What is Purpose

There are three stages typically involved in submitting a book proposal to a scholarly publisher. The first is to overcome one's sense of impostorship, the feeling that books are written by “real” academics with startlingly original things to say. The second is to write the proposal itself. This involves describing the genesis of the idea for the book, establishing a strong rationale as to why the book ought to be published, and summarizing its succinct purpose. The meat of a proposal is the chapter-by-chapter outline that provides a clear description of the book's contents. Proposals typically end with an analysis of competing texts, a schedule for writing the book, and indications of how a Web presence might be created to support the book. The final stage is to select and then approach a publisher. This chapter describes all these stages in detail and provides multiple examples drawn from book proposals that were accepted.