Book Proposals

The purpose of a proposal is to provide the editor and the reviewers with a complete and well ordered overview of your project. It is important that you be aware of the context in which the book will flourish (the market) as well as aspects of the pedagogical strategy which will make your book successful for us and for the student and instructors who are the end users.

Overview

Description

 

Briefly describe your book. Overall what is its primary strategy? What are the courses called for which this book will be appropriate.

Example: The book, First Year Latin, is designed for the first two semesters of the freshman college course in Latin taken by students who have had no experience in Latin or other languages. It uses the traditional grammatical approach, with an aim of   having the student able to read extended excerpts in original Latin by such authors as Caesar.

Latin is invariably taught in departments of Classics or departments of Latin and is the first course in the sequence. It is typically a full year in length. The course is also offered in …..

Market

A good proposal should include an overview of the market and then describe any segments in that market, if any, and elaborate particularly on that for which the proposed book is targeted.

Example: Latin as it is currently taught consists of three different approaches. The first is the traditional grammatical approachin which…. Another growing segment is designed to get students into the reading of Latin prose as quickly as possible….  Third, intensive Latin is ….  This book is designed to compete particularly with the first market segment.

 

Course(s) and Level

 

What course(s) is this book appropriate for?  Is it offered in any particular type of college or school. Are there courses for which this book is not appropriate or for which it would most likely not compete.

Example: First Year Latin is designed first and foremost to be a college text. There are many high school courses but this text would not….  There are a number of courses in Latin offered in seminaries and other institutions. Because of the emphasis on ecclesiastical sources in the second half of this book, First Year Latin should compete…..

 

Strengths and Shortcomings

Given the course and your text, what are the strengths and shortcomings of the book which you envision? Please be specific.

Competing texts

 

Referring to the course and market above and to the strengths of your text, what are the standard books in use for this course? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

 

Your text

 

Order of Presentation

 

What is the pedagogical strategy for your text. That is, why does one chapter lead to the next? How does this differ, if it does, from the typical book, and why.

Example: First Year Latin follows the general flow of grammar based books on the market, beginning with the basics of words,   with the following exceptions: verbs are presented before nouns in chapters 1, 2; and the subjunctive is deferred until….  Doing this allows….

 

Table of Contents

A proposed table of contents should accompany your text. If you are proposing more than one text (two volumes, workbooks, etc.) you should include a TOC for each. The more detail you can include for your text, the more information a reviewer has in assessing the potential for your book.

 

Chapter level pedagogy

Chapters typically follow a similar pedagogical strategy, and you should outline it something like what follows and discuss it—

-chapter opening key terms
-vocabulary
-reading
-topic
-questions for discussion
-suggested readings
-exercises, etc.

 

You should also discuss what kinds of art you propose, where you plan to get texts, permissions, etc.

 

Length

What do you estimate to be the length in textbook pages? If you need to get an estimate, look at the competition and estimate if your book will be longer or shorter (and why).

 

Ancillary material

Do books of this nature and for this market require ancillary materials: additional exercise books, software, teacher's manuals, workbooks, etc. If so, you should include in your proposal the potential source of such materials.

 

Schedule

When do you estimate you will finish the manuscript?

 

You

You should include authors and contributors as you would have them on the book, including name, academic position, and address. A brief (two or three sentence) biography would be useful.

 

Thoughts on Your Book

 

Title

In general a title should reflect first the course for which you are writing and only secondarily your slant or twist on the topic. There is nothing wrong with calling your book "An Introduction to Sociology".

 

Preface and Introduction

It is generally good for a book to have both a preface and an introduction.

A preface should address itself to the market and potential adopters, what the book is about, what it specifically is trying to do, and is a good place for the author to acknowledge the help of others. It might include how an instructor could use the book in the course, alternative teaching plans, etc.
 
An introduction is for the student and should indicate how the student should use the book, how the book flows, features for the student, etc.