Running With Quills: Jayne Ponders Writing a Book Proposal

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Monday, January 15, 2007

Jayne Ponders Writing a Book Proposal

I might as well say this up front: I suck at writing book proposals. Yes, I know, every writing expert out there emphasizes how critical they are. The books and journals that give advice on how to write and get published devote a lot of pages to the proper preparation of a proposal. A beautiful proposal -- a selling proposal -- is a thing of beauty. It requires skill, talent and creativity. When it comes to writing proposals, I lack all three.

Here's the thing: I write whole books, not query letters, synopses and cover letters. And as for the first three chapters of my proposed book (which often accompany a formal book proposal) well, there's just no point. The sad fact is, I never know where my book is going until I write the last chapter. Then I have to go back to the beginning and rework those first three chapters and all of the others that follow until they fit my final vision of the story. Two or three and sometimes four times to get it right. Therefore, sending an editor the first three chapters when the rest of the book remains unwritten would be extremely misleading, to say the least.

Luckily, I am now working with an editor who understands that I write lousy proposals and who has seen enough of my work to trust me when I turn in two pages of ramblings and ruminations about a possible plot and character conflicts that she knows probably won't look anything like the final story.

Ah, you say, that's all well and good for you. You've published a lot of books so editors will now buy you on spec. Maybe. But I don't like to give editors rude surprises. So what do I do when I change publishers as I did a few years ago or when I want to sell an entirely different type of story -- the first two of what became my Jayne Castle Ghost Hunter books, for example? I do what I did back at the beginning of my career. I write the whole dang book first and then send in the proposal.

Yes, it is a lot of work but there are two big advantanges. First, no surprises for the editor (or me). Second: The editor won't judge my writing on the basis of something I don't do at all well: the Proposal.

What do you do when you're faced with having to do something you know you don't excel at? Got any secrets?

24 Comments:

AgTigress said...: Your way of sidestepping the Proposal Problem is effective, Jayne, but I don't think it saves you much work!

Sadly, I don't have any clever tips for getting around the things I find difficult. For example, I hate the task I am doing now: checking references and compiling a bibliography. I know just how I should like to handle it: I'd like to have a bright and keen young research assistant, to whom I could say, casually, 'Oh, Sarah, just go through these few hundred footnotes for me, would you, and check the references, and while you're at it, perhaps you'd complete the bibliography as well...'. Fat chance. I just have to plod through it myself.

:-); 10:36 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: Hmm. Maybe we could both hire Sarah....; 10:53 AM
elizabeth said...: Years and years ago, when I was at the university, I was a professor's "Sarah" for a loooong ms on Hume. Footnotes up the yang-yang.

No biblio, though. *thanks the academic gods*

As for the rest--Jayne, I share your problem.

And your "solution." ;-); 11:04 AM
Karibear said...: I haven't had that particular problem so far, but there have been others. Usually I pretended I was someone else who really was good at what I had to do - or if it was something like public speaking [giving annual reports to boards of directors because my boss got weathered out on a hunting trip!], I relied greatly on all those tummyflies to carry me through. Usually it worked. The only time all my strategems failed was when I had to serve my first drink as a cocktail waitress - unfortunately, it was a plain coke in a chimney glass. I was so nervous by the time I got to the poor guy, I dumped it in his lap before I could put it on the table - even more unfortunately, he was a visiting businessman who was wearing a suit. I will NEVER forget the look on his face as he brushed off all the ice cubes.; 12:21 PM
nellsquirrel said...: I was horrible at geometry but good at algebra. I found someone who was my opposite and we coached each other through.

I still stink at it but at least I got through it well enough to graduate.; 2:28 PM
DFender said...: Jayne,
You're an author that sucks at writing proposals. I'm a finance manager that sucks at math. Fortunately for me The Calculator saves me. Maybe some creative person can invent a Book Proposal Creator. LOL.

Actually, I've been working on my multiplication so I don't need to use my calculator as often. Pretty damn sad if ya ask me...LOL. What I end up doing, math-wise, is if I need to multiply a number for an answer, I'll then divide the number backwards to check my work. It takes longer but at least I don't have to "trust" my calculator and I just know I'm correct. Usually. Unless I make the same mistakes in reverse. Which has happened.

