How to write a non-fiction book proposal

Non-fiction books are usually sold on the proposal, so you don’t need to have a completed book but you sell the concept of the book. 

This means that the proposal is absolutely key to landing that agent and then that publishing deal. In this blog I demystify what goes into a non-fiction book proposal including the sections and sample chapter(s), along with handy prompting questions for each of the sections.

A note on life writing: although memoirs are non-fiction, they are treated like fiction, in that you have to have a full manuscript ready before you start submitting it, so this blog probably isn’t for you.

How I prepared for writing the non-fiction book proposal for The Shoulders We Stand On

Before I embarked on writing the book proposal for The Shoulders We Stand On I of course Googled ‘how to write a non-fiction book proposal’. I scanned the websites of literary agencies that I knew of to see what guidance they provided, like The Good Literary Agency’s outline.

I read a grand total of one actual book proposal that someone has kindly posted on Medium, all about teeth. It is obviously unrelated in every way from the content of my book on anti-racism, but I wanted to see the sections they included, how much detail they went into, and how they sold the concept. 

This post is my way of paying it forward by detailing everything I’ve learnt about writing a non-fiction book proposal, and it assumes that you don’t have an agent and want to write a proposal to first get an agent and then that elusive book deal.

Section 1: Overview

Photo by Pixabay.

The overview is the hardest section of the proposal to write. And it’s also the first, which can be very daunting. The reason its so tough is that this is the sales pitch. The part where you sell the idea, convince the reader that they need this book, as well as introducing them to your writing style and voice. This section is doing a LOT.

By the end of this section the reader, whether that’s the agent or editor or someone else, needs to know what the book will be about, feel an urgency to read on, and maybe a slight annoyance that the whole book isn’t written yet. Ideally, you want them to think ‘yes! Why hasn’t this been done before?!’. Agents in particular have hundreds, sometimes thousands of proposals that they receive a month and they will not be waiting until the chapter outline to be convinced that they want to read this book.

“Ideally, you want them to think ‘yes! Why hasn’t this been done before?’”

In terms of length, it will likely be around a quarter to a third of your proposal. Mine was a quarter (excluding chapters), or around 1,500 words, including some photos which I used to show the kinds of images I wanted to have in the final book. 

I answered questions such as: why don’t we know about these movements? What will the reader come away feeling? What movements will be included in the book? As well as selling the idea you want to tease what it is to come. By mentioning some of the movements at this stage I was showing the reader what the book is actually about and hopefully enticing them to read more in the Chapter Outline. You may also want to open with your elevator pitch for the book to really hook the reader.

Just like when you’re writing, a good place to start is a free writing exercise to put down what interests you about this topic and why you would want to read a book like this. I wrote a lot of my proposal through free writing exercises because it was the only way I didn’t feel sheepish or too self-conscious thinking that I was writing a sales patter. You could use all the ‘questions to ask yourself’ below in different free writing exercises and see what you end up with. It’s got to be better than a blank page in any case.

A lot of this section was re-used in the book for the introduction and the blurb on the back cover. It might actually help to think of it this way, that you are writing to convince the reader (rather than the agent or editor) of why they would want to read this book.

Other details you need for your book proposal that you may want to include in this section are: estimated word length (usually 70-90,000 is standard for commercial books), and how long it will take you to write it.

Questions to ask yourself:

• What is the driving question?

• What will make the reader come away thinking 'oh I'd never thought about that before'?

• What would be the TED talk on this?

• What is the one-liner you would say in a radio slot when asked ‘what is the book about?’

• Why does this book need to be written now?

Section 2: Comparison titles

For once, you want to compare yourself to others. Photo by Bich Tran.

This is an easy way to show who your target readership is and where your book would sit in the market and even in a bookstore. This may be painfully obvious to you already having had the idea, but it may not be so obvious to the agent or publisher. 

The main point is that you give an idea of content and tone and show that there is a market for the book. It is better to include books that people may have heard of, and if you suddenly can’t remember any book names then go to a comparison book’s page on Amazon or another retailer and look at the section entitled ‘Customers who bought this item also bought’ to remind yourself of other related books.

“The main point is that you give an idea of content and tone and show that there is a market for the book.”

This section will also be of particular interest to the marketing and publicity people at a potential publisher when your book proposal is presented to them by an editor (at a process known as ‘acquisitions’). They may even use some of what you include here in the publicity material for the book, you may have seen something like ‘perfect for fans of Preeti Dhillon’ (I can wish!), as it is also an easy way to communicate with potential readers.

