Manuscript Submissions Download this Document as a PDF Proposal Guidelines: Professional or Clergy Books General:
Your book proposal should include the following elements: 1. Title of the book. Include the tentative title and subtitle for your book. 2. Author contact information. Please include your name, mailing address, e-mail address, and phone numbers. Attach a current CV that details your present position, educational background, and previous publications, with special emphasis on your qualifications to write the book you are proposing. 3. Book description. In 200–250 words, describe the book you are proposing. What is its nature, focus, purpose, or argument? What is its central thesis? If you were writing the back cover copy or a description for our catalog, what would you say to convince a potential reader to buy this particular book? 4. Annotated Table of Contents. Provide the working Table of Contents, chapter by chapter. (If there are several parts or sections, group the chapters into those parts.) Beneath each chapter, include a brief (100-word) description of the chapter's contents. This summary should explain the focus and development of the chapter and indicate how it advances the argument of the whole book. 5. Audience. This section will give your insights into two basic questions:
6. Author promotion. Please detail the ways in which you plan to promote the book to potential buyers. Consider the following:
7. Competition: Please describe a few—at least five—competing and complementary titles on this topic, giving publisher and year. What does your book offer that these others do not? How will your book be superior to or different from them? 8. Manuscript length: What is the estimated word count for the proposed book? (Base your calculation on approximately 300 words per double-spaced page in 12-point Times New Roman.) 9. Date of completion: Indicate the date by which you expect to submit a completed manuscript. 10. Sample pages. Enclose a sample of 15–25 pages, perhaps of the introduction and a sample chapter, which shows your writing style in the book. These should be pages that are typical of the book as a whole, especially critical to your argument, or that give a good overview of the book. |
|||