The Basics consists of general and introductory advice for research tasks and professional development, like using research libraries, reading and notetaking, submitting and presenting conference papers and journal articles. This post considers the elements of writing a book proposal.
In a post on St Eutychus, Nathan shared a lecture by Michael Bird on The 8 elements of a Non-fiction Book Proposal. I share these notes (edited slightly here as part of the basics series with some additional references. I’ve also posted on Why you should seek to publish as a (Christian) Scholar? in this series.
Preparing Your Submission
Step 1. Get ready for rejection. If you can’t handle rejection do not try to publish books.
Step 2. Write a proposal. Don’t bother with unsolicited manuscripts.
Writing a Proposal
Proposals look a little something like this:
- Title
- Short bio of yourself
- Summary
- Audience
- Need
- Competing volumes
- Potential endorsers
- Word Length
- Submission Date
- Sample Chapter
Getting the Proposal heard
- Meet an editor — network like crazy, meet people, schmooze. You’re incredibly unlikely to be published via an unsolicited manuscript. Your chances dramatically increase if you know the publisher. The editor has to believe in your project over and above the other projects on the table. They have to sell it to their editorial colleagues and the publishing company. [Conferences (especially the large ones) are often the place where you will have most contact with acquisitions editors or their representatives.]
- Consider the market, ethos, values and theology of the publisher. [Do your homework on the other books they have published in the last 5 years and their list of forthcoming titles making sure you're not duplicating anything or proposing something that would be in direct competition with one of their current titles.]
- Be willing to make changes. Negotiate on the size, the scope, the content, the audience – everything is on the table. [If something isn't negotiable then you need to decide if this is the publisher for you and whether you've miscalculated in your pitch].
- Be prepared for it to be a long process filled with corrections, proof-reading, endorsers, indices, reviewers.
Be Prepared for…
Some more things to be ready for in the process:
- A long delay waiting for a response, it’s ok to make enquiries about the status of your proposal after a few months.
- Rejection. [One of my professors shared 43 rejection letters that he received for his first book]
- Work and family commitments, your circumstances can change which will effect delivery dates.
- Editors can be brutal, there’s a difference between an academic supervisor and an editor. Supervisors want you to produce defendable work, editors want you to produce marketable work.
- Copy editors can be incompetent
- Publishers can change stuff
- Criticism in reviews
In the writing of books there is much sorrow, mainly for the authors. Bird writes because he learns the most in the publication process. Autonomous learning is the goal of any Christian scholarship. The first beneficiary of the process is yourself, but it’s good to see others. Writing is an avenue for participating in the debate, being part of the conversation, it’s fun.
How the blog interplays with books
Bird says that starting a blog was one of the best things he ever did. In the year after submitting his PhD he got several knockbacks. The blog opened doors with publishers (they even took him out to lunch). Some posts now prompt emails from publishers. The blog has been great for bouncing ideas off people. and nutting out ideas. [I wonder if it's a little self-reassuring to include this section on this blog - but that's what Nathan said Bird said, so....]
Other Resources
Some of these resources go into more detail about the elements of the proposal that Bird identifies above.
Submitting a Textbook proposal to Oxford University
University of California Press Book Proposal Guidelines
Routledge Information for Authors
How to Write a Book Proposal – Cambridge University (Department of History and Philosophy of Science)
Book Proposals – Purdue Online Writing Lab
Submitting a Proposal to the Academic Division
Ashgate Proposals for Humanities Authors
Anna Blanch is founder of Goannatree, and a PhD candidate in the Institute of Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, Scotland. She is also a weekly contributor to Transpositions. You can read the rest of the posts in The Basics series here.
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