o Synopsis. Synopsis is a summary of your book. Publishers usually specify in what form they want it, telling you the number of pages (usually 3-4), or asking for a chapter-by-chapter synopsis. For fiction, you will have to briefly re-tell the plot, squeezing it in the required number of pages. Yes, you will feel like you are ripping all the beauty off of your story. You will worry that the publisher will not be able to see how good it is when it is reduced to a simple skeleton, something like, “John meets Kate. They start dating. She finds out that he used to work with Jane.” Don’t worry, the publisher will not judge the quality of your writing based on the synopsis; there are sample chapters for that. Synopsis is only needed to look at the quality and consistency of the plot.
For non-fiction, synopsis usually consists of expanded table of contents. You list the titles of every chapter or section, and provide a brief summary for each.
o Sample Chapters. This one is self-explanatory. The publisher will tell you how many sample chapters they want (usually 3), you print them out and enclose in your package.
o Promotional / Marketing Plan. This is probably the hardest part of the proposal to put together. If you are like me, you don’t want to think about sales, promotion, and marketing, you just want to write your books. Unfortunately, it does not work like that. We authors are required to be involved in the marketing process, we have to prove that we have given it some thought and come up with some good ideas. Good marketing plan is no less important than the quality of your writing these days.
What sort of things can you put in your promotional plan? Any kind of promotional activities you can think of (and realistically live up to): creating a website, speaking at your local library or book club, advertising in a magazine, arranging to be interviewed on your local radio station or maybe even trying to shoot for national radio – you can always start local and then attempt to go national. If you really hate to organize all that stuff but have the finances to hire a publicist to do it for you, put it down in your promotional plan as well. The publisher will see that you are going to have a professional taking care of your publicity campaign.
o Endorsements. Some publishers might ask you if you have any endorsements for your book, another annoying thing that is usually difficult for a new author. If you are new and unknown, how in the world are you supposed to get some big shot read your yet-unpublished book and endorse it? Fortunately, most publishers understand that, but some don’t. To please those few, you will need to find someone in a position of certain authority to review your work and write a brief paragraph stating why it is good. It does not have to be a celebrity (although if you manage to get an endorsement from one it will help a lot), it can be your college professor, a local author, or your local radio host.