Oh gawd, nevermind. I have no secrets nor advice for you. As you can see, I, myself, need help. Mental help not being the least either...LOL.

Happy Monday!
Deb; 3:08 PM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: karibear: I like your idea of pretending to be someone who is actually good at what I'm not good at. Hmm. I think I see a few flaws in that approach, however...

nellsquirrel: I, too, face serious issues with math. One of the happiest days of my life was the day I realized that I never had to take another math class.

dfender: Got a kick out of your tale of being a finance manager who sucks at math. How is it that we both managed to end up with jobs that require us to do stuff we never wanted to do in the first place? Some kind of karmic thing, no doubt. Builds character I'll bet...; 3:17 PM
Stella said...: This topic is making me wince:)

I'll do a deal with Tigress, Elizabeth and Jayne--we'll get a Sarah and split her four ways. "Oh, Sarah, just go through all the piles--yes, all fifty of them--of junky papers in my office and organize them. No, don't ask me what should stay and what should go, but if you throw something I need, you are dead meat."

Deb: Another horrible mathematician here. Only I'm going to claim some sort of dyslexia. What other than that would cause me to carry a sum from the bottom of one page to the top of the next and reverse the last two numbers?

I'm still trying to pretend I'm someone else and it still isn't working. You should have seen what happened when I stepped into the spotlight as Christine in Phantom of the Opera...

Proposals? I write 'em like back cover copy and send a short letter to include length and type of book. Eek, that doesn't help, does it. The first synopsis I wrote was long enough to be a book.

One of my attempts involved using a large sheet of sketch paper, lining it off with ruler and pencil into the number of chapters I thought might be in the story, and making myself precis each of those chapters inside the square. These squares were about 4X4"--pretty big. Do you know how tiny one's writing can be made when desperation strikes? And what about those arrows that point to the edge of the paper, then continue on the back where you've decided it's okay to add, "just a bit?"

I like the idea of writing the whole book, particularly if you have a lot of fun with the story. Jayne has a ball with Ghost Hunter. I also think it's sad for a synopsis to stand between publication and a good yarn.

So, what am I rambling on about? Know your strengths, like being able to write an exciting, short precis of a story and go with it. What's the worst thing that can happen? You're asked to write a longer one because the editor is really hooked but wants more? Ooh, how terrible that would be.

I'm stopping this now. Work calls, darn it.

Stella; 6:57 PM
Ranurgis said...: May I have a share in Sarah too? I've got so much to sort out: 50 or so years of minutiae.

There seem to be so many things that I don't know how to, or can't physically, do. I can empathize with those who have troubles doing proposals. Just recently, I had to answer a question. After thinking about it for a while, I wrote something down, just to make a start on answering the question.

Usually I try to let things stew for a few days before writing the final version of a letter or whatever. I did it in this case too. By the time the answer was finished, not one word of the original remained. I truly thank God I'm not a novelist.

But in most cases, I must admit that I just pray that everything will come out as it should.

But how can a novelist be sure that the finished story will really be the way you get your first idea? Do any authors really work that way? From what I've been reading on blogs for the last year and a half, the characters sometimes take over the novel completely. So how can such a novel still be according to a proposal?

Are there authors who can actually adhere to a proposal? All right, I admit it: I don't even know how exact a proposal has to be.

Jayne, does that mean that you're finished with the Arcane Society books? Or is this something entirely different?; 10:07 PM
AgTigress said...: I think we may have to clone Sarah.
:-); 3:09 AM
Lori Foster said...: Deb, I need help with multiplication too, but unlike you, I just happily rely on the calculator. ;-)

Jayne, I love it that you're so considerate to the editors. Shows that no matter how "big" you get, you're still super-nice and considerate of others.
My proposals tend to be a paragraphe. Like, "I'm writing about (some name) fighter now, and he'll hook up with (some female name) and they'll have some problems but resolve them by the end."
:-D Yeah, not much, but at least they have names and profession to go on. I'm really, REALLY bad at knowing what I might do until I do it.
In the last book, I named one person as the villain, but then changed it by the end of the book, and the publisher had already done a blurb! Egads. But they were nice enough to fix the blurb for me.
I've found writers are either plotters or pansters - meaning they write by the seat of their pants.
Sounds like you, Stella and Elizabeth are all pansters. Me too!

