How to Write a Book Proposal
For VoxClarus Press, LLC
for the 2007 Photography Series

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We begin the process of considering a book by looking at a proposal from the author. A proposal is simply a detailed description of a book idea.

What's In a Proposal?

Here are the basic pieces of information you should give us:

1. Brief subject description
2. Working title
3. Description of your target audience
4. Detailed subject description
5. Brief author biography and credentials
6. Approximate book length
7. Anticipated completion date
8. Anything else you'd like us to know

The proposal should be only two or three pages. It doesn't need to be fancy. Just type it in your word processing program, and either send it by e-mail, or print it on ordinary 8½×11 white paper and send it by conventional mail. Follow these suggestions:

Brief Subject Description
This just a sentence or two, telling us what you want to write.

Working Title
We'll use the working title to describe the project until we know more about it. We'll work together on the actual title later on.

Description Of Your Target Audience
This is very important. Please give it careful thought. Your target is photographers, of course, but not all of them. You might write primarily to people new in the business, or to long-timers. You might be addressing wedding photographers, or commercial photographers. You might have an idea that would appeal specifically to women professionals. Decide which segment of the photographic market will benefit most from your book. Then think of what you know about them. How old are they; where do they live; how much money do they make; what do they enjoy, or dislike? Those things will help us evaluate your proposal, and will later help you write directly for your target audience. If you aren't sure about every detail, tell us what you are sure about, and we can work out more details together if we decide to proceed with the project.
(Please also read these articles on targeting.)

Detailed Subject Description
This is the most essential part of your proposal. It can be two or three paragraphs, or a simple outline, and may include a tentative table of contents. It isn't the full book outline; that will come later. It should have enough detail that we can begin to visualize what your book is really going to say. Think about what will be the most important things you will write, and how you will write them. Tell us how you plan to illustrate the book: what kinds of pictures, and how many. Describe any photos or other content that you expect to have contributed by other people. If you anticipate having a co-author, describe what parts of the content you will each contribute, and how those parts will be combined.

Brief Author Biography and Credentials
A short paragraph will do here. This isn't for the book cover. We'd just like to know a bit about you and what you've done. If you have published other books or articles, please send samples. If you will have a co-author, tell us about both of you.

Approximate Book Length
Most writers don't have much of an idea how long a book is going to be until they are well into writing it—but take your best guess. Is it going to be a skinny little book or a big, heavy one? You can expect to have about 500 words per page in the finished book, so a two-hundred-page book will have about 100,000 words, not considering illustrations. Books with lots of photos and diagrams will of course have more pages per word count than those heavy with text. Books in our photographic series will probably range from 50,000 to 250,000 words. Most will likely be about 100,000 words.

Anticipated Completion Date
We have a couple of photography manuscripts in the works now. We'll need at least one more within the next two months—and another shortly after that. If you think you can complete your book by then, let us know. If not, tell us when you think you can finish it. We anticipate publishing at least four photography manuscripts per year, for several years. If you're going to write a book for VoxClarus, we'd like to make it a part of our planning now, whether you intend to finish it within the next few months, or later.

Submitting Your Proposal
We prefer e-mail. Please don't send a fax.

Submit by e-mail to:
inquiry@voxclarus.com

This is Only a Proposal
Remember, VoxClarus Press hasn't yet offered to publish your book. This is only the initial presentation of your idea.
If we like the proposal, and if it fits our needs at the time we consider it, we'll probably ask you to write a complete outline, and one or more sample chapters. If we like those, we may offer you a contract to write the actual book.
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