Before You Write A Book Proposal, Part 3: Quality Counts

By Rick Frishman - Aug 31 , 2007

While it’s not our intention to teach you how to write, we want to stress how essential it is for you to write a top-quality book. To interest agents and publishers, your book must be interesting and well written and must benefit readers by giving them lots of information that they need.

Writing a high-quality book is important for many reasons, including:

1. Your name will be on it. Books are permanent and can outlive you. Your books will represent you during your life and will impact your family long after you’re gone. Your name and your books will always be linked in the public’s mind as well as in the records at the U.S. Copyright Office, in online search engines, and in libraries throughout the world.

2. In most cases, books must be good to be published and to sell. Sure, celebrity tell-alls, bodice rippers and absolute clunkers always slip through, but by and large, they’re exceptions. As a rule, publishers want books that contain good information, are well written, and will sell; they look for quality.

3. Agents and publishers seek authors who can build long writing careers. They prefer them to one-shot wonders who turn out just one hit book. For agents and publishers, good, prolific writers become annuities; dependable cash producers that they can count on and take to the bank. As a result, they will take a more active and nurturing role in developing promising writers’ careers.

4. A writer’s name and reputation are his or her brand. If writers are successful and are acknowledged to consistently produce good books, agents and publishers will vie to represent them and want all their new work. However, if they produce inferior work or don’t deliver as promised, they will alienate their supporters.

Plenty of terrific books exist that can teach you about writing and help you to create a quality book. If you’re not clear on what that takes, read some of them before you go any further.

Before you submit your writing to an agent or publisher, consider having it reviewed by a professional editor. It could be well worth the investment! Editors can shape up your writing and make it glitter. Agents are put off by poorly written, grammatically incorrect submissions and may not waste much of their time on them. Those who continue and see some promise in your book may recommend that you work with a professional editor. To make the best initial impression, have it edited before you submit it.

Reinvent Yourself

If you’ve written before, don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself or try writing differently. Everything has a life cycle, and what you’re doing, no matter how successful, can grow old. Build aggressively on your success by constantly doing and giving more. Don’t hesitate to experiment or be bold.

Besides giving your following something new and invigorating, reinvention stimulates writers and keeps their work exciting and fresh. Regardless of your success or lack of success, writers must continue to search for that new idea, that breakthrough that can catapult them to the next level. Look at the examples of some of Rick’s best-known, bestselling clients.

Although the Chicken Soup books brought Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen overwhelming success, they both reinvented themselves apart from the Chicken Soup series and each other: Mark with his book The One Minute Millionaire (coauthored by Robert G. Allen, Harmony, 2002), and Jack with The Success Principles (coauthored by Jane Switzer, HarperResource, 2004).

Harvey Mackay had a formula that kept him on the bestseller lists, but in his new book, We Got Fired! . . . And It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us (Ballantine Books, 2004), he decided to take a new and successful approach. Although Robert Kiyosaki’s books may look like they follow the same path that has made them so popular, each new title adds more: a new twist, a different emphasis, or additional information.

Robyn Says—

Publishers and agents are professionals, books are their business, and they’re always on the hunt for great writers and books; they don’t want mediocre books.

Remember, these are seasoned experts who are excellent judges of content and quality. Writers should fall in love with their ideas; however, you have to separate from the book and really ask yourself, if you glanced at this book would you buy it?

What benefit does it provide the reader?
When you reread it, is it really all that fabulous?
If it’s fiction, is it really a page-turner?
Do unbiased individuals who read a great deal or have a literary background really think it’s all that amazing?

Writing an outstanding book will dramatically increase the prospects of its being published and of agents and publishers taking a more supportive role in your career. So hone your craft and get it right before you try to market your book.