it would translate it to Morse. Cool! Next, I had to make a decision. What words to use?
• Meaning Your Reader Will Only Realize by Reading Your Book - Have you ever been reading a book and you get half-way through and think, "Hey wait a minute. I've seen this before." Then you close the book and look at the cover and go, "Ah, that's what that photo/graphic/picture means." What is the turning point in your book? What is the overall theme that is not obvious from the title? Sneak it in! For me- that meant putting the code subtly in the background. My choice of words? A passage from the book that talks about my father drawing a line in the sand. Tricky huh? Yeah. But there's more- if there is a military person out there who still knows his Morse Code, and he wants to stand there in the bookstore deciphering it, he'll get a preview of my book. *
• Merging - I warned you. I'm not a graphics person so I don't know the technical term. So for me, it's "merging." You know, you are from a small northwest town. You go to Seattle for a writer's conference following your trusted Mapquest (that's a whole other story) directions. "Merge onto 405 North" it says. So you pretend you know what the heck you're doing, and merge. So now I had several elements to merge. I used my trusty Microsoft Word to copy and paste the Morse Code onto a page. Then in the middle of it, I added the book title and author names.
• Let the Craziness Begin - Wait a minute. Do you know how hard it is to center a title and author name in the midst of Morse Code? I didn't want to break up a sentence, but since I don't know Morse, I didnt' know where that would be. So I messed with it until I made myself and my family scream. The first printing revealed that my title was in che sky, literally, a dark blue sky with dark black writing...not good! Then I decided that the "photo" needed a little girl and her dad walking away from the camera holding hands, on the beach. So I looked online for photos to use. I won't go into all the trial and error, but there was a lot!
• To Staples and Back - I stood at Staples cutting the tiny image of the father and daughter and pasting it to the "sand." It didn't really look that bad. But I was beginning to question. The leader of that session at the conference had said it really didn't matter that it wasn't professional looking. Hmmm...could that be true? Because even if it doesn't bother a potential agent/publisher...it bother's me. But alas, I must remember the original premise. Agents/publishers receive thousands of manuscripts. I'm not trying to be cute or to truly create the real-final copy of the cover of my book. My point is to put time into thinking about it; my point is to create a cover that the agent/publisher sees and thinks, "I could see this on a shelf...hmmm...I think I'll take a better look at this one. Mission Accomplished!

-Karen

Book Proposal- The Title Page

Seems easy, right. I mean- write a title on a page and you're done. Well, not so fast there buckeroo (or buckeroo-ette). There are several things you need to consider for this, the shortest page of your book. If you've been reading my blog, you know that when I am making myself crazy over making important decisions, I ask my Peeps (that's "people" to you not-as-cool-as-I-am folks). That way, I can spread the craziness around. And you're welcome, by the way. So here's what you need to think about;

The Title - You only have a few words to convey what your book will be about. What do you want the reader to know before even opening the book? What will they find in your book? What can they expect from your book? And now, how do you say that in a word or three? For my book, Breaking the Code, made the final cut. After polling family and friends, The Codebreaker's Daughter, did not.

To Subtitle or Not to Subtitle - Does your title say it all? Does it say enough? Can it stand alone or does it need a little something more? Does it speak to your intended audience? Your subtitle is like the filling inside a lemon jelly donut. You look on the outside and see that plump, sugar-covered donut and think, "Yeah, that looks pretty good." But then you bite into it and say, "Ah, so that's what this donut is all about. I want more...gimmee more!" For my book-Breaking the Code, just didn't say it all. Code could refer to lots of things. People could pick it up in a bookstore thinking they were getting a book on code-breaking. And that is not what the book is about. So I added a subtitle, A Daughter's Journey.

What's in a Name? A book could be written on deciding upon a name. If you're like most people, you have a first, middle and last name. If you're female, you likely have a maiden name. And there are cultures in which you may use a part of your mother's maiden name. Add those together and you have a miriad of choices. My case is a bit different as the book I wrote contains letters my father wrote during the war- so, much of it is technically written by him. So I will have him on the title page as one of the authors. Because of that I decided to use my hyphenated maiden-married name. Fisher-Alaniz is not easy to remember but the Fisher links me to my father's name, giving the potential book buyer, yet another clue from the cover of my book.

I should have starred (*) and double (**), triple (***) starred everything everything I wrote here because it will likely all change. The agent or publisher may think my ideas and decisions are crap and change them all. But that's the name of the game. All you can do at this point is to make decisions that make sense and will get their attention. And if they decide to change everything, just nod and blame all previous decisions on your Peeps.

Next Time: Goin' Against the Flow to Create an Eye-Catching Cover

Convict at the Conference

I've done a lot of research on the publishing process. I've bought books, done internet searches and made Google my personal friend. I've frequented writer's websites, asked questions and annoyed anyone and everyone to get the information I needed. I became a pest. I wrote down questions whenever I thought of them; in the middle of the night, while driving and even during church (sorry pastor). So when I went to the PNWA conference it was only natural that I went to a session on proposal writing. And that's when my whole black and white, follow-the-rules world tilted. Amanda Ford (and her mother) led the session.

As they began to talk, I started to get angry. Yes, angry. What they were saying went against all conventional wisdom. What they recommended went against all of the research I'd done. Didn't they know they were wrong? I mean, who in the world paid these people to be at a professional conference like this? But then-

As my pea-brain tilted off kilter, I took a deep breath and asked myself a question. "What can you (Karen) learn from these two slightly offbeat women?" When I gave myself permission to learn from them, something incredible happened; I did.

Amanda is a twenty-something, funny, energetic and talented young woman. She clearly has convictions and stands, no... jumps up and down... by them. She is a convict without the black and white jumper! And as I listened to her, I decided that I want to be a convict too. I want to make a plan for my manuscript, my book, my proposal, my query...and stand by it. I want to do it because it feels right, not just because it's what everyone else is doing. I want to create a manuscript that stands out, not in a crazy or unprofessional way, but in a "She's really thought this out" way. Thanks Amanda!

Next time: The title page

-Karen