I’m sympathetic regarding what a pain it is to create a proposal. When I was writing books, I felt grumpy when I had to do a proposal. That’s when I dipped into what I call Authors’ Magical Thinking.
That’s when we let our imaginations drift into a fantasy land in which we can take shortcuts because we’re “special” and don’t have to travel the long hard road everyone else does. Employing Authors’ Magical Thinking, we’re confident we can still arrive at the desired destination, riding a unicorn and wearing a gold crown upon our carefully coiffed head, greeting our fans with a regal wave.
When it came to proposals, my magical thinking went like this: It seemed as if I was trying to convince a publisher to like me. “Either you like me or you don’t; either my idea makes sense to you when I describe it in a few sentences or it doesn’t. Why do I have to agonize over all these details: title, subtitle, hook, description, audience, word count, comparative titles, bio, sales history, chapter summaries–even sample chapters, for Pete’s sake. If I wanted to be a salesperson, I’d apply for the job!”
Yeah, Authors’ Magical Thinking.
The Proposal and Magical Thinking
Recently one of my clients, who has more than 20 books published, sent me a proposal full of Authors’ Magical Thinking. My client thought that her long-term involvement in the industry, her recognizable name, and the power of her idea were enough to garner a contract. None of these reasons is strong enough to get a contract, especially in today’s hyper-competitive publishing world. If an author doesn’t want to do the work to create a compelling proposal (aka business plan for the project), the person standing right beside her is willing–and will get the contract.
The Results of Authors’ Magical Thinking
Failed to follow the template
Several years ago our agency instituted a template that all of our proposals must fit into. We did it because we wanted uniformity in proposals, which would communicate to an editor that the proposal came with the Books & Such imprimatur. But my client sent a proposal that bore no resemblance to the agency’s template.
All of the Books & Such agents are taskmasters when it comes to proposals because we know that no project will be bought if we don’t put forward numerous compelling reasons to offer a contract. We have only one chance to get a contract offer from a publisher on this project; we want to give the publisher every reason to say yes and no reason to say no. But this client was in a rush to send the proposal to me. So much so that “magically” she didn’t need to use the template.
For me to revamp the proposal’s format, considerable amount of my time would be spent on a mechanical problem rather than focusing on how to sharpen the proposals verbiage.
Hadn’t defined the project
Because she didn’t really know herself how her rough idea would look when it was fully shaped, she couldn’t communicate just what she planned her book to be. Her magical thinking lead her to believe that the vague idea would be powerful enough not to need specifics.
Didn’t look for comparative titles
This part of writing a proposal is such hard work because you have to search around among published books for whatever is similar to your idea. It isn’t enough to type one keyword into Amazon’s search tab. You really need to dig. Try several different words. Search your own mind for books sort of like yours that you’re aware of. Consider which publisher might produce a book like yours and search through their online catalog. I’m talking about using your research methods and digging deep.
Why? Because you might well find that your golden idea has occurred to a number of other people, who already have published books very much like yours. Many a project has bit the dust or been transformed into a unique offering during the process of finding comparative titles. Not to mention, it would be embarrassing for you if your agent submitted the project to a publisher who had just released a book very similar to yours by their most significant author–but that title didn’t make it into your comparative titles list.
For my client, she didn’t even cast her eye around to see what already existed. Magically, her idea was bound to be unique.
Didn’t match her sample chapters to the proposal description
As my client presented her project in the proposal, she committed herself to write a nonfiction book using several fiction techniques, which was a major factor to distinguish her work from anyone else’s, she claimed. But the chapters were short, undeveloped, and only vaguely novelesque.
An Agent’s Response to Authors’ Magical Thinking
I sent the proposal back to the client for more work. Was I being a prima donna? No, I was being a good agent who knew that magical thinking doesn’t sell a project. Hard work, diligence, creativity, and knock-’em-dead gorgeous writing does.
How have you engaged in magical thinking when it comes to your writing?
What do you hate most about writing proposals?
Do you have someone who holds you accountable to do the best proposal you can? If not, why not?
TWEETABLES
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Comparative titles are a challenge for me because I’m still confused. Am I looking for books/subjects like mine, or is it authors who have a similar voice to mine, or both?
