Book proposal basics

Like most agents (like most anyone), I spend my days juggling a lot of competing priorities.  I always have more opportunities — in terms of clients I could take on, editors I could schmooze with, colleagues I could connect with, projects I could work on — than I have actual time and energy.  So here’s…

How to: Your book and its competition

One of the most difficult parts of writing a non-fiction book proposal is putting together the competitive analysis (this goes by various names but is basically the section where you compare your book to others like it).   People often make several common mistakes.  1.  They write the competitive analysis after they’ve written the rest of the proposal —…