How to Present Your Book Proposal
If you are a writer or photographer with a book idea, we encourage you to contact us early in the planning process to discuss your project with us.
The proposal should include:
- A brief description of the book
- Two or three sample chapters
- An outline briefly describing each chapter, detailed enough to give the flavor and structure of the book
- Photo copies or printouts of sample photos and illustrations -- no originals, please
- Target date for completion of the manuscript
- A analysis of what audience and markets would be targeted
Audience and market information should address:
Who Is The Audience?
- What is the market for your book and how many potential buyers do you envision?
- Who wants this book? Why do they want it? Why do they need it?
- Do you have specific marketing ideas?
What Makes Your Book Special?
- What is new or different about your book?
- List any special markets your book may have outside regular trade book channels such as bookstores.
- Could sales result from your contacts -- associations, organizations, corporations, groups, hospitals, treatment centers, workshops, seminars or speaking engagements?
- Which magazines or professional/trade journals may review your book or print articles by you that in turn would promote the book?
- Do you have specific ideas for marketing your book?
- How willing are you to be active in marketing your book?
What Qualifies You to Write This Book?
- List previously published books or articles.
- Are you a specialist in this field?
- Experience, access to information, other facts that make you uniquely suited to author this book?
Guidelines for Proposal Submissions
- Include a cover letter with your submission.
- Provide a working title.
- Provide a projected word count of entire manuscript including text, foreword, preface, introduction, acknowledgements, table of contents, appendix, notes, glossary, index or other.
- Provide a projected number of photographic images, charts, graphs or illustrations. Indicate source and format (transparencies, conventional prints, digital, etc.). Provide copies (no originals, please) of a representative sampling of the art for your book. If you are working together with another illustrator or photographer, provide information about this individual.
- Proposals may be submitted as Word (Windows preferred) files or PDF files or as hard-copy printouts.
- If your proposal has multiple pages or if you are submitting a completed manuscript for review, it is helpful if it is bound to prevent pages from becoming separated or out-of-order.
- Submissions will not be returned unless you provide a stamped, self-addressed mailing envelope.
- The review process can be lengthy. Please allow 4-6 weeks for a response.
Guidelines for Final Manuscript Submissions
If Stephens Press accepts you book proposal, please follow these guidelines in preparation of the manuscript and artwork.
- The complete manuscript should be submitted as a Word document using 12 point Times Roman, double-spaced with one inch margins all around. Turn page numbering on. Provide both a hard copy printout and the file on disk.
- Please do not format or "design" the book layout. This requires the formatting to be stripped out of the file before it goes into book production, slowing the process down.
- Provide a final word count.
- All illustrative materials (photos, art, etc.) should be identified as to where within the text they are to appear. Captions or cut-lines should be in a separate Word file, in the sequential order they are to appear in the book, and keyed to match the image numbers.
- If you wish to provide digital images, you must contact us first for guidelines -- these images must be of very high resolution for the quality books we produce. You will be asked to provide a sample digital image for our review first.
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