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Last updated on
28 May, 2009

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Nonfiction Book Proposals
with Gloria Kempton

REGISTRATION:

COST, LENGTH, PREREQUISITES:

No prerequisites.

Standard course: $180 / 6 weeks. Click here to register

Extended schedule: $224 / 12 weeks. Click here to register
Extended course gives you two weeks to do each lesson but contains NO additional material.

For questions about this COURSE, email glokemp@earthlink.net

If you’ve got an idea for a book-length work of nonfiction and you’re wondering how to approach it, how to write it, and what to do with it once you’ve written it, this class is for you. The best kept secret to marketing nonfiction books is that you don’t have to write the entire book. In this course, you will learn about all of the elements that need to be included in a book proposal and how to put them together for maximum effect on the agent and/or editor, setting you on the path to signing a contract with a publisher.

By the end of the course you will have an understanding of the elements of the book proposal and how to put them together into a marketable presentation.

Week 1: Sort through your ideas to find the very best one to commit to. Research to see what else is written on your topic. Prepare to write your proposal. Set a schedule. Think through your idea. Do you have passion for your subject?

Assignment: Write a summary of your book idea.

Week 2: How to write the most important part of your proposal; the overview; the subject hook, title, selling handle, length of manuscript, special features, choice to write the foreword, back matter, markets, subsidiary rights, spin-off projects, mission statement, platform, promotion plan, list of competitive and complementary books, resources needed, About the Author page.

Assignment: Write an abbreviated version of the overview for your book.

Week 3: Craft an engaging outline that reveals the anecdotes you’ll be using, the experts you’ll be quoting, the narrative that will move your topic along.

Assignment: Write the first five chapter summaries in your outline.

Week 4: How to organize a chapter. How to use anecdotes to illustrate your material. How to conduct interviews and integrate quotes into the text.

Assignment: Write the beginning of Chapter One and summarize the rest of the chapter.

Week 5: Revise your proposal. The revision process allows you to step back and view your proposal from a more objective place, much like the agent and editor will. What is it that they really want to see in your proposal? What will sell them on your idea and on you as the best person to write this book?

Assignment: Write the beginning of Chapter Two and summarize the rest of the chapter.

Week 6: Study the market listings for agents and publishers. Sort through them to find the ones interested in your topic, your approach, your style. Consider how to make your approach.

Assignment: List five agents and five publishers and come up with a plan for marketing your book.

Gloria Kempton has two passions: writing and working with writers. As the daughter of a successful freelance writer, she understood from an early age how to arrange the elements of an effective story so as to connect with readers: an action-filled plot, characters the reader will remember, a setting that enhances the plot, conflict that challenges the protagonist, tension-filled dialogue. When she submitted her very first story, it immediately sold. Since then she has published more than 600 stories and articles in more than sixty publications in the juvenile, young adult, family and religious markets.

Gloria has also written two novels and eight nonfiction books. She is currently working on several projects; a mainstream novel, a book of essays about her years as a prison volunteer, and a book for writers on unlocking the unconscious. She coaches writers in the Seattle area and teaches creative writing classes at writers conferences. Gloria is a former Contributing Editor for Writer’s Digest magazine, and her most recent book is Dialogue (Writer’s Digest Books).

As the former editor of two magazines, acquisitions editor at a publishing house, and a freelance novel and nonfiction book editor at ten major publishing houses, Gloria understands what happens on both sides of the desk. In her classes, you will find support and encouragement, as well as honest evaluation of your work. You can count on being asked a lot of questions that will help you get to the core of what it is that you want to communicate in each piece that you write. Instruction is individualized because you are unique and your writing should reflect your unique voice.