An effective book proposal helps you decide if you have a book at all and whether it s marketable. A proposal consists of an overview of the book, a comparison of competitive works, a market potential, a chapter outline, one or two sample chapters and an author bio. He responded, Critical. He went on to tell me about one book that his company may have rejected except for the fact that the author had close ties with a large national company that was interested in stocking the book and promoting it. Because of this company s commitment and the author s active involvement in marketing it, they ve sold 60,000 copies in just over two years.
Many successful marketers start promoting their book even before it s a book.
Spend evenings pouring over telephone books. For example, if your topic is healthy grieving, list funeral homes, family counselors, psychologists, doctors and hospice groups that might want to have your book on hand for their clients. Reference telephone directories from other counties and states at your public library or use an Internet telephone directory. Create a mailing list of names from your Rolodex, Christmas card list, address books and business files. Be sure to add family, friends, neighbors, former neighbors, your children s teachers, coworkers, your yoga classmates, the folks you met on your last cruise and so forth.