Winter Workshop: Building the Nonfiction Book Proposal
Hey friends.
So my first attempt at a self-run workshop this summer was a really wonderful success. A few dozen folks signed up, we worked on query letters and opening pages, and at the end of the six weeks, I felt really great about all the work we’d done.
And well, I’d like to do another one of these. The summer workshop gave me the wiggle room to keep up my agency’s free events and workshops, and I’d like that to continue into the New Year.
So! This time we’ll be zeroing in on what a lot of you have asked me for… non-fiction, specifically the book proposal. By the end of the workshop, the goal is to wrangle up a book proposal and query that you’re proud of, full of notes and edits from me. And this will include notes on your first ten pages of the actual book.
And if you’re new and just stumbling on me via social media, you can get a sense of my non-fiction projects in my agent life here.
You can register here, and it’ll be four weeks (spread over November and December) of Zooms, emails, workshops, and critiques.
11/3: Welcome Zoom, Proposal Basics: We’ll kick things off by getting to know each other a bit and discuss what you’re working on, answer some questions, and then we’ll dig into book proposal basics. Already have a book proposal in-progress? Well this will help you start getting it polished up.
11/17: Advanced Proposal Bits and Live Discussion: This week we’ll get into the intricate specifics of the proposal. Let’s talk platform (it’s not just social media!), comparative titles, what a marketing and media sheet looks like, and more. And if you’re brave enough to want to share your proposal, we’ll talk about a few of your proposals, what works, what doesn’t.
12/1: Pitching Your Proposal: It’s one thing to have a perfect book proposal, it’s another thing to shrink it down into a query letter. We’ll discuss queries for non-fiction, go over a few in real time (for those brave enough to share!). At this point, you should have a solid draft of your book proposal ready to send to me for detailed notes.
12/15: Final AMA with Industry Friends: This week you’ll get your proposal sent back to you with notes and feedback, and we’ll have a final Zoom to chat with industry pros about what they look for. Because sure, I have a lot of advice, but agents all look for a little something different.
Registration is $125, and you can sign up here. Spaces are super limited (it’s gonna be a lot for me to read and critique!), so grab your spot while you can. I’m gonna go ahead and put a registration button after this paragraph too to make it clearer:
And please, if the price point is a problem, know that you can reach out to me for a spot. Accessibility is important to me. Oh! And an update, the Zooms will be recorded if you have to miss one.