All aspiring fiction authors’ wildest dreams are to become the next best-selling authors of all time such as JK Rowling, or Stephen King, or John Green. Every author is blessed to have a wild and creative imagination with the skill of telling stories that creates strong emotions out of readers and create a whole new world with sympathetic characters that readers can get hooked to. For authors to make it big, and by making it big means getting their books published, they have to do more than just write a book. They need to sought book publishers and book agents to help them achieve their goals. The first step, and usually the biggest step, is to create a book proposal. Read the article to know how to make one.

10+ Fiction Book Proposal Samples

1. Fiction Book Proposal

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2. Sample Fiction Book Proposal

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3. Simple Fiction Book Proposal

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4. Science Fiction Book Proposal

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5. Fiction Story Book Proposal

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6. Fiction Book Course Proposal

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7. Fiction Novel Book Proposal

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8. Fiction Book Proposal Example

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9. Printable Fiction Book Proposal

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10. Basic Fiction Book Proposal

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11. Formal Fiction Book Proposal

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What is a Book Proposal?

A book proposal is a useful business plan tool to pitch your book or book idea and persuade the publishers to invest in your book because it is a marketable product to various kinds of readers. For writers, making a book proposal doesn’t necessarily mean they need to finish the entire manuscript first before proposing. You can submit the proposal first to a publishing house, or an editor, or a booking agent before you get to the nitty-gritty process of writing books. The proposal is important for you to get the coveted contract of a publishing house to sell your book and get paid for writing it.

Details to Include in a Fiction Book Proposal

1. Logline

The logline is where you get to pitch your book right away. Give the juicy details about your book to catch the reader’s attention and interest in listening and pursuing your book or book idea.

2. Author’s Personal Information

Before you go ahead and explain your book in great detail, give a little introduction about yourself as an author. This will be helpful for the reader to get to know you better and this will give them an idea of how the publishers will make a short biography on the back cover of your book if you get to publish your book. Provide this information in your proposal:

  • Social media statistics
  • Your website link
  • Writing organizations you’re involved with
  • Books you’ve previously published, if applicable
  • Connections with other authors
  • Writing background (education, workshops, or work experience related to the field of writing)

3. Target Audience

Unlike other proposals where your target audience needs to be specific as possible, for a book proposal, you only need to give a general category of a target audience. For example, your target audience can be “readers interested in sci-fi fiction” or “young adult readers”. It’s important to recognize who your audience is because this will help form your book in general and for marketing strategies.

4. Title of the Book

A book needs a title so you need to pitch it in the proposal. If you’re having some struggle to title your book, especially if you’re only pitching a book idea, you can use books that are similar to yours to act as a reference point for you and the editor before you finalize the title of the book. Note that this may not be the final title of the finished product as changes can occur during its development.

5. Marketing Details

Unlike other business proposals, your marketing strategy plan can be not as comprehensive; after all the marketing team of the publishing house will do the dirty work for you. However, it is helpful for editors and agents to know that you also have your idea or two on marketing your book. You can include in the proposal that you will use your connections within the literary world (such as booksellers, book reviewers, etc), radio station connections, and magazine and newspapers houses to promote your book.

6. One-Page Synopsis

This is where you give more details about your book or book idea. Write a synopsis that summarizes your entire novel. The synopsis is helpful for editors to get the idea of the arc of your manuscript and get an immediate sense of the story. Provide details about the setting and the main characters of your novel.

7. Sample Chapters

Whether you’ve finished the entire manuscript of your novel or written a few chapters, you need to include at least one chapter in your proposal. This will serve as an overview of your writing style, your storytelling technique, and your charm in pulling readers to read your book fervently. Since editors and agents generally have high standards (they only read the first chapter or the first pages of the book to decide if they’re into it or not), this is your chance to give everything you can to showcase your talent as a great storyteller.

FAQs

How much does a book proposal cost?

The cost of a book proposal depends on what type of book an author publishes. For example, a grade school novel proposal cost around $3,000. A young adult and adult novel and nonfiction book proposal range between $4,000 to $10,000.

How does a writer submit a book proposal to an agent?

The writer who is interested to submit a book proposal to a booking agent so they can help the writer find publishing houses to publish their books must send a query letter first. A query letter is sort of a mini proposal similar above and it should convince the agent to help you out.

How long is a book proposal?

The average length of a book proposal is between 15 and 30 pages, including some sample chapters of the book they’re proposing for.

How much does an author make per book?

If the author publishes a book through the traditional way of publishing through a publishing house, they can earn around 5 to 20%  royalties on print books, around 25% on ebooks, and 10 to 25% on audiobooks.

Once you’re done drafting the proposal, make sure to review it first to see if there are any errors in it. Negotiate it well with editors or agents and make sure to explain your proposal concisely. To help you get started writing the proposal, download our free sample templates above to use as your guide!

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