For nonfiction, you’re looking for the former. For fiction, you’re looking for the latter. And, with fiction, it’s good to find authors in your genre, too because they’re writing to the same audience you are. Make sense?
Perfect sense. That’s the way I understood. But now I know for certain. Thank you.
Janet,
Thank you for this valuable article on author magical thinking. I know writing book proposals is hard but necessary work. As an acquisitions editor, I had a magazine editor of a large circulation publication pitch an idea–without a proposal. He thought just the fact that he was “willing to write the book” would be strong enough to get a contract. Magical thinking and I would have been laughed out of the room at pub board. The reality is whether it is your first book or 70th book, every author has to do this work on their proposal and pitch. There are no shortcuts.
Terry
author of 10 Publishing Myths, Insights Every Author Needs to Succeed
So, true, Terry. The proposal enables the publishing house to fully grasp what it’s buying–including what the author is pledging to do to promote the book. Authors don’t realize that many publishing houses tie the promises made in the proposal into the contract, including the book’s content and those promotional promises. If the writer veers from those commitments, the publisher can declare the author in breach of contract.
Hmmm … I think it is the comparable title section that causes me the most angst. I try to prepare ahead of time by reading widely in my favorite genres and writing down books and authors that contain a hint of my style or subject matter that I’ve written about. It’s pretty easy when I’m writing romance, especially with all the great RomComs that have come out in recent years. But when I’m working on a middle grade proposal the lack of titles in the Christian market can make me lurch to a stop and despair. I read a lot of middle grade, and I’ve found several books that at least have something vaguely similar in plot and a few with a similar voice or tone … but not many of them are from Christian publishers as the pool of middle grade from which to choose is much shallower than the ABA ocean. I’m curious, what do you agents do when looking for middle grade comparable titles? Choose all Christian titles (though finding a similar tone might be a big stretch) or mix in a few quirky ABA offerings that are a better match?
Or … mash ups?!? A Combination of Christian and Secular titles and movies and … insanity? Hunter Brown meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World and then casually smashes into Earnest Goes to Camp before sitting down for a nice tea with Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians! Hmmm … I think I might actually use that, terrifying agents everywhere! Thank you, Janet!!!
Or … the wackiness of The Dead Sea Squirrels meets Clifford the Big Red Dog then grows up slightly for the middle grade market and becomes friends with On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness before experiencing a slight collision with The Lost World only to veer right back to enjoy S’more’s with Ernest Goes to Camp before a few moments of thoughtful calmness at the end of the book akin to Because of Winn-Dixie only to leap out the window all of a sudden and tackle The League of Beastly Dreadfuls before zipping into the night laughing maniacally. Hmmm … maybe it needs a bit of work.
Okay, now you ARE scaring me. 🙂
I would suggest you mention that you found few Christian middle grade books that were comparable to yours. “The closest I found was….” and then explain what elements are similar and which are different.
Then you could separately list the general market books and then explain what elements are similar and which are different, including the lack of a faith element but instead characters and plot that reflect very different values from the Christian values you adhere to.
Great ideas, Janet! Thank you. Right now my comparables section is a mishmash of Christian and secular titles, but showing which is the closest match is something I had not thought of. That would definitely clear up confusion and perhaps prevent me from getting too creative, as demonstrated above, ha!
A bit late to the party, but if anyone’s still out there…
It seems to me that all writers need to have at least a bit of a tenency to magical thinking, or they would not be writing, given that overwhelming ods against even the smallest success.
What I think I mean here is that there are so many tasks that at the beginning of the journey are simply not understood…some, like platform-building and proposal-writing, can be learned in a relatively straightforward manner, but others, like writing snappy dialogue and keeping the plot lively, need both learning AND ‘the flash of the kingfisher’s green wing’, the spark of the divine.
One must tell oneself every day, SOMEHOW I will learn these, SOMEHOW I will be able to aford a conference, SOMEHOW…somehow it will all come together. I just can’t know today.
And somehow, the kingfisher will streak low across my still pond.
You’ve got to be a kid, believing in pixie-dust, and I doubt that any grownup ever became a writer.
Good point, Andrew. And I completely agree. The difficulty arises when magical thinking is applied to what is kind of grunt work–producing a proposal. It’s just plain hard work with little space for that kingfisher. Not that there aren’t such moments, but they’re few and well, you know, far between.