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Nonfiction Book Proposal
GUIDE TO NONFICTION COURSES
Nonfiction Pathways
Foundation
If you’re not sure what kind of nonfiction to write...
If you know what kind of nonfiction to write...
Memoir I
Essay & Opinion Writing
Feature Article Writing
Blog & Newsletter Writing
Travel Writing
Food Writing
Or...
If you want a rather short course...
Memoir Intensive
Personal Essay Writing
Feature Article Writing Intensive
Humor Writing Intensive
Blog & Newsletter Writing Intensive
Next Steps
After completing a Level I ten-week course...
After completing Memoir II, if you want to write a book...
Selling Your Work
If you hope to get published somewhere...
Also Helpful
These essential courses are great for writers of any level.
Nonfiction Book Proposal is a 4-week class, which includes a mixture of lectures and book proposal assignments. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants a refresher. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
Perhaps you’re near completion of a nonfiction book. Or perhaps you’ve just hatched an idea or begun roughing out a draft. Before you proceed further, you should know…
Most nonfiction books are sold to publishing houses on the basis of a proposal—a 20 to 40-page document that pitches the book’s content and marketability and is supplemented by sample chapters. Agents and editors don’t want to see the finished book. They want to see the proposal.
Here you will learn everything you need to know about nonfiction book proposals and, to focus your concept, you’ll write (and refine) your book’s catalogue copy—a brief description that reveals the book’s essence. All under the guidance of an established literary agent.
Want to learn how much goes into a nonfiction book proposal? Want to find some reassurance in the vast dark ocean that is writing and publishing? Have a bunch of questions only someone who has been in the weeds of it can answer? This is the class for you.
Iman M’Fah-Traore
freelance consultant and writer
Notes
This course deals with all kinds of nonfiction books. (Memoirs, however, are sometimes sold with proposals, and sometimes sold after the complete work is written. Often it’s best to write the complete memoir, but this course can help you discern the scope and marketability of your memoir.)
After this course, you can get one-on-one help through Nonfiction Book Proposal Doctoring.
You might also consider How to Get Published, but Nonfiction Book Proposal is a good place to start for nonfiction writers.
Upcoming Classes
NYC COVID Info
Price
Registration fee $25, paid once per term
4-Week
-
Online
Anytime, week-long sessions
Tuition: $185
-
One-on-One
Tuition: $595
Syllabus
This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of creating a nonfiction book proposal, and helps you focus a concept for a nonfiction book. Course components:
Lectures
Writing and receiving feedback on catalogue copy for your book (each student presenting work two times)
Week 1
Focusing Your Idea: Defining your book. What is a book proposal? Catalogue copy—angle, credentials, excitement. Catalogue copy analyzed. Titles.
Week 2
Anatomy of a Proposal: Analysis of the parts of a book proposal—Overview, Market, Competition, Promotion, Author, Details, Chapter Outline, Sample Chapters. (Complete book proposals are given to students.)
Week 3
Creating Your Proposal: Advice on handling the parts of a book proposal—Overview, Market, Competition, Promotion, Author, Details, Chapter Outline, Sample Chapters.
Week 4
The Submission Process: The steps from idea to publication. Understanding publishing houses, editors, and agents. Should you approach agents or editors first? Researching the right agents and editors for your book. What to send, how to send it. Query letters. Response. Rejection. Contracts. Self-publishing.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
Teachers
Sharon Pelletier
Sharon Pelletier is a vice president and senior agent at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, where she represents upmarket adult fiction, from book club and women’s fiction to elevated suspense and romance, and select narrative nonfiction. She previously worked on the editorial side at small presses and Barnes & Noble.
Read moreSharon Pelletier
Sharon Pelletier
is a vice president and senior agent at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, where she represents upmarket adult fiction, from book club and women’s fiction to elevated suspense and romance, and select narrative nonfiction. She previously worked on the editorial side at small presses and Barnes & Noble.
