Your book proposal, agent-ready.
The overview, comps, chapter outline and platform section, rewritten from your own draft. $99, back in 2 days.
- A one-page overview that says what the book is, who it is for and why now
- Comps with the reason each one is a comp; a chapter outline with a sentence of argument per chapter
- The marketing section from your real numbers, and an editorial letter naming what only you can add
$99 · £79 incl. VAT · A$149 · C$135 — back in 2 days
The argument first. The résumé second.
An agent reads a proposal's overview to answer one question: can I sell this to an editor in two sentences? A draft that opens with how long you have wanted to write the book answers a different one.
I have wanted to write this book for fifteen years. As a hospice nurse I have sat with hundreds of dying people and their families and I have learned a great deal about what matters at the end. There are many books about death but none of them are written from the nurse's point of view, and I think my perspective is unique. The book will be a mix of memoir and practical advice and will appeal to anyone who has lost someone or will.
THE LAST ROOM is a nurse's answer to the question every family asks in the final week and nobody in the hospital answers plainly: what happens now, and what do I do? Drawn from twelve years and roughly 1,400 deaths on a six-bed hospice ward in Leeds, it walks through the last seven days as they actually go — the breathing, the sleep, the one conversation that is still possible on day three and not on day five — and tells the family what to do at each one. It is a practical book with a memoir's spine: eighteen short chapters, each built around one patient and one decision, for the 1.2 million people in the UK and 2.5 million in the US who will sit with a dying relative this year.
The Last Room, its author and its numbers are invented and labelled as such; a real overview uses only the author's own facts and sources.
Six parts, one voice.
Overview
One to two pages: what the book is, who it is for, why now, and the shape of it. Written from your draft and your answers, in your register.
About the author and comps
Your real credentials, arranged as the reason you are the person to write this. Four to six comparable titles with a sentence each on why, and what yours does that they do not. We check that your comps exist and are recent; we do not add any.
Outline, marketing, letter
A chapter-by-chapter outline with one sentence of argument per chapter, the audience and marketing section from the numbers you give us, and a one-page editorial letter: what we changed, why, and the two things only you can add.
Word and PDF, UK or US spelling, within 2 days of payment. One free round of changes. We never submit to agents for you and cannot promise an offer. If you also want the query letter edited, the two are written to match.
Send the draft. Get the proposal back in 2 days.
What is in a nonfiction book proposal?
Six parts: an overview (what the book is, who it is for, why now, in one to two pages); about the author (why you are the person to write it); comparable titles (four to six recent books, each with the reason it is a comp and what yours does differently); the audience and marketing section (who buys it and how you reach them, with real numbers); a chapter-by-chapter outline (a paragraph per chapter); and one or two sample chapters. Agents sell nonfiction on the proposal, not the finished manuscript.
Do you write the proposal from scratch?
No. We edit and rewrite what you send. If a section is missing we build it from your answers to our questions and mark the lines only you can fill. We never invent credentials, platform numbers, endorsements or comps.
How long should a book proposal be?
Usually 15 to 40 pages including one sample chapter: a two-page overview, a page on the author, two to four pages of comps and marketing, a chapter outline of a paragraph per chapter, and the chapter itself. Memoir proposals often run longer because the sample matters more.
Do you send it to agents for us?
No. You send it yourself, with your query letter. If you also want the query edited, that is the $49 product on this site, and the two are written to match.
What do I need to send?
Whatever you have: a draft proposal in any state, or the pieces (an overview, a chapter list, a list of books like yours, your bio and audience numbers). A sample chapter is optional and we read it only to make the overview match the book.
What if my draft is very rough?
Rough is fine; that is most drafts. Send the pieces and answer the form's questions. The editorial letter that comes back names the two or three things only you can add, and the one free round of changes covers them.
$99 · £79 incl. VAT · A$149 · C$135. Edited and rewritten from your own draft and answers. We never submit to agents for you and cannot promise a request.