Three Sample Chapters. No more, no less. Three shall be the number,
and the number shall be three. Five is right out.
Being a submitter of unsolicited short story manuscripts that I could fold twice and fit in a #10 envelope, I had to do some research on this book proposal thing. What the book proposal should contain and the order that different sections should appear varied. The consensus—between 50 and 100 pages and containing:
- An overview that introduces the book in a catchy way and provides a synopsis of the book (up to two pages). The synopsis should include a grabber, an introduction to the main character, key moments in the plot, the conflict at the heart of the story, and how it is all going to wrap up.
- A marketing section that that describes the target market. (Who will buy my book and why would they buy it?)
- A book promotion and publicity section. (I guess I'm supposed to tell the publisher what newspapers, magazines, and radio/TV shows to contact.)
- All About Unpublished Guy
- A 15-20 page chapter-by-chapter outline of the story
- Three sample chapters.
- Any other attachments that will enhance my credibility. (This web site of course. Wait, enhance be credibility?)
Clearly, it will be difficult to submit a proposal without an actual book. As it so happens, next month is November Novel Writing Month. Once again, into the breach of a novel writing month, I go with the same suicidal plan as before, cannons to the left, cannons to the right. Rarely does one get to replay history, but in the month of November, I will. This time, not only will I complete a novelization of a select number of my short stories, I will write a book proposal to sell it.
How do I novelize a short story? It would be "A Description of a Struggle" by Franz Kafka or a novel like The Martian Chronicles. It took Ray Bradbury six years to write the stories that ended up in The Martian Chronicles. I shall condense six years into one month … maybe.
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