When you write a query letter and book proposal to an agent or acquisitions editor, there are certain things they want to know before considering your manuscript. They want to hear about you and your book, but what they really care about is the audience. What audience is your book intended for? Describe your readers in demographic detail. Where do your readers live? Work? Learn? Worship? How and where do they shop and for what? Where do they vacation? What do they do for entertainment? Media consumption habits?  What media outlets target your audience? Beliefs, values, attitudes of your readers? Describe situations you envision your reader reaching for your book. When would somebody want to read your book and why? What are they going to be looking for? Describe where and how your readers will find your book. What expectations will your readers have when they open your book? Draw up at least a dozen character sketches (100 words each) of your customers. Are there associations, organizations, clubs, guilds, unions or other groups whose primary focus is of interest to your audience? Government, non-profit, business. Do you have an audience platform? Website? Blog? Facebook Page? Twitter? LinkedIn? Social media metrics? What ideas do have for marketing your book? If you don’t have answers to these questions, you may have more than marketing problems. The writer who does not know to whom they are writing is likely to have manuscript problems, too.    

You’ve polished your manuscript. Encouraged by friends and family who read earlier versions, you incorporated their feedback and suggestions into your final draft. Following a style guide, you also checked spelling and grammar. You’ve taken your work to the best of your abilities and are proud of your efforts. Then, you deliver the document to an editor for professional review. And that’s when self-doubt kicks in. What if the editor doesn’t like it? Does the organization of the chapters really work? Have I made some embarrassing mistake inadvertently? Is there a strong narrative arc? Will I have to rewrite it again? A writer takes an enormous personal risk when they give their work to a professional editor. For many, the personal experience of writing is therapeutic. Sharing with others what they have written is simply too risky. And that is okay. Not everything one writes needs to be read by others. But if your intention is to be read, then take the risk. The accomplishment of completing a book length manuscript is significant and worthy of celebration. For every 100 people I meet who tell me they have been thinking about writing a book, only one actually does it. So you’re already ahead of the pack with your sheer persistence. Learning how to seek and receive editorial assistance is the next step toward publication of the manuscript. Writing is largely a solitary task, yet publishing is a social practice involving editors, authors, and readers. An editor’s objective is to make your…

Last week here, I spelled out the reasons why a comparative title analysis is so important to a book proposal. Today, the “how to” complete your research on the competition in the marketplace of ideas will be presented. This step-by-step process involves research, reading, and a critical market assessment. 1. Identify the genre, even the sub-genre, of books you will be searching for in your analysis. If you are writing a self-help book, you won’t start searching in fiction or memoir. Non-fiction is the genre and more specifically the sub-genre is “self-help.” 2. Make a list of the subject headings you would assign to your book to help you narrow your search. These terms will be important in your online search for relevant books. 3. Generate a short list of the key words you associate with the contents of your manuscript. These are powerful search terms to identify titles that may compete for your audience. 4. Visit bookstores and libraries and identify the books you think would fit next to yours on the shelf. Pull the books off the shelves and investigate further. Who are the publishers of these titles? In the acknowledgements, does the author mention the name of their agent or the editor with whom they worked at the publisher? Add the names of agents, editors, and publishers to your list of search terms. 5. Ask friends, family, and associates about the last book they read about this subject. Ask them for book recommendations. Take their suggestions and…