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.

• 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

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?

• 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.

• 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.