purpose is to convince a publisher that your book will earn a profit, if published.
The proposal should focus on the size and buying power of the targeted market you will attract, the problem your book solves, how your book plans to solve the problem, how different your book is from others already published on the subject and how you plan to promote your book.
Mistake 3 Failure to include the editor’s cut in your plan.
Give yourself a break. You don’t have to write a 350 page book like your colleague to be successful. It doesn’t even have to be 150 pages. Simply write a short book approximately 100 pages long and fill it with your insightful information, your expertise and/or your experiences. You get to shorten your examples and stories. With a short book, you have no pressure to add every piece of information you know about your topic. Instead, if you have too much information divide your material into two books. Your customers will love you for it. They’ll buy both books because they are easy to read and short.
Mistake 4 Failure to add professionalism to your plan.
Plan to make your manuscript and eventually book the best it can be. Invest in what it takes to make it look and read professional. Don’t just get your friends and family to read it for errors; hire an editor. Your editor will not only help you with grammar and spelling but she will help you stay in the same tense. She’ll cut all your passive voice sentences that make your book hard to read.
Mistake 5 Failure to embrace your audience in your plan.
Not everyone will be interested in reading your book. Even so, I’m convinced there’s a community of people in your field