Monday, February 3, 2025

WRITE A PROPOSAL—EVEN IF YOU DON’T NEED ONE

by Alison Pearce Stevens

You probably know you need to write a proposal for long-form nonfiction, but I recommend doing it even if you’re writing a picture book. Sure, it seems like unnecessary work, but it can help fine-tune your story before you spend time writing and help you home in on that gap in the market you had a hunch about but hadn’t fully identified. 

What goes into a proposal anyway? 

This varies. My early proposals were different from—and longer than—the ones I write now. But in general, you need to have a few main sections:

A hook/overview/premise. Why do we need this book? This is how you’ll start your proposal, and it doesn’t hurt to write it a bit like jacket flap copy. 

Age category and format. Will this be a picture book? Chapter book? Middle grade? Young adult? Important to know—and not always obvious when you first start a project.

The market. How will this book fit into the children’s book market, as a whole? What are the competing and comparable (comp) titles out there? What sets your book apart from the pack?

Research. This is a nonfiction book, so you should include some info about what research you’ve done and how you plan to tackle any that remains.

Sample pages. Gives a sense of how you plan to approach the book and the style of writing you plan to use.

About the author. Who are you and why are you the one to write this book?

Do you have to write an entire proposal if you won’t use it?

Nope! You can only work on the sections that help you focus your ideas. For me, that’s the market and the hook, both of which inform age category and format.

Why write a proposal—especially if you don’t have to?

I’ve sold most of my books on proposal, and I’ve found that writing a proposal really helps me figure out what I want my book to say and how to make it stand out from other books in the market. For middle grade or young adult, there’s the obvious benefit that you’re not investing months of time researching and writing before you know if the book will eventually be published (although you’ll need to do plenty of research to write a proposal).

I’ve also written proposals for picture books—and that’s where my advice differs from your basic how-to-write-a-proposal overview.

As a writer, the last thing I want to do is settle on an angle for my story only to find out after I’ve started writing that someone else just published something similar. Sure, all writing is good practice, but it doesn’t hurt to have a solid path forward before you even begin. Then your writing and rewriting will be more focused, getting you closer to where you want to be that much quicker.

That’s where the proposal comes in. Focus on the market first. Know what’s out there—identify every comp title you can. Read as many of them as you can get your hands on (this is, admittedly, a tricky step, but Amazon’s preview feature can give you a sense of style and content for many books). Take detailed notes and write down exactly how each book addresses the topic. Spreadsheets are handy here. 

When you’re done, look over the list and see if any of those titles or their approaches are in direct competition with what you want to write. Avoid those angles for your book. Now consider the titles as a whole—what’s missing? What angle or approach hasn’t been done? How can you focus your book to fill that hole? Part of answering this may lie in the age category. Would your book be better as a picture book or chapter book? Have any age groups been left out of books currently on the market? How can you fill that hole?

Now that you have your angle and age category, write your hook! This step always gets me enthused about writing my story, and that enthusiasm should shine through to grab potential readers as well. You’ll use this in your cover letter if you don’t need the full proposal.

And research: What will it take for you to get the information you need to write this book?  How feasible is it for you to connect with primary sources? If you were to write up the research plans section of the proposal, what would you include? This is worth thinking about, because some topics are easier to research than others. 

Happy proposal writing—even if you’ll never send it to an editor!

 

About the Author: 

Alison Pearce Stevens is a former scientist who writes award-winning nonfiction books for the world's most curious people to inspire them to protect the world outside their doorstep. She is the author of Junior Library Guild Gold Standard books Rhinos in Nebraska: The Amazing Discovery of the Ashfall Fossil Beds (which won the Nebraska Book Award in three categories), Animal Climate Heroes, and Detective Dogs (May 5, 2025). She co-authored National Geographic Kids Books’ 5,000 Awesome Facts 3 and three books in their Weird But True series and has published hundreds of STEM-based magazine and online articles for kids.

 

 

 

21 comments:

  1. Proposals really help clarify - I find the comp titles very useful.

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  2. Thank you so much for this extremely helpful and inspiring post! Your work looks amazing, and it must be such a dream to get to write for National Geographic! I'm following you on IG now!

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    1. Alison Pearce StevensFebruary 3, 2025 at 1:47 PM

      Thanks, Heather! Writing for NGK was a lot of fun, for sure!

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  3. You and your books are amazing Alison! I’ve requested purchase of your newest at my local library. Thank you for sharing!

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    1. Alison Pearce StevensFebruary 3, 2025 at 1:47 PM

      Aw, thanks, Nicki! Always appreciate your support--and I feel the same way about you and your books!

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  4. Great tips to think about before pursuing a labor-intensive research/drafting process. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Alison Pearce StevensFebruary 3, 2025 at 6:07 PM

      You're so welcome! Hope it helps.

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  5. ALISON: THANK YOU for ENCOURAGING us to utilize proposal writing in order to get us on ". . . a solid path forward before [we] even begin" writing our stories. The process of doing so seems like having a discussion with an editor or agent about the merits of our book, WHY it should be written, and WHY WE should be the one to write it. What a GREAT way to sort out all the nuts-and-bolts before we start the writing process, to make sure we're are headed in the right--and WRITE!--direction. I CAN'T WAIT to put this tip into ACTION! THANK YOU!!!

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    1. Alison Pearce StevensFebruary 3, 2025 at 6:08 PM

      You're so welcome! So happy to hear that this resonates with you.

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  6. Thank you Alison for this intro to writing a proposal. I needed this!

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  7. Alison- great post! Even though I already do many of the things you outline for a picture book proposal before I start writing, I love the idea of framing that work as a proposal. It will help me make sure I'm considering all angles before I jump into the work of researching and writing!

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    1. Alison Pearce StevensFebruary 3, 2025 at 6:09 PM

      I really do find the process helpful. I forces me to think about a project in a more deliberate way--and one that aligns with the publishing industry as a whole.

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  8. I've never had to write a proposal so this is most helpful. I think I'll try writing one for one of my NF picture book manuscripts because I think it could help with writin a strong pitch. Thank you, Alison.

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    1. Alison Pearce StevensFebruary 3, 2025 at 6:10 PM

      It will absolutely help with a strong pitch. Glad it's helpful for you!

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  9. Alison, thanks for your excellent advice.

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  10. Thanks, for sharing, Alison. In the last few weeks I have begun a new project. I'd decided the best approach was to write a proposal while researching and developing the idea, before I actually wrote the entire manuscript. This post is exceptionally timely and helpful! I'm looking forward to reading your books.

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  11. Thank you for writing such an informative post, Alison Pearce Stevens.

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  12. Thanks for your ideas on writing a proposal out first. I like that idea! That is what I am doing on my NF projects, it helps to have it all written out, to see it , all the while as I keep going back and forth with the research

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  13. Great post, Alison! I love the idea of creating a proposal for PB... I already do parts of this, but you approach it in a more focused manner.

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  14. Thank you, Alison, for sharing the elements with details for writing a proposal.

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