In her Brazen Careerist blog, Boston Globe columnist Penelope Trunk posted some advice on how to get a good book deal from a publisher, based on your blog. Her points, however, apply equally to any book proposal and a couple of them stand out (and may be counter-intuitive). Here they are, with my comments:
* "If you're in a niche, make it a big one."
Sometimes writers with a non-fiction book idea tell me, excitedly, "There's no book out on the subject!" thinking this means they have the field all to themselves. However, publishers are more likely to assume that there IS no field, no interest in that topic because it's too narrow or specialist. Of course, the opposite also is true--never say, "This book will appeal to everybody" because that suggests you really haven't thought carefully about the market for your book. No book appeals to everybody.
* "Have a big audience but say they are old rather than young."
This may be one of the few instances where it's better to claim appeal to an older group, because older people buy more books than younger ones. My guess is that this gap in buying patterns will only become larger.
She also revealed that for her own book, she got a list of agents and only contacted those who said they were not open to new clients, on the basis that these were likely to be the most successful ones. As she knew, very few agents will turn down a new client if it looks like that client could earn a lot of money. She also started with names at the back end of the alphabet because most writers probably would start at the beginning and her choices probably get less mail.
