Digi-sign Book Proposal Template Made Easy

Digi sign book proposal template

hello I'm Tyra Brabazon I'm the Dean of graduate research at Flinders University and welcome to this vlog at 28 writing a book proposal now I know many of you have a dream and that dream is to write and to publish a book it is an oddity I think of doctoral education at the moment that we have the assumption that every single PhD student is a 23 year old young man in the sciences and a become at all the 23 year old men in the sciences you're fantastic but actually the average age of men and women entering a doctoral program is 34 it at Flinders we also have many remarkable PhD students who are in their 60s and their 70s and I've had the great pleasure to meet these extraordinary men and women and they're an absolute credit to the University but so many of you out there watching this vlog have already had outstanding careers so when I'm providing employment advice to you you're going down well okay Tara I've already had a profoundly successful career you're doing a PhD to transform your life once more to give your life a third act and for many of you that third act involves creating a publishing career for yourself particularly through books so today this vlog has had more requests I think than just about any other topic how to write a book proposal how to get a book published so today I'm going to give you the concrete advice about how to be successful in a competitive publishing environment and there's absolutely no doubt that book publishing has transformed in the last 20 years but particularly in the last 10 it is now intensely digital it's also intensely international so I'm going to provide some insights and some help so that you can manage this new publishing environment and what upsets me a lot in Australia at the moment and clase you don't hear this in any other country except Australia is you hear the phrase and it is unbelievable books don't matter well let me just state very clearly to you books do matter books are the gold standard of scholarship at the end of your career you will be assessed by the caliber and the quality of your books they are the gold standard and I still remember as I reach over for a profit I still remember my first book being published tracking the jack a retracing of the activities this was published in the year 2000 and like for many of you I at that point was in a pretty tough job I was teaching every hours that God could send and that book was written at two three o'clock in the morning I was living in a pretty rough rental place and life was pretty difficult and I remember the day when that book arrived in the post I felt like something had changed in my life I felt like for the first time really that I was communicating with time I was part of international scholarship when you publish a book that's about as close as most of us ever get to becoming a Time Lord because we suddenly can speak to our future so never ever ever listen to anyone who says the books don't matter they really do I'm just about finishing off my 20th book my 20th book I think will be finished before Christmas so as you can see I've had a fair amount of international experience personally and professionally I also teach publishing so guys and gals let me give you the best advice I can give you on this key topic also remember that books are your calling card they are your business card if you like as you travel around the world it is the books that will open doors for you so this Friday for example when I send this vlog to all I'm flying out to product for a all-expenses-paid trip to deliver a keynote address at a conference in the beautiful Czech Republic now that invitation emerged a year ago because of a series of my books particularly the book digital dieting so I have not paid one dollar to go to any conference anywhere in the world since 2002 because I deliver keynote addresses because of my books got it so books are everything and today I'm going to introduce you to a book proposal yes book proposals have a template and today I'm going to go through that template with you so I know a lot of you have started taking notes hi Vicki taking notes during these vlogs this isn't a bad one maybe to get out some paper and a pen or those of you that are typing at the same time please do that because I'm going to give you the headings the board structure a book proposal and trust me this template works writing a book is really tough I'm not going to pretty that up for you but can I say probably writing a book proposal is even tougher remember the proposal is assessed by a subject editor so send it to a publisher a subject editor looks at the proposal first and 99 o 90% of proposals are stopped at that point they're gone so the subject editor stops the proposal if you get through that first stage well done it's then sent to academic referees either three academic referees or in the case of one of my books playing on the periphery it was sent to seven referees why was it sent to seven because there was a woman writing on sport and I appear to know what I was talking about so they needed to keep talking to every stooge us agreed my goodness me here's a woman writing on sport does she know what she's talking about seven referees luckily they all loved it and it was a book for Rutledge but all these referee reports go back to the subject editor and all those documents are come and sent to a central publishing committee that committee holds a meeting and your proposal is assessed it's important to remember though that on that Central publishing committee includes marketing representatives so everything could be right it could have past the subject editor referees loved it but if the marketing executive at a publishing company does not believe it will sell then your proposal is gone at that point it's very important that you remember that we are dealing here with commercial capitalist publishing you are competing with the world so my job is to make you competitive in this intense environment the most difficult 7 pages you will ever write is the book proposal and remember think about seven pages that's what we're talking about very intense important writing but also very very short in this case keep the proposal tight the subject editor is going to make a decision on your proposal within 2 minutes so my job today is to make sure I can get you through that first hurdle so you simply don't lose the game at that first stage if it helps you the book proposal is an advertisement for your work it's also an advertisement for you you are marketing yourself so put the marketing hat on so do all the obvious things though if you're doing a paper submission make sure it's good quality paper make sure the font selection is correct make sure there are absolutely no typographical errors and there are multiple ways in which they can contact you increasingly though in fact almost all publishers now deal with the digital proposal this poses new challenges you've got to make sure it looks good on paper but also looks good on a screen