And like Stella, when I do try to write a "real" proposal, it ends up long enough to be a novella, and then I feel like I've already written the book and I'm not interested in actually doing so.
Such a sad, sad reality. LOL.

Big hugs to all!
(Stella, you sound REALLY busy!)

Lori; 5:02 AM
Lori Foster said...: Um... I do know how to spell "paragraph." I'm writing too fast this morning, trying to get a dozen things done. Y'all have to promise to ignore all typos and other idiot errors on my part.
See ya!

Lori; 5:03 AM
Anonymous said...: I have a terrible memory for technical jargon. And since I write technical stuff...I'm not sure how impressive it is to say to an engineer "what about that thingamabob over there?"

I just use encroaching age as an excuse. Who has to admit I couldn't remember this stuff in my 20s? I would not impress anyone with my organizational or math skills either.

Jayne, I think I own and love every single book you've ever written. I'm always thrilled to hear a new one is one the way!

Carolyn; 5:37 AM
Billie said...: Deb, why do we do it to ourselves? I was a bookkeeper at a store for 13 years and I totally suck at math.

As for what I do when I'm face with doing something I don't excel at--I have a motto that I live by:

Procrastination is my sin,
it leads to enless sorrow,
I really must stop doing it,
in fact, I'll stop tomorrow!; 6:58 AM
Yasmine Galenorn said...: I bluff, say I can do it, and figure that I'll be able to. By the time I've gotten into it, then I usually manage to come through.

When I sent in the proposal for Witchling/the Sisters of the Moon Series, it was basically two pages about the characters, a paragraph about the first book, and 10 pages of a sample chapter. It was nebulous enough that my editor said, "We love it. We don't really know what it is--but we like it enough that we just want you to write the first book and we'll figure out where to market it when you're done." And I did, and my editor's revision comments were simply, "Take it over the top. Really let yourself go." One week later, they decided to market it as paranormal romance/urban fantasy.

So I guess, my answer is make it so appealing that they love it, but leave yourself wiggle room. *sighs* That's not very good advice, is it? I actually enjoy writing/working off of proposals and so I guess that doesn't help much, does it? I guess I'm just a freak of nature. ~grins~

Yasmine; 7:02 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: Carolyn: Thanks for the kind words on my books.

Renurgis: Not to worry, there are more Arcane novels on the way.

Yasmine: I think you make a good point. Maybe the trick to writing proposals is to consider them another type of writing project altogether -- not the basis for the real book.

Lori: Love your one-paragraph approach! I'm definitely going to try it.; 7:27 AM
KathyK said...: I like the idea of "pretending" you can do the thing. It's kind of like "putting on your game face" and acting "as if" until it feels real. Unfortunately, you are not likely to improve your skills at writing symposes unless you practice them. There's not much comfort there.; 7:33 AM
Karibear said...: I am also a victim of the 'thingamabob' syndrome, and it hit long before my 20s. I very nearly flunked high school chemistry because I was always referring to the lab stuff that way. the teacher flinched every time he saw me - and he was always going off into flights of higher math, which was fine for the kids who actually enjoyed calculus and trig, but I wasn't one of them. It was downright embarassing, getting a pathetic D- in that one class and A's in everything else.

Not only do I suffer from 'thingamabobism' but also 'whatisname-ism' - and it got me some very odd reactions when I referred to my kids' father that way a few times!

