It doesn’t matter if you’ve been thinking about writing a nonfiction book proposal for a long time or the thought occurred to you last week. By the time you have completed this course, if you have kept up with assignments, made necessary adjustments, and paid attention to feedback, you will have the key ingredients for your nonfiction book proposal and be ready to submit it to an editor.

This will be an intense "working" class and participants are warned not to sign up for class if not prepared to spend time working on a project. Through this course, instructor will lecture, provide handouts as warranted, give assignments, and evaluate students' work.

Does Your Idea Have What It Takes to Get Noticed in New York? In this class instructor will share eight items a good nonfiction book must have, 17 different nonfiction categories where students can mine for ideas, the difference between a synopsis and proposal, and the reasons an author may choose and benefit from writing nonfiction over fiction. As an assignment, students will make lists of what they do, know, and have experienced in their lives. They will then compare them to the nonfiction categories. They will also write down the reasons they are qualified to write about this topic and why it will benefit readers. From their list, they will then choose ONE topic to work with over the next four weeks.

Checking Out the Competition. In this session, instructor will discuss the importance of doing market research before moving into the next phase of writing the proposal. Instructor will share where to go, what to look for, and why. Student assignment will be to not only put together a marketing strategy of where they’d like to sell their book, but write a paragraph about other books available on their subject. They will be required to list title, author, publisher, and copyright. They will then choose three or four of the available titles and write a paragraph on why and how their book is different and why and how their book is similar.

Putting Together an Impressive Outline. Instructor will cover table of contents in relation to the outline and what goes into the outline, like how long a descriptive paragraph in your outline should be, format, and how to keep control of your book’s theme. Instructor will share why students must know what material will go into each chapter and be able to express their ideas to an editor. Student’s assignment will be to turn in a table of contents and chapter outline with outline description.

Writing the Sample Chapters. Lecture will include different forms and methods of writing the sample chapters and marketing strategies for using them to impress an editor. Session will also cover the definition of a sample chapter, what chapters should be sent to editor, and what editors look for in those chapters. Student assignment will be to turn in one sample chapter or at least five to ten pages of text if chapter breaks are not used in book.

All the Extras. Instructor will share what else is needed to complete proposal, like introduction, bio, personal marketing strategy (what student can and is willing to do to sell his book), and an overview of how to package the book proposal. Instructor will provide a nonfiction book proposal checklist for students, and a book and website list where they can learn more about nonfiction book proposals. Student assignment will be to complete sample chapters and required elements.

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