HOW TO WRITE A BOOK REVIEW

Article How to write a killer proposal Non-fiction Jo Parfitt Following these steps fairly closely will show your authorship. Introductory letter First you write a short, simple, accessible cover letter, which describes your idea in a paragraph, explaining why you chose that publisher/agent and where you think your idea fits in his list. Ensure you make it clear that you have the authority to write this book. Be very brief. Explain what the wow factor of your book will be. Be brief. Invite him to request your synopsis/proposal. Say you are sending the letter to one person at a time so would appreciate a response by a certain date or you will approach others. OR say you are submitting the idea to several at once. Then they ask to see your proposal – they may call it a synopsis, an outline or a preview! The proposal There are several ways to prepare a proposal and experts may tell you different methods, but the one below is fairly foolproof. Adjust it as you wish. Title page The first page should contain the following: The book’s title The book’s subtitle A book proposal by [your name] Your name and address and contact details Contents page Now list the contents of the proposal as you would list the contents of your finished book. Something like this – choose your own headings: List of contents Overview with wow factor About the author Who will read this book x x x HOW TO WRITE A BOOK REVIEW The marketing summary The competition Resources required Added value The book’s table of contents A chapter by chapter breakdown Sample chapters x x x x x x x (1 – 3 is usual, they do not need to be consecutive) (1 – 3 is usual, they do not need to be consecutive) What you will put in the overview This is your sales pitch. Say what the book is about, why it is important, why it will be of benefit to readers. Don’t just list features, list benefits, just as you would if you were writing a sales letter. Why is there a need for it and how will your book meet this need? Say why your book differs from the rest. Say what gives it a ‘wow’ factor, or what makes it sticky. You do not have to use words like ‘wow’ and ‘sticky’ though. Say why you have the authority to write the book. Mention your experience through your work or personal life. Mention your expertise here. Say how long the manuscript will be and when it will be ready. State your ideas for its format, size, shape, illustrations and the genre in which it fits (remember your book needs to be placed in a library and bookshop). Finish your overview with an upbeat summary that will keep them reading. Write in the third person, do not address the recipient in the second person. Write about ‘the author’ and ‘the reader’ or ‘the audience’. About the author Publishers like to publish personalities. So say whatever you can about yourself that might liven up your bio on the book jacket at a later date. Say what might attract the press to come to your book launch party. Talk of your credentials here. Your research, your career, your published papers, articles, books and so on are relevant here. Prove you are an expert in your field if you can. And if you can’t, start becoming one before you write your proposal! If you give a few talks or write the odd piece in the local paper, it helps. If you have few credentials in the field, but do have experience and passion for subject, prove it. Who will read this book See if you can state some figures here. The Internet is a great place for research. If you can say that an estimated 40% of the country has an interest in spirituality, or that 10,000 people attended the Soul and Body Fair last year, it will help. 2 of 5 HOW TO WRITE A BOOK REVIEW Try to quantify the size of the market and show how it is growing, if it is. If you belong to some related organisations, say how many members they have and what kinds of people attend. Fill this section with facts and try to use lists of bullet points to make it easier to read. What to say in the marketing summary If you have some ideas on how to market your book, say so here. If you are a regular speaker, say that speakers sell books to 30% of an audience after their talks and that you speak to 100 once a month. If you know your book would be perfect for new graduates and that it could be sold or promoted at career fairs, that’s good. Suggest your book on bouncing back from retirement would be great for SAGA readers, or Business Links and so on. Do you belong to an organisation that has a membership easy to target by direct mail? If you know you could get the Professional Speakers Association to mail its members about your book, or email the 6000 members of the Schlumberger Spouses Association, say so here. Suggest some out of the box marketing ideas that you may not be able to target yourself, but that the publisher may not have thought of. Do you know any experts who might endorse your book, write a foreword or send details of your book to their contacts? What to say about the competition You need to list the books or publisher’s lists that present competition for your idea in order to crush