Fiction Proposal Marketing Page

The marketing page includes market analysis, similar books, and what you, the author intend to do to market your book.

Market Analysis:

This is the section where you tell the demographics, target audience, of who would be interested in your book. Include age, gender, interests, religion, or anything else you think might narrow it down. Don’t write that everyone would like this book. You want to narrow your niche.

Similar Books:

This is usually the hardest part to do. You aren’t looking for books that are the same as yours. List novels that have some similarities. For instance, if you’re writing a romance about the Revolutionary era, list other romances from that era. Don’t be afraid to list movies or crossovers. For one novel I said it is Redeeming Love meets Outlaw Josie Wells. This is that important to get exactly right. You’re just giving the agent or publisher an idea of what kind of people this story will attract.

Marketing:

This is where you list what you, the author, is willing to do to market your novel. Here’s some ideas of what you could list here.

• Local Book Signings
• Presentation at library
• Museum Presentation
• Speak at Churches
• Social Networking
• Blogs and Websites
• Blog Tours
• Influencers

Fiction Proposal Biographical Page

The biographical page consists of two parts. Part one is the biographical sketch, and part two is past publications. 

Biographical Sketch:

Don’t put too much effort in this section. You don’t want to write a complete biography about how you wanted to write since you were in third grade. The main thing you want here is the following:

Name

Location: This is important information if you live near the setting of your novel. Otherwise you’ll want to write something like “I live in Akron, Ohio.”

Family: married, number of children. You can mention this, but don’t dwell on it unless you’re related to Jerry Jenkins.

Education: Only have this if you have training of education in something that relates to writing such as an English degree or you’ve taken a writing course. If the story touches on something where your education helps, go ahead and put that. For instance, if you’re writing about a police officer and you’ve taken law enforcement training, that would be applicable. Also if you’ve had nurses training and are writing about hospital life, put that down.

Career: Only list this if it’s applicable.

Writing Groups: If you belong to any writing groups, list these.

Websites/Blogs: List any websites or blogs you have.

Past Publications:

If you’ve been published at all, include this section. Otherwise leave it out. Also leave out any self-published or vanity published books or novels unless they’ve sold over 10,000 copies. POD and e-books can be listed if you didn’t have to pay to have them published. You’ll want to include name of publication, date, and publishing company.

Fiction Proposal Sell Sheet

The sell sheet is the second page of your fiction proposal. Not all agents or publishers require a sell sheet, but some do. Even if they don’t, it doesn’t hurt to add a sell sheet to your proposal.

Your sell sheet should include the following elements:

Promo Sentence Sales Handle:

These are sometimes called loglines or taglines. This is one sentence or a couple of short sentences, sometimes just a phrase, that gets you interested in the book. To get an idea of how to write a sales handle, look at best-selling novels or popular movies. Here’s a few good ones.

The Patriot: Before they were soldiers, they were family. Before they were legends, they were heros. Before there was a nation, there was a fight for freedom.

Air Force One: Air Force one is hijacked with the president and his family aboard.

Independence Day: Aliens try to invade earth on Independence Day.

Liar, Liar: An attorney, because of a birthday wish, can’t tell any lies for 24 hours.

The Hunt for Red October: A Soviet submarine captain uses Russia’s ultimate underwater weapon as a means to defect to the west.

A good logline has three components:

• Who the story is about (protagonist)
• What he strives for (goal).
• What stands in his way (antagonistic force).

Back Cover Promotion:

This is the one to two paragraphs you would have on the back cover of your novel telling what your book is about. You don’t want to give away endings or surprises here. The Missionary by William Carmichael and David Lambert has an example of a good one. 

David and his wife Christie rescue impoverished children in the slums of Venezuela. But for David, that’s not enough. The supply of homeless children is endless because of the corrupt policies of the Venezuelan government.

In a rare moment of anger, David lashes out publicly against the government, unaware of the chain reaction that will soon follow.

When the CIA offers David a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a key role in a “bloodless” coup, he decides to go for it. But little by little, he falls into an unimaginable web of deceit that ends in a desperate, life-or-death gamble to flee the country with his wife and son, with all the resources of a corrupt dictatorship at their heels.

Genre:

Tell what genre this is. If it fits in more than one genre, list only two and place the most important one first. The exception to this is if the novel fits in the Christian category. Then you can list Christian, then two genres. For more information about the different genres, click here.

Word Length:

You can estimate here to the nearest thousand. Also your word processor program word count is acceptable. There’s no need to use any complicated formulas.

Series:

If this novel is part of a series, list the other books and a short blurb on what they’re about.

Purpose or Spiritual Premise:

Some agents require this. Don’t sweat about it because it’s not a deal breaker. Just list any theme you notice. If you have scripture the theme is based on, list that here too.

History of the Manuscript:

This is important information for agents. They will want to know if you’ve submitted the manuscript to any publishers.

The Fiction Proposal

Most agents and publishers at some point during the submission process ask for a proposal. There are many books and articles out there that teach how to write a non-fiction proposal but very few about fiction proposals.

For the next few posts after Thanksgiving, I’ll cover different aspect of the fiction proposal. This post covers what should be in a proposal and how to format it. Different agents and editors require various things in their proposals. My recommendation is to write a full proposal. If you do this, you can delete certain parts not needed for your submissions, but you won’t have to rewrite a new proposal for each agent. Here’s what you should have in a full proposal.

Cover Page: The cover page should have your contact information and the title of your proposal. In the left hand header, have the contact info. Center the title in the middle of the page. Here’s an example.

 

Name

Address

City, State Zip

Phone Number

Email

Website or Blog

 

TITLE

A Proposal by Name

Genre

Word Count of Entire Manuscript

 

Sell Sheet: On the second page, you should start page numbers in the right hand corner. The second page is a sell sheet. I’ll talk about what a sell sheet is later. Here’s what’s included in the sell sheet.

• Promo Sentence Sales Handle
• Back Cover Promotion
• Genre
• Word Length
• Series (if applicable)
• Purpose or Spiritual Premise
• History of the Manuscript

Synopsis: Next is the synopsis. Remember to have a three page and a one page synopsis available. For more about the synopsis, click here.

Biography Page: The biography page includes a biographical sketch and past publications.

Marketing Page: The marketing page includes market analysis, similar books, and what you, the author intend to do to market your book.

Sample Pages: Normally sample pages are asked to be included in a proposal. You can tack these onto the end of the proposal. Include another cover page telling the title, how many pages or chapters are included, and your name centered on the page. There’s no need to include contact info on this page because you have it at the beginning of your proposal.

After you write a full proposal, you can tweak it for each publisher or agent’s submission guidelines.