Yesterday, I experienced one of those perfectly orchestrated days that somehow went awry. You know, you plan your day, but things happen that change your plans dramatically. Yesterday, it was a sudden death in the family. So a nice outing with my mom to visit her sister at a nursing home where she was rehabilitating from a broken hip, turned out to be a day of waiting by the phone for word from my cousins at the hospital. Then there were phone calls that had to be made. The family began to gather at my mom’s to console her. It was a long day that certainly did not go as planned
This can happen in your writing, as well. You might have a perfectly good story or nonfiction book in mind (or written), only to have something occur that causes you to take your project in a different direction. As we’ve discussed recently, your book proposal can be that impetus for change. And that’s the reason why you do want to write one.
Through the process of writing a book proposal, you might discover that your idea is too narrow and your audience too small. You might realize that your young adult novel is really more fitting for middle-grade readers. You may determine that you don’t actually have a handle on the focus or scope of your book or that there are already numbers of books with the same message and in the same style as the one you propose. Some authors discover, through the book proposal process, that their idea is not valid. If they continue the process, however, they often find their way to a more viable one. And sometimes, writing a book proposal helps you to realize that you just aren’t ready to become an author. You have no platform. You have no interest in promoting a book. At this juncture, you will either give up your idea, come out with a pamphlet to promote at your website and give out to friends and family or you will go to work preparing yourself to become a bona fide author with what it takes to succeed.
Take the chance—take the steps necessary to test drive your project by writing a complete and well-researched book proposal before taking your “plan” to completion. Become vulnerable. Follow the path through the book proposal process. It’s the only way you can be sure that you’re on the right track with your book project.
Resources to use in the book proposal process:
The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book by Patricia Fry
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 That Sold and Why by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman, (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2nd edition, 2001)
Take Patricia Fry’s online Book Proposal course
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm
If you need help with the book proposal you have already written, contact me or your project is ready for editing. Check out Patricia Fry’s services at http://www.patriciafry.com