Proposal critiques: An adventure novel, a biography and a self-help book
Welcome to round two in our series of book proposal critiques. It’s an audiocast, so to get started, just click the play button below.
Three submissions: A novel, a biography and an inspirational self-help book
The first proposal we’ll be looking at today is for an adventure novel with an environmental mission. The story is set in Africa, and confronts the conflict of our modern lifestyle versus the preservation and sustainability of nature and wildlife.
The second is a biography that promises to reveal the truth about the mysterious death and apparent rebirth of a now-forgotten American “messiah,” who practiced faith-healing in the late 1800s.
And the third is an inspiring self-help book composed of a collection of stories about women and men who have received a diagnosis of terminal cancer but against all odds lived to tell the tale.
If you missed the first round
If you missed the first round, go here to listen to an evaluation of two proposals, one for a novel and the other for a children’s book series.
For those who are here for the first time, we wanted to provide a snapshot of how editors, agents, and publishers go through and consider proposals: A behind-the-scenes view of the quick and candid evaluation your proposal will receive when you send it to a literary agent or commercial book publisher.
You’ll hear me discussing what works and what doesn’t in these submissions, and some suggestions for how they could be improved. The issues I address are fairly typical, so I hope that many readers will find something to take away from the discussion, and that this gives a sense of how I work with writers to help develop their proposals and manuscripts. For those who would prefer to work with me one-on-one, please check out my Services page.
Is this helpful?
Keep sending in your proposals to alan@alanrinzler.com for the next round. Check here for instructions.
In the meantime, let us know through your comments if you have suggestions and ideas for what you’d like to see in this feature.
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April 29th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Hi Alan,
This was just great. Thank you.
Any future critique on novels that excite you and why would be right up my alley on projects I am keenly listening for
in this series.
But ALL of these are helpful and very generous of you to share with us.
(PS I really loved the idea of the biography–the second project– being a novel. I think it would be a great read from the inside and then, the author could make up why the healer disappeared, which is VERY intriguing to me!)
April 30th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Alan, keep this idea going. This critique idea is essential for aspiring authors, and especially valuable coming from you.
If it is not a conflict of interest for you, I would love to see more critiques of prescriptive non-fiction props.
May 1st, 2009 at 8:57 am
Wonderful, informative series and love the audio format.
I’m curious though, my understanding is that agents, publishers don’t really look at novels until the manuscript is complete. Is it true they can be sold (like non-fiction) in proposal form.
Or is it that after it’s written, they need to have a strong proposal? Look forward to more.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:55 am
Dear Janet
In some cases a chapter outline and no fewer than two chapters — first and last — can attract the attention of an agent who receives an author’s first novel, especially in the mystery, sci-fi, or romance genre. Less so with literary novels, and overall it’s better, I think, to have the entire book completed.
If you do have a completed novel, not all of the other elements of a proposal are necessary, but a hook and platform are advisable.
Good luck,
Alan
May 1st, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Yes, yes, these are great, Keep doing them! I think it is incredibly generous of you and your submitters to post these for our benefit. Love the audio format too, by the way.
~jon
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
These commentaries are very helpful. They reinforce those elements need for a eye-catching query. Please keep doing them!
May 5th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
If Alan Rinzler is amenable, I’d like to comment on bb’s point above that the story of the healer might be more successful as a novel than nonfiction–and, while doing that, I want to thank you, Alan, for your insightful comments and suggestions on the proposal.
On the question of novel vs. nonfiction, however, if the story were fictionalized and told “from the inside” (that is, the healer’s point of view), I’m doubtful that it could be an effective mystery. Mysteries, as I understand them, must be told from the outside, by an observer or investigator, and the the mystery revealed at the novel’s conclusion. As Alan rightly stated, the book is a biography, but it moves forward within the framework of a modern-day detective story–a device that allows the narrator-as-detective to explore, contemplate, speculate, and analyze the healer’s motives in a way that traditional biography cannot. In the end, the mystery of the healer’s disappearance is solved–but only after a step-by-step, piece-by-piece, argument-by-argument journey into the past.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Hi David,
I’d like to clarify that I would not actually recommend that the author fictionalize this story and make up why the healer disappeared, since it’s the original research that informs the true story of this interesting forgotten man.
I suggest that one way to sustain the framework of a modern-day detective story with a step-by-step uncovering of what really happened in the past, is to use the author as the character who learns about this story in its incomplete and mythical form, then gradually uncovers the truth, piece by piece, through the narrative drama of the author’s own research in the field.
Alan
May 12th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Hi again.
I didn’t realize that the missing pieces had been found in the research when I made that suggestion.
I love Alan’s suggestion.
Really sounds like a good read.
-bb