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.