them. You want to show that your book is different, fills a different gap, or goes further than the others. When you list specific books, name the book, the author, the publisher, the imprint and the year it was published. You can get all this information from the title page of the book itself or from Amazon. List three to ten books, all published within the last five years. Comment on that book and state how that differs/compares to yours. Make sure you also list books that are about to be published. The Bookseller lists forward publications, and you can also get this information by obtaining publishers’ full list catalogues. What resources might you need? If you will need expenses to cover travel, research or purchases in order to complete the project, say so here. If you wont’ leave this section out. What added value does your book have? If you think you will have an extensive Resources, Further Reading or Appendix in your book, say so. Explain that your book will list 100 websites, or 50 international volunteer organisations with their contact details. Some people buy a book for its Appendix, so if you can do one that is current and appropriate, go for it. Perhaps your book will have an associated free website, or readers can contact you for a free CD of printable forms, or the complete survey you used for your research. Mention any extras here – if you will have them. Miss this out if you do not. 3 of 5 HOW TO WRITE A BOOK REVIEW How to present the Table of Contents Create the page(s) as it/they will look in the book, listing each title, one after the other and its contents. I tend to think of this as the chapter title and then the subheadings that come within each chapter, like this: Chapter one Find Your Passion How I found my passions How my passions became portable Why our passions can be hard to find Find your passion Chapter two Create Your Career Recycling Manage your expectations Think laterally And so on How to present your chapter by chapter breakdown It can be useful to present your breakdown so that it looks like a table. Use this section to write a brief summary of what happens in each chapter. Make sure you convey your passion for your subject, your expertise and also any touches of authenticity here. Mention a few of your own stories or case studies here. An outline might look like this: London in the Rear View Mirror We were urbanites who preferred stone and steel, public transport and congestion to endless fields and tranquillity. Clearly we were the wrong people to consider rural life. London had been our home for 15 years. Contemplating change brought on a case of nostalgia then nerves. Joining the city exodus, Bill went in search of a home in the countryside while I explored the idea of a pied à terre in Paris. Wanderlust had finally set in which put us on a collision course. We discovered the gorgeous Georgian proportions of Stocken Hall, located deep in England’s smallest county, Rutland. It was a changing of the guard from city chic to the callous hands of the countryside. The Ties That Bind Chocks Away To The Manor Drawn 4 of 5 HOW TO WRITE A BOOK REVIEW Life in a Tip Not prepared for our first exposure to ‘white van man’, ‘chippies’, ‘brickies’ and ‘sparkies’, the core of the English construction industry, we came off looking like rookies. Bedlam prevailed as our 38,000 pound shipment of household goods arrived at Christmas. As did a 40foot container abandoned for three days, one tearaway squirrel and a tuba player. We learned the countryside was anything but quiet. The sound of gunfire was never far off during hunting season. Pheasants, pretty in the fields, were also great on a plate! Investigating new food opportunities became a daily challenge. Holiday Hell Nature Reigns It took courage to walk into our new ‘local’ for the first time. Having a ‘go’ at Americans was a playful pastime. Still, pints of beer, a brace of pheasants and snippets of hunting lore made for memorable evenings in the pub. A Pub Crawl I would like to thank Leslie Bosher for allowing me to include the sample of her own synopsis, above. If your book is more academic in tone, then you may want to write your chapter outlines in a different way, using bullet points to list the topics raised. The summary is about the features in your book. How to format your killer proposal? Double spaced, of course and with big margins so that the reader can scribble comments on the page. Make sure you have a header and/or footer on each page that has your name, the name of your book and the page numbers. Do not staple. Use a paper clip. If you want to enclose a few press clippings to substantiate your authority then do so. Write a short cover letter to accompany your proposal that relates back to your previous correspondence, call, referral or whatever. Jog their memory about your book idea by describing it in one or two killer, salesy sentences. And sign off. Two or three paragraphs is fine here. Enclose an SAE large enough for your manuscript if you want it returned. If you do not mind whether it is returned or not, say so. Good luck! Jo Parfitt 5 of 5