Your Book Proposal Must Have a Fresh Angle!

Lots of people have written lots of books about God's love, and shame, and neighbor love, and racial reconciliation, and social justice, and healing, and neighbor love, and redemption.

If you're preparing to write your own book on a popular topic, I don't say that to bum you out. I say it to let you know that you need to bring publishers a unique compelling angle. So your job is, in the words of editor and wordsmith Stephanie Smith, to offer "a fresh frame for a timeless truth."

You must craft a premise that makes plain the clear takeaway value for the reader.

To help you think about the fresh spin you're bringing to the topic, here's a little pitch template:

Your unique angle/concept/spin/premise is that "big idea"!

• How is your big idea different from what others have written on this topic?
• What are you saying that others aren't?
• How does your big idea offer value to the reader?

I want you to assume that the editor receiving your book proposal has already read 100 proposals on the very same subject. Today. How is yours offering something fresh and new?

Writer, It's Not About You.

How is it possible that I wrote five books, including a memoir, before the lightbulb went on for me and I realized that writing a book really wasn't about me?

And how is it possible that it took me five more years to implement practical strategies I was discovering to serve the reader?

That weird situation is possible because no one told me. Well, they may have told me, but I didn't hear it. About six years ago, though, I heard it. And I hope you will, too.

Writers, it's not about you.

Even if you're writing a memoir that is literally about you, it's not about you. The best books serve the reader.

• If you're writing memoir, the way you tell your story resonates with the reader and creates an opportunity for her to reflect on her own experience.
• If you're writing Christian Living, every chapter has takeaway value for the reader. 
• If you're writing self-help, the reader discovers practical strategies to live differently.

For many of us, writing to serve the reader requires a complete inversion of our thinking. I had lots of stories and ideas in my head that I wanted to share with readers, but I wasn't being thoughtful and intentional about meeting their needs.

As I mentioned, that conversion in me happened over time. I learned from Jonathan Merritt how to create a single target reader for my book, and then write to meet her needs. I learned from Margaret Feinberg how to consider the needs of a reader on every page. I learned from Lysa Terkeurst how to identify readers' needs and craft a book, from the inception, to meet those needs.


So What?

If you're anything like me, I suspect that when you're writing you want to brain-dump all those ideas and stories you have crammed into you head. Fine, go ahead. But then be sure to return to every chapter and make sure that it serves the reader.

• At the end of the chapter, can the reader name the one big idea you were communicating in that chapter? (Can you?!)
• Does the reader see what the big idea looks like as it's lived out in the lives of people who are like her and unlike her?
• Is she equipped with practical tools to gain traction with the big idea in her own life?

Craft a book so that it meets a reader's felt need.

And if you really want to grow and develop as a writer who serves readers:

Jonathan and Margaret have created Write Brilliant

Lysa and her team equip writers through Compel Training

Has this revolutionary idea, that it's about the reader and not about you, found traction in your heart and head? If it has, be strategic about meeting readers' needs. If it hasn't, hang on to this idea and commit to discovering practical strategies to meet readers' needs.

Help a Publisher Say Yes By Doing These 2 Things!

There are all kinds of reasons we write books:

Some of us write a book because we want to see our names on the cover of a book.

Some of us write because we’re convinced that God has given us a message to share with the world.

Some of us write a book because someone told us, “You should write a book.”

 Others write because we’re creative or thinkers. We’re always noodling on the things, and we need to get the things out of our heads and onto a page.

None are horrible reasons to write a book, but also: none of these are particularly compelling to publishers. A publisher has one job: The publisher’s job is to serve the reader.

So when you’re writing the proposal for that book God planted in your heart, when you’re pitching that book your aunt insisted you write, the very best thing you can do is to convince a publisher that the book you’re suggesting meets a reader’s need.

(1) You help a publisher say yes when you solve a reader’s problem.

These popular titles do that:

• How to Get a Date Worth Keeping
• The Purpose Driven Life
• Discerning the Voice of God
• Habits of Highly Effective People

Readers buy and read these books because they meet a real need.

But there are lots of books about getting a date, living with purpose, hearing God, and becoming effective, right? Of course there are. So what makes these different?

(2) You help a publisher say yes when your idea has a fresh angle, edge, or slant.

You have to say it in a way they haven’t heard a hundred times before. Editor savant Stephanie Smith calls this unique angle “a fresh frame for a timeless truth.” She explains,

“An angle is simply this: it’s a fresh frame for timeless truth. It’s creative, unexpected, a pinch provocative, and able to power up vital conversations people are compelled to join. It’s the signature of great writing. And it makes all the difference in standing out beyond overdone, underdeveloped, dime-a-dozen concepts.” -Stephanie Smith

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What does this mean for you?

• It means that when an editor reads your book proposal:
• She recognizes that it meets a real need readers have.
• She notices a timeless truth that's being communicated in a new way.

So if you’re writing on dieting, or simple living, or studying Scripture, or loving your neighbor, you need to communicate it in a way that others have not.

• Maybe you embraced simple living by doing the same 3 things every day. Now readers are curious.
• Maybe you began living simply because you lost everything you owned in a house fire.
• Maybe your practice of designating only one day a week to make purchases radically changed your life.

The big win?

(1) The solution you’ve found is meeting a real need and (2) you’re communicating it in a way that readers haven’t heard before.

"Don't Hire Me": 2 Cautions

Before I try to dissuade you from hiring me, I'll tell you what I do for clients seeking to publish a book:

• If you're seeking a contract with a traditional publisher, I review your book proposal, and coach you on how to strengthen it.

• If you're planning to self-publish, I offer a developmental edit of your book, which is the first of several edits you'll need on the road to publication.

But I don't want you to hire me to do either of those things without counting the cost.

1. Traditional publishing

Authors are submitting proposals with compelling ideas and beautifully written prose, but if he/she doesn't have a "platform" to help a publisher sell that book, publishers often have to say "no."

What that means, practically, is that you need to be reaching readers right now, in any variety of ways: blogging, speaking, social media, publishing articles, etc. (Check out Michael Hyatt's book Platform for ideas about building yours.)

Sometimes a smaller publisher can take a chance on an author with a smaller platform, if they really believe in what you're writing, but those opps are few and far between.

2. Self-Publishing

Front end: I want you to know that self-publishing requires a sizeable investment of money for a developmental edit, line edit, proofreaders, cover design, interior design, printing, etc.

Back end: When you choose to self-publish, you become responsible for selling every single book. Don't choose this path without having a clear plan about how you'll sell those books.

If you have any questions, visit wordmelon.com to send me a message. I am FOR you.