As for pretending one can do a thing, it really doesn't do a lot of good as far as actually doing the thing, but it does cut down on the 'omygawdwhatamIgonnaDO!' panic attacks. Then,too, there's the older Grammatik Spell and Style Checker, which was a godsend for many people, but probably not for professional writers who'd rather not find out that their writing was a poor second to Hemingway's, and suitable for 7th grade readers. But I did get a kick out of using it on a federal grant I was working on at the time...; 9:56 AM
cate said...: When I had to make oral presentations,I would do the "pretend you're a pro" thing. After being taped, I realized my speeches sounded like something out of Bridget Jone's Diary! (Titspervert) Definitely not my strength. So, like bad medicine, I try to get the job done as quickly as possible and reward myself. Lavishly, if possible. Good luck, Jayne; 4:27 PM
Shiloh Walker said...: What do you do when you're faced with having to do something you know you don't excel at? Got any secrets?

Fake it?

;) just kidding.

My first full length book that I sold to Berkley~I emailed the editor after I turned in the novella she wanted and asked her how I'd go about submitting a proposal. She said she wanted a proposal and a short synopsis.

I suck at both. I'm just now getting to where I actually plot things out before I write the story, instead of make it up as I go. I told her upfront I wasn't very good at proposals or synopsis. I told her my idea of a synopsis is good guys kill bad guys and fall in love. Thank God, she didn't want much more than that. She said as long as she didn't get a rude surprise, like the hero turned out to be the bad guy and the heroine ran away with the spoon type of surprises, she was satisfied.

Funny thing, though, a couple of years ago when I first started writing, somebody in the business told me that if I wanted to make it to New York, I'd have to learn to plot out, to query, to write a good proposal and a good synopsis. The short brief synopsis I had sent her was the best I'd ever done and I worked hard trying to plot it out for her but she said it sucked and if I couldn't do better, I'd never sell anything to NY.

The words nyah nyah nyah now come to mind. She told me there were a lot hard and fast rules and I needed to just learn them and grow up.

Guess the only hard and fast rule is that there really aren't too many hard and fast rules in romance, except that HEA for the hero and heroine.; 8:48 AM
Karibear said...: The 'nyah nyah nyah' reminded me of two interviews I read and heard some years ago.

The first was Arnold Schwarzenegger, explaining to David Letterman how the first agent he approached wanted him to change his name, telling him he'd never make it in the industry with a last name like that. He [AS] said something to the effect of “Eat your heart out.”

The second was the Beardstown Ladies. They initially had a hard time finding an investment agent. One of the first ones they approached told them they’d never make it and he wasn’t about to waste his time with them. The next one said “Sure. Your money is as good as anyone else’s.” Apparently, their investment strategies were just as good [if not better than most], too.; 9:36 AM
Jennifer Monteith said...: Jayne,
Loved this blog! I've written the whole book and now am taking on the query letter process. Thanks for the insight.
Best regards,
Jennifer; 2:20 PM
Chez said...: Poor Sarah. She's really going to need chocolate.; 1:10 AM
Carrie from Wisconsin said...: Hey Jane,

I know what you mean about writing your story first than being able to do the rest. I've always had that problem. I could never do an outline before I wrote a story or paper of any kind, ever! If I needed an outline for a research paper, I had to do the research paper first, or enough of it to get a feel for the direction I was taking it.

I've been out of touch this week working on some characters that appeared out of nowhere and refuse to leave my head until I tell their story. I have no idea where it's going or when it will end and the chapters keep changing as new ideas or twists come to light.

When I knew I wanted to write a book some day? I took a class to teach me how to write that stuff. So yes, I can write a decent book proposal. How would I handle the three chapters? Well, this is what I would do. Let me know if I am flawed in my thinking. In my proposal letter I would write the following (if my book was not finished):

I have enclosed a beginning idea of what the first three chapters of my book might be like. As the story isn't complete yet, these chapters may change to suit the needs of subsequent plot twists and character additions. [Here's where I may be a bit forward] If you like what you read in the material presented in these pages, it will only get better from there.

I would also try to include some basic ideas of where the story might go. If there is more than one idea, list them all. Behonest about your writing style. If the publisher isn't willing to take a leap of faith based on your name alone, try a different publisher. I'm told name droping can help. What's your opinion?

Carrie; 7:05 AM

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Monday, January 15, 2007

Jayne Ponders Writing a Book Proposal

24 Comments: