The thing I love most about blogging is connecting with other readers and writers (and mothers and friends). I recently “met” Lisa Groen Braner, who wrote The Mother’s Book of Well-Being and has a lovely essay in the latest issue of Brevity. Lisa is also a writing coach who helps nonfiction authors polish their book proposals and get their work into the hands of agents and publishers.
Book proposals. Urgh. Just the words may make you cringe. (I already wrote a whole book and now I need to write a proposal? What?) Or you may be asking, what the hell is a book proposal?
Well, Lisa has a great set of interviews at The Court Street Literary Collective in which five authors discuss book proposals and author platforms. (I especially love Dinty W. Moore’s thoughts on platforms: “Platforms are great for those who have them – politicians, pundits, celebrities – but in my humble opinion, there is too much focus on platform right now. Good books are about the writing, not about who wrote them.” Amen. Amen!)
But the truth is if you’re writing memoir or narrative nonfiction, at some point you will need to write a book proposal (in which you will need to describe your platform). So check out these interviews and, if you need help writing a proposal, check out Lisa’s website, Book Dreams.
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2 comments:
Thank you so much for this information. I have a book proposal and a sort of book that I need to pull out and do something about. Perhaps this is my nudge...
WAY helpful, Kate! there was a seminar at the last residency on just this subject--but it was one of the last, on the last day, and i had to leave. suffice it to say, the book proposal--heck, publishing in general--is still mystifying to me. thanks for this!
ah, and for the record, one of my favorite parts of blogging is connecting with other writers, too, including you. it always makes me grin to see your comments on a post!
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