so again make sure the font selection is clear and precise use color judiciously but also will and most importantly I think PDF that document PDF the document the fonts stable because remember this is moving internationally around publishing houses many countries have different font sets so stabilizer through the PDF very important I've dealt with a lot of publishers and as I've dealt with more and more publishers I've realized a singular truth and that singular truth is publishers are in the business of risk management they are continually attempting to mitigate and manage risk with each proposal it is a ruthless business publishing and while we may curse the name of editors how dare they treat our work with such disrespect just remember they might be disrespecting our book but if they make a mistake it's their job you often find that publishers editors in publishing houses move through the industry very quickly they very rarely stay in post for more than two years so it's a very ruthless business and if they make a mistake on a book they take a book on and it loses money often they pay for it with their career their aim is to reduce the risk of the book being a commercial failure so what you have to do in the proposal is demonstrate how this book is going to sell for them help them manage risk having said that though international publishing has transformed radically through digitization and what I mean now is there's a whole series of new ways in which books are published yes there is the stuff that's made of paper and cardboard but digital books ebooks iBooks are a whole new big audience and most importantly for academic books we particularly see this through Elsevier and through spring up those guys and girls are selling book chapters so there's all sorts of new ways in which publishers can make money and yes you can make money so let's quickly talk through the proposal the headings you need and what you need to do to be successful firstly and most importantly your first title is obviously the title of the book now this is crucial it's different from a PhD title guys a PhD title is often descriptive a book title is sexy its innovative it's a hook into the content it's a way to sell to sell that book very important just about every book I've published has had an incredibly sexy title ladies who lunch tracking the jack from revolution to Revelation digital hemlock the University of Google Digital dieting those last two titles the University of Google and digital dieting have become cliches when people use those phrases I was the person who invented them yeah but they came from a book title so make it evocative expressive and most significantly make the title catchy the title will often be enough to sell the book also now we're structuring the proposal with clear headings you've got to argue your case if it helps you get the tone right on the proposal this is a marketing document do not assume for one moment that international publishers are interested in you or they're interested in the calibre of scholarship they're not they're interested in making money so convince them that you're going to make them money and you do that firstly buy a really evocative powerful title now the most important part of the proposal outside of the title is the rationale the rationale that is your next heading so you need to explain to the publisher why this book is needed in the crowded publishing market why the hell do we need another book on this topic you answer me that question and write that under the rationale also make this expressive writing rather than descriptive writing you're making a case here the next page has and this is a heading table of contents table of contents this a standalone page where you present each of the chapter headings again make it clear make it punchy make it evocative this is not a PhD so don't have methods literature review do not have those fittings think of an expressive catchy heading that we can use for a chapter title most of us buy a book on the basis of chapter titles and publishers are no exception so make sure again evocative titles on your content page turn the page over what you then do is present what is in each of the chapters this is often called chapter synopsis that's your heading and then you list those chapter headings and you put three sentences three sentences under each of those headings and explain to the publisher what you're going to do in those chapters right very important page over we go the next heading is word length word length under no circumstances state it's going to be above 70,000 words 70,000 words is often the absolute maximum for a book most are about 60,000 words next heading delivery date now state the delivery date don't spin it don't spook it if they present you with a contract there are legal consequences if you do not deliver a book by that due date so work out when you believe you can deliver the book the book may already be written and you send up with the proposal that's another issue but if you're working out how long it will take please feel free to contact me and we'll talk through perhaps where the PhD is at or where your book is at and how long it will take to get you from there to a finished monograph next heading illustrations now this is an important tip for punters most first authors for some reason of nonfiction think the more illustrations the more likely they are to be successful when publishers see illustrations they see this book is going to cost me right so this is important because they've got to pay copyright it's very expensive for publishing and so forth so be very clear about the illustrations you will use and one of the reasons I became a photographer as well as a writer is so I could produce the photographs for my books so therefore no copyrights involved I can simply send that over to the publisher it is theirs there is no cost and in fact most of the covers of my books I've actually photographed and designed as well okay so keep the illustrations few in number and if you can actually do them state that and you will relax the editor in the publisher now outside of the title and the rationale the next most important heading and this is crucial you will lose the game if you get this heading wrong and that is target readership target readership now this is a moment of decision for you your proposal will succeed or fail at this point and the decisions you are about to make under no circumstances no circumstances state that a quote general reader or quote general audience will engage with your book the moment that an editor sees or indeed a referee sees general audience general reader immediately your proposal goes in the bin no academic book has a general audience or a general reader you've got to work harder than that so let me help you work hard here the first decision you have to make is is this a text book to be used in a class or is this a scholarly monograph to be used in research by academics that's your key decision so for a lot of our guys and gals and legal education and medical education you might