The books will not all be on the exact same topic per se, if they were you wouldn’t need to be writing your original book. For Shoulders I included: Natives by Akala for its discussion on both race and class, Black, Listed by Jeffrey Boakye for comparison of tone, and Brit(-ish) by Afua Hirsch for its discussions on what it is to be British. You don’t just have to include books, I also mentioned that people who watched the Small Axe TV series by Steve McQueen would be interested in the book. This also ended up making it to the blurb on the book cover which says ‘If you loved the books Natives and Brit(ish), the TV series Small Axe or the film Pride, don't miss The Shoulders We Stand On’.

For the Shoulders proposal I also included a ‘target audience’ section though this isn’t essential, but I wanted to highlight the range of people I thought would read the book e.g. teachers.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Which section of a bookstore do you see your book in?

• Which books would yours happily sit next to on a shelf?

• Who do you know that you picture reading this?

• What TV shows, films, podcasts or radio programmes would a potential reader consume?

Section 3: Chapter outline

This is the fun part! You get to tell the reader what your book will be about. Describe what will be in each chapter. I did this using half a page for each chapter and for each I attempted to answer the questions: what led to the movement being founded? What did the movement do? What was the result/impact?

This is where you can get into the meat of the book and get excited about what is to come. They don’t expect you to have all the answers right now, that is why it is a proposal and not a manuscript, but the reader should trust that the idea is in good hands and can see where it will go and what will be explored.

Photo by Bruno Bueno.

Even though you are not submitting a manuscript, this does not mean you don’t need to do any of the research or legwork for the book. The chapter outline will be the section that takes the longest to write because you need to know what the book is actually going to be about!

I like to think of the chapter outline as my writing plan, so it serves a dual purpose, and I will refer to it during the research and writing process to remind myself what it is I am actually doing when I get lost in the weeds.

If your book involves research you may want to detail in this section of the proposal how you will do your research, and any other special elements you want to include in your book e.g. photos, illustrations, diagrams.

“This is the fun part. You get to tell the reader what your book will be about.”

Questions to ask yourself:

• How would this structure look in a table of contents?

• Does each chapter have a clear singular idea, narrative, theme or thesis?

• What books have I read where I thought the chapter structure was too confusing, and why?

Section 4: The bio

Photo by Pixabay.

Ok, I lied before when I said that writing the overview is the hardest part; this is the hardest section to write. If you don’t like writing bios, and unless you are a narcissist it probably does make you cringe on some level, then have someone you trust and who knows you very well jot down some points for you, or take a look afterwards. They will make it at least 20% more impressive by not downplaying your many achievements. Now is not the time for modesty.

You want to show why you are the right person to write this book. A lot of non-fiction books are sold based on one of two things: expertise, or reach. I had zero of the latter so my bio was focused on my expertise. As someone who studied history, I made sure that that was included. Here is the time to write about your qualifications, profession, your writing experience, and your platform (if you have one).

“Now is not the time for modesty.”

I started off with the standard spiel about my credentials and then I went a slightly different route with my bio. I made it personal. I wrote all about where I come from, what these stories and history mean to me personally as someone who grew up in Southall where so many of the anti-racist events took place. The bio section then became the first part of the introduction to The Shoulders We Stand On.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Why are you the right person to write this book?

• Why do you want to write this book?

Section 5: Sample chapter(s)

Photo by Cottonbro Studio.

Lastly, you will attach some of the book that you’ve already written, so that the agent/editor can see that you can actually write, understand how your vision for the book works in practice, and most crucially, get a feel for the reader's experience of the book. For this reason, it is important that your sample is from the beginning of the book. It is also important that you don’t submit before the sample chapter is really the best it can possibly be.

You don’t have to have written the whole book for this, just the sample chapter(s), and of course this can change when you get that book deal and write the rest of the book.

“Don’t submit before the sample chapter is really the best it can possibly be.”

The actual number of sample chapters you include depends on the agent you are submitting to. Some agents ask for three chapters, others for only one. You can find this information on the agency website along with the other guidelines for submission. Ignore these guidelines at your peril! 

I submitted one sample chapter to my agent along with the proposal. This actually broke the rule I mention above of submitting the first chapter as I included the chapter on the Grunwick strike, which became chapter eight of The Shoulders We Stand On. This is because of the slightly different way that I got my agent which you can read about in a future post. However, before we submitted the proposal to Dialogue Books I also wrote ‘Chapter One: So, what happened?’. 

Questions to ask yourself:

• Does the opening hook a reader in?

• Is the sample chapter as good as it can be?

• Has the sample chapter been read by someone else to check for clarity and typos?

Checklist for submitting a non-fiction book proposal

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. Before you submit the proposal make sure you have the core elements covered by using the handy checklist below. And, good luck!

If you found this helpful, or have any questions about writing a non-fiction book proposal or the process in general you’d like me to address in a blog, then feel free to get in touch.