Our primary focus at Birds of a Feather Press is on self-publishing, but that’s not the only path to market. You can pitch your book proposal to a traditional or independent publisher, and if accepted, they’ll work with your to release your book.  There are numerous publishing options open to nonfiction writers. Large publishing houses release a broad range of books, but there are many smaller publishers who only publish books within a specific niche. 

Here’s a list of the 20 largest book publishers, but the best way to find a niche publisher is to flex your Google search skills. For example, you could search travel memoir publishers; do a broader search of independent travel book publishers accepting pitches; and, there’s nothing stopping you pitching one of the big boys, like Lonely Planet. It’s going to take a bit of effort to create your list of publishers to pitch, but once you’ve compiled the list, then what?

Today we’re featuring a guest post by Reedsy writer, Savannah Cordova who shares pitch insights from top developmental editors. She’s broken the pitch proposal process down into 5 key elements you need to consider.

How to write a nonfiction book proposal
Guest Post: Savannah Cordova, Reedsy

So, you’ve got a brilliant idea for a nonfiction book. You’ve taken the time to evaluate it, maybe even written a few fledgling chapters, and you think your book could really take the world by storm! Now where do you go from this point — is it time to dive headfirst into drafting the rest? 

Not quite. Before you progress any further, you need to write a book proposal.

For those who don’t already know, a book proposal is your ticket to a book deal, and you pretty much always need a proposal in order to sell nonfiction. Because while you might think your book idea is fantastic, you don’t know if it’s exciting or original enough to impress a publisher. Luckily, creating a proposal should take less time than writing an entire book — and will save you a great deal of grief in case you need to incorporate feedback into your manuscript!

If you’re writing nonfiction, you need to create a strong book proposal. This post covers (a) what goes into a nonfiction book proposal, and (b) what it takes to write a great one.

1. The Overview

The overview provides a blurb-like summary of your book that doesn’t give too much away, but still draws in the reader. Your overview should accomplish three things:

The best way to do this is with a well-crafted hook, followed by a bit of elaboration on the scope and purpose of your book. Here’s an example from the memoir My Family Is All I Have:

“The extraordinary true story of how one British woman was trapped in Eastern Europe for 50 years, first by the Nazis and then by Communism.

Helen-Alice Dear was only 15 when she went to Bulgaria on a family holiday in 1937. Just weeks after her arrival, she found herself prevented from leaving. Her marriage to a Bulgarian man bore her four children, but they were often homeless, cold and hungry. Helen refused to give up hope and bravely managed to protect and raise four happy children. When the Berlin Wall fell, Helen was finally able to fulfil her dream of returning to her homeland. 

A heart-wrenching tale of courage and resilience, which proves just how indomitable the human spirit can be.”

Whether you’re writing a memoir, a travel guide or travel memoir, a self-help manual, or a business book, you need a compelling overview. After all, if a publisher doesn’t want to read a short blurb about your book, they’re not going to read 300 pages of it.

2. Target Audience

However brilliant your book idea, publishers will be reluctant to consider it for publication if it’s unclear who would actually buy it. You need to show them there’s a definite audience for your book, and describe that audience in detail.

Fortunately, you probably already have a pretty good idea of your audience, especially in relation to other books in your genre (e.g. “Readers who loved Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs will enjoy my similarly dysfunctional childhood memoir”). So for this part, you mainly want to avoid phrasing it the wrong way.

Some common mistakes to avoid when describing your target audience:

• Being too generic. “Anyone who cooks will be interested in my book.” Or: “Anyone who’s backpacked through Europe will relate to my book about travel.”
• Drawing irrelevant comparisons. “People who surf will want to know what I’ve got to say about ocean conservation.”
• Overconfidence. “This inspirational girl-power self-help book will be a hit with the Rachel Hollis crowd, and is sure to become a bestseller just like Girl, Wash Your Face.”

Here’s an example of how to show accurate, specific awareness of your market:

“The number of people traveling to Asia jumped 220% in the past year, and in subsequent surveys, 70% of those travelers expressed interest in reading a regional travel guide other than Lonely Planet or Rough Guides. This guide, based on my own personal travels through Asia, would fill that gap.”

You can also use comp titles, as seen in the Running with Scissors and Girl, Wash Your Face examples above. Comp titles (short for comparative titles) are books that are similar to yours in content, genre, and of course, target audience. By mentioning comp titles in your proposal, you demonstrate a keen understanding of who will buy your book and how to appeal to them, which publishers always like to see — so try to think of at least three titles to use in this section.

3. About the Author

Your author bio is an opportunity to bring your brand and background into the conversation with publishers. The author bio is especially important for nonfiction authors, as you and your credentials are just as important as your book’s mission (if not more so). Here’s what to include:

It can be nice to have a bit of personal trivia, but it’s not critical at this stage. You can always tweak the bio of your actual book; for now, publishers just want to know you’re qualified to be writing on your chosen topic.

4. Marketing Plan

Surprising though it may sound, your marketing plan is actually a vital part of your book proposal — the more concrete your plan, the more convinced publishers will be.

A good rule of thumb for your marketing plan is not to say “I will try to” or “I intend to.” Instead, talk about what you’re already doing. And, yes, that means you should be working on your marketing efforts even before you submit your book proposal: contacting other authors and marketers, building followings on your chosen platforms, etc.

Keep this section specific and numbers-driven, and don’t promise anything that you can’t deliver, since publishers will be able to see through that in a second. Here are some points to consider as you write your marketing plan:

• Platform: What’s your reach? Are you an established authority in the relevant community? How many people can you access through your current author platform(s)?
• Blog tour: Have you guest-written for any popular blogs in the past, and can you write for them again? What’s their traffic and audience like?
• Blurbs: Could you get a blurb or pull-quote from any notable names in your field?
• Media contacts: Do you have any significant connections in the media? Can you secure interviews from them? 
• Conferences: Have you spoken at any conferences? Are you in touch with any more organizers about future speaking engagements?
• Press kit: Do you already own an author media kit? Do you know how to use it?

5. Outline and Sample Chapters

If your book proposal is your attempt to sell real estate, your chapter outline (in which you provide a prospective summary for each of your chapters) gives the publisher a brief tour of the property. With extra emphasis on the “brief” — keep these chapter summaries to 1-3 meaningful paragraphs, at most.

And what if you’re not 100% decided on what exactly you’re going to write in each chapter? Don’t worry too much about the nitty-gritty. Just give the publisher a sense of what you’re thinking; they’ll likely request changes, so it’s actually better not to go into too much detail, because you may have to rework it anyway.

Finally, in addition to your outline, you should include any sample chapters you’ve already drafted. These will serve as a forecast for the eventual book, so make sure you’ve edited them to perfection before submitting. You should also leave this step until the very end of the proposal-writing process, since it will be easier to select and edit your sample chapters once you’ve nailed down the overview and outline.

After that, your nonfiction proposal is pretty much done!

The end result may be anywhere from 15-50 pages, depending on the length of your sample chapters. But so long as you’ve put thought and care into the details of your proposal, you can feel confident you have a solid document on your hands—and heading off to the desks of publishers.

(Still feeling lost? Check out this free book proposal template to put you on the right track.)

Author Bio

Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a platform that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. She’s very passionate about indie publishing and helping authors achieve their dreams! In her spare time, Savannah enjoys reading contemporary fiction and writing as much she can.