How to Write a Book Prospectus

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner, and today I'm going to talk with you about how to write a book prospectus. So you've written your book and you want to get it out there with publishing companies so you that you can get it out and people can read it. But first of all, what you should do is you should send a prospectus with your letter of inquiry so that the publisher can get an idea of what your book is about, or the book that you are about to write is going to be about as well. You can do this before you finish the book. First of all, give details of what the book is about or is going to be about, and what target audience that you're writing for. And of course, how long it will take for you to write it, and how much of it you have written. So if you had completed it, you can send it this way. If you have only written a few chapters, you can send it and try to get them interested in publishing it, maybe so that you even a little more incentive to finish it yourself, since, you know it's going to be published. Next, tell them why the book is important and why are you writing it, and what makes this book about this particular topic different than any other books about this topic. What does the book plan to accomplish that other books have not achieved? Next, of course, give a really concrete time frame. Again, how long is it going to take you to finish the book? How long will the book be so that they have an idea of, you know, should we sort of put ourselves on the line for this person who's going to complete this book with in a year, and then hold them to that. Or do you, do you not know yourself, you know, how long it's going to be. It'd be good for you to know a time frame for completing the book. And finally, give an estimate on how you're going to market the book. Assuming that you've already got your target audience, you're already sort of a step in the right direction. But then think about all those things I talked about, you know, how, what the book's going to do that other book's don't do in that genre, and what demographic you'll be marketing to. And those are some ways to write your book prospectus for a publisher."