Your Book Proposal Isn’t the Problem.

Every so often, I get an email from an aspiring author like yourself asking for me to review their book proposal. Although I try really, really hard to not make assumptions, usually three things are true about what I’m about to read.

1. The book proposal isn’t good.
2. The author hasn’t developed an audience, proven the concept, or explained how they’ll sell the book.
3. The time and money spent . . . didn’t create the desired outcome.*

All of this is dreadfully unfortunate. Sometimes, it’s the author’s fault.

But most of the time, it’s not.

Whether it’s a lack of knowledge about how book publishing works, hiring the wrong person to help you, or simply not having an audience — most authors don’t write great book proposals.

Part of that is because traditional publishing isn’t your expertise or industry. That’s why you’re here reading this post.

But the much bigger culprit is when aspiring authors are led to believe a book proposal is all they need to get a literary agent and secure a deal with a major publisher. Which couldn’t be further from the truth.

As an industry insider, I feel furious when I see proposals that people paid for that are doomed to fail because the author didn’t have…