Stop and think for a minute
what our modern world would be like without writers: no books, no
magazines, no movies, very little news reporting. We owe writers. So,
with this debt in mind—and disregarding the fact that I enjoyed writing
it and was driven by visions of great monetary reward—this book is an
attempt to give something back to the writing community.
Why, you ask, write another book on writing nonfiction
book proposals since, prior to the publication of this work, there were
at least two excellent guides to writing book proposals on the market?
Because I found each of these left out small, yet important, bits of
information and included extraneous information, interesting and perhaps
useful, yet only peripherally applicable to the task of writing and
submitting a book proposal. And they were long. When I held one of these
books up at writer’s workshops, I could see eyes glaze over. “You mean I
have to read a 230-page book to learn how to write a 20-page book
proposal?” the participants seemed to be saying.
In fact, I found many would decide to forego reading
one of these books and, thus, would submit proposals to me—and I was
certain, agents and other editors—that lacked necessary information and
were generally unprofessional.
Having recognized this problem, I followed the advice I so often give
unpublished authors: Find a need and fill it.
In The Fast-Track Course on How to Write a
Nonfiction Book Proposal, I have attempted to give abundant
information in a sufficiently succinct, entertaining, and accessible
manner that people will actually read and use it.
—Stephen Blake Mettee
