A summary sheet is a one page summarization that forms the skeleton of your proposal and contains basic information about the work on offer – size, genre, intended audience, completion date, summary logline, and the like.  It is the first thing that the editor sees when opening one of my proposals.  When done correctly, it should allow the editor to classify your project at a glance so they know, to some extent at least, what to expect when they get deeper into the proposal.

Let’s examine each element one at a time.

Size

How long do you intend the finished work to be?   I’m not talking about page count here, as modern publishing does not measure size by the number of pages but rather by the number of words.  This is primarily because the design, typeface, and selected binding of the book will have an impact on the page count and publishers require a more concrete means to measure the length of the manuscript they have received.  The word count will be the same regardless of whether the book is released as a hardcover, a trade paperback or a mass market paperback.

The average for adult fiction is usually in the neighborhood of 80,000 to 100,000 words.  Longer works do get published, obviously, but more than 85% of commercial fiction today would fit very nicely into this average.  First time novelists will have a much easier time selling a work that neatly fits into this size range than they will selling a longer one.  For Young Adult fiction, the average size tends to be 60,000 to 80,000 words, though there is growing trend at this time for longer YA works.

Genre

Marketing departments have come up with a number of terms to try and best describe just what classification a book will fit into.  This was done to make it easier for booksellers to place similar books and authors together in one location in the store, which in turn was supposed to make things easier on the consumer.  The trouble with this is that different publishing houses label material in different ways and book store chains might have different sections as well.  My books might be labeled horror by one publisher and stocked in the horror section in a certain bookstore chain, but another publisher might label them general fiction and a different store will stock them in that section.  (The end result being that my books might be stocked in different places in different stores, defeating the whole purpose of labeling them in the first place, but I digress.)

For the purposes of the summary sheet, you want to use common classification labels to tell the editor what kind of book you are writing.  These would include literary fiction, mysteries, thrillers, horror, urban fantasy, fantasy, science fiction, romance, paranormal romance, western and the like.   Each of these terms conjures up a specific type of book in an editor’s mind, so keep it as simple and straightforward as possible.

Intended Audience

This is another area where I tend to keep things as simple as possible.  I use only three different categories – Adult, Young Adult, or Children. Don’t try to classify it into multiple groups as this just tends to annoy editors.  Pick one primary audience and leave it at that; if the publisher thinks it can be cross sold they will handle it appropriately.

Completion Date

Figure out the time frame you need to submit a completed manuscript from the date on which the contract is signed and enter it in this part of the summary sheet.  Remember to give yourself enough time to do as many drafts as you require; what you want as an end result is s complete, polished manuscript.  (If you are the type of writer that needs to let a project sit for a time before going back to edit and revise it, be sure to figure that time in as well.)

Summary Logline

A logline is a one or two sentence summary of your book that provides both a quick look at the plot and an emotional hook to engage interest.  They have been used for decades to describe screenplays in Hollywood, but are also becoming more useful in the publishing world.   I will sometimes include a summary logline into my book proposal if I think it will help the editor feel connected to the work.

In order to craft the most effective proposal possible, we first need to understand just what goes into a proposal and, perhaps more importantly, the purpose of each section.  Understanding how each section works in conjunction with the others is crucial to preparing a proposal that will catch an editor’s eye.

Please be aware that this isn’t the only way to craft a proposal.  It just happens to be the way that has worked for me time and time again.  You are more than welcome to take what I have done and rework it to fit your own style – in fact, I suggest that you do.

I’m going to list each of the proposal components and then discuss them all in detail. The last post in this series will be the actual proposal for my novel, THE BOOK OF COMING SORROWS, (sold to a publisher in Germany last year  in a nice deal for trade paperback publication) so that you can see the components actually being utilized.  This way you will be able to ead the explanations regarding each section and then refer to the proposal to see them in action.

The key components for the novel proposals that I create are:

1)    Summary sheet

2)    Character sketches

3)    Synopsis

4)    Sample Chapters

5)    Author’s Bio/Experience

With just those five elements, I’ve sold fifteen novels to publishers in five different countries, including one that will be translating my latest into seven different languages.  Obviously, I’m confident that this approach works.  Provided you have a compelling story to tell, you should be able to make this process work on your behalf as well.

Let’s examine each element in a bit more detail, understanding that we be exploring them in greater depth and helping you craft each section of your own proposal later as part of this workbook.

The Summary Sheet

The summary sheet is designed to do exactly what the name implies – summarize for the editor exactly what the package is all about.  It also does one very important thing – tells the editor that you have consciously thought about why they are receiving this particular proposal.  The summary sheet contains the title of the work, the target audience, the genre, the length/proposed length, and the time it will take you to complete the work.

One thing to bear in mind with that last – I am very much of the school that believes that after you have sold your first book, you should be able to sell each of your subsequent works before you have written them. In other words, I don’t waste my time writing anything that I haven’t already been paid for upfront.  I make my living as a writer and as such my time is too valuable to waste on writing a project I hope will sell.  Of the eleven original novels that I’ve sold to date, all but the very first were sold in this fashion.

Character Sketches

By sketches I do not mean actual drawings of the characters but simply short, concise little summaries that give the editor an idea of who the book is about.  I always start with the main viewpoint character and usually include three or four others, including the protagonist/villain of the work.  I try to give some sense of who they are, what they want, and how they change during the course of the story.

The Synopsis

I have heard more writers complain about writing a synopsis than anything else.  In fact, I know writers who would rather write the entire book than write the synopsis.  I would suggest to you that this is because those writers often don’t yet know exactly what the book is about or where they want to take it, which of course make writing a synopsis extremely difficult. Aside from your sample chapters, the synopsis is the most important part of your proposal.  It has to be done well and it has to make the editor want to read the book.

Please note that last sentence.  The synopsis shouldn’t leave the editor “wanting more”, as in wanting to know what happens.  They should KNOW what happens, in respect to how the beginning, middle, and end of the book play out, from the synopsis.  After reading the synopsis, they should want to then experience the story for themselves.  We’ll talk about this more in the synopsis lesson, as it is a crucial mistake many proposal writers make.

Sample Chapters

It goes without saying that if your sample chapters aren’t top-notch, nothing else you do in your proposal is going to make enough of a difference to overcome this.  We’ll look at your sample chapters with a very critical eye and work through them line by line to make them the best they can be.  (With regard to the proposal I’ve sent as a reference, in hindsight I think this sample could have been better, but it did serve its purpose.  After all, the book sold!)

Author’s Bio

If you’ve been previously published, the point here is to showcase your former work.  Let the editor know the breadth and scope of your experiences, highlighting any key accomplishments you’ve made.

If you are an unpublished writer, the key here is to show the editor that you can deliver on what you promise.  Now, understand that this is not an easy task.  It is much easier as a first time author to sell a completed work than it is to sell one off of a proposal – but the proposal process for both is the same.  Highlight what makes you the person to write this book.  Highlight your previous experience IF it is worth highlighting – otherwise, don’t mention it.  We’ll discuss this in more detail in a later section.