decide the work you've done in your PhD is best suited to a textbook and that's fantastic let me work with you for a moment on this if it's a text book you need to be very precise tell me about the type of course tell me where which countries and what level it would be used you have to drill down and be as precise as you can for me okay so that's the textbook route the other route is as the scholarly monograph now this is really significant you need to explain in a crowded publishing market how this scholarly monograph is going to be bought by people you need to tell me who those people are you need to talk about you know what disciplines they are in are they post graduates are there university academics and we need to be very specific about the regions on the planet and how this book will work in the different regions ignore North America ignore the United States and Canada at your peril so explain how that book is going to sell in the United States you've got to be as averse evert as that explain how it's going to sell in Europe how it's going to sell into South America Asia Pacific region and also of course the Middle East increasingly important particularly digital market so Abdulla mate your book is going to be huge in the Middle East working on governance in business in the Middle East is a fantastic topic so you can really make the case if this is going to become the book on business governance in the Middle East bang so explain the market in the Middle East and then show right well it'll also be the book in the field because in Europe in the United States we're needing to understand these diverse markets and you're going to provide the answer to those questions right very important make the case break down the markets for me so with great precision demonstrate how your book will enable an audience for those publishers so remember publishers are risk managers help them understand that you're going to make them money okay the other little tip I'll give you and this is crucial is try and make your book fit into an already existing series that the publisher is producing I certainly got about three books through publishers by saying this book fits in your already existing series particularly works for Springer and used to work for Ashgate Ashgate have been bought by rot Lynch we still don't know the degree of independence Ashgate has but with Springer in particular so for my science and engineering students who are looking at Springer try and put your book into a series and you will increase its capacity to sell this section on audience leads to the next and the next heading is competing titles now be honest again another way to delete put your proposal in the bin of an editor is state this is the only book ever written in the history of the world on this topic ok that's nonsense you know it's nonsense and you've lost all credibility at this point so what you've got to do and this is a lovely delicate tightrope of a task you've got to say I'm doing all these things that are original and innovative and haven't been done before but I acknowledge the incredible scholarly field that exists through these series of books and authors so you need to show that other publishers have mitigated the risk other publishers are already in this field and they're making money so this publisher can take a risk on you noting the originality of your book and proposal but also noting that there are other scholars and publishers working in this area so competing titles don't think for one moment that logging competing titles hurts your claim actually it enhances your capacity to get that book through now the final two sections are about you and not the book the first one is obviously biography so present yourself at your absolute best explain your writing experience and expertise even if this is your first book talk about your social media commitments which means of course your capacity to sell the book for them and use a university affiliation if you can so make yourself appear like you have the capacity to help them sell this book and finally present contact addresses so the multiple ways in which the publisher can contact you yes straight addresses but also email addresses and began put in your social media handles crucial put in your Twitter handle put in LinkedIn because remember social media sells books if you can demonstrate that your social media savvy that again helps the publisher go all right here's a modern person that will help us sell their book so guys this is the book proposal it is as you can see an advertisement for a book it's also an advertisement for you there are also incredibly important transferable skills that exist from writing a book proposal as you can see if you can write a book proposal it also helps you write a grant proposal and perhaps even more importantly it gives you the meta skill of who exactly is your audience who are the people who will read your research and as you move through a PhD the funny thing about a PhD is it very self-focused it can be quite a selfish time me me me me me as you move through the PhD there's something very powerful about asking yourself well yes it's all about me but actually who will read my work what is the sociology of my audience and the answer to that question might surprise you a lot finally do remember to question anybody who says to you that books don't matter I'll just finish it off for the story about this whenever anyone says books don't matter do have a bit of a look at their CV and often when people say books don't matter that's because they don't have any I'll just till a final story about a former head of school of mine who will remain nameless a former head of school was running a research meeting in the school and lots of people were talking and offering commentary and he begged his fists on the table bang like this and he said I'm sick of all this chatter about research people who don't know what they're talking about from this point on in this school we're imposing a 1020 hundred rule 10 20 100 rule and then there was like this pause that were all meant to know what the ten twenty hundred rule was so he paused for about 20 seconds he looked at us all like were idiots and and then he said ten twenty hundred no one speaks on research in this school unless you have published ten books completed twenty PhD students and published 100 refereed articles ten twenty hundred so from that day and since that day and of course I now am double that so twenty forty two hundred I'm now double that Steve redhead my beautiful husband is also double there so it's about credibility it's about putting one foot in front of the other and saying I'm talking about research in an intellectually generous way because I've got my results on the board and that's the nature of research guys no one can ever take those books off you no one can take that PhD off you no one can take PhD completions of you and no one can take those refereed articles of you if you publish you are a Time Lord you speak to the future as always I wish you love light and peace tear