Book Review: How To Write A Book Proposal by Michael Larsen

From the Book Description provided by Book Sneeze (booksneeze.com):

With more than 100,000 copies sold, How to Write a Book Proposal has been the go-to resource for getting your work published for almost 25 years. This Writer's Digest classic from literary agent Michael Larsen outlines in a clear step-by-step manner how to create an effective nonfiction book proposal.

I requested a copy of this book for review because I would like to write a book and sell it, hopefully, some day. So, I thought it would be good to have a manual for how to do that.

The author of this book, Michael Larsen, has worked in promotion for three major publishers, and he and his wife, Elizabeth Pomada have Northern California's oldest literary agency (these statements are from "about the author" page in this book I'm reviewing). With credentials like these, it would seem that he knows of what he writes.

This book covers a wide range of topics from your subject hook, your title and subtitle, and your back matter, to your rights, markets for your book, your mission statement and platform, and your promotion plan. Larsen tells you keys for effective outlines, gives you a style guide, shows you a mini-proposal and examples of other full proposals, and tells you how and where to submit your query letter and proposal. All this, and much more.

This is a valuable resource for any writer's library.

PLEASE NOTE: The copy that I received is not the one in this picture (although this is the picture that Book Sneeze provided for my review purposes). The picture above is for the 4th edition of this title, and I have the 3rd edition. I'm not sure how different they are, but my 3rd edition was copyrighted in 2003, so I'd say there are some significant differences since the publishing world has changed so much in recent years. If I had purchased this book and didn't get the newest edition, I would be upset; since I received this free in exchange for my review, I can't complain.

The opinion expressed here is mine and I was not required to write a positive review of this book.