How to Write a Chapter Description for a Book Proposal

A book proposal is more than just an idea for a book. If the book is a novel, you must have an idea of the book's trajectory and its subject matter. Is it a fast-paced murder mystery with many plot twists or historical epic, moving back and forth in time to slowly reveal a family saga? If it is nonfiction, what is its purpose and substance? Once you know this, you are ready to begin.

Instructions

    • 1

      Describe your book in one sentence. Tell what it does. Say what it means. If you cannot do this, you are not ready to do chapter descriptions for a book proposal. Try doing a one-paragraph pitch instead, or decide what you would want the book cover to say or how the publicity poster would look if it were made into a film.

    • 2

      Go back to the outline, if you are writing nonfiction, or to the storyboard, if you are writing a novel. Pull out your favorite idea or event.

    • 3

      Write about that favorite scene or nugget of wisdom you find to be stellar. Once you have written about it for your chapter description, start writing the chapter itself.

    • 4

      Use the description you have written about the best chapter -- the raison d'etre or "reason for being" -- to give your book proposal the oomph it needs to excite an agent and find out a publisher's bottom line. Work until you have a shining example of your writing. Write, critique then write again. Ask someone else to read it and tell you what they think. Then write it again.

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