• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Bio
    • Freelance Writing
    • Media Mentions
    • Teaching and Speaking
    • Contact Me
  • Services
    • Coaching and Editing
    • Clients
    • FAQ
    • Testimonials
  • Books
    • Will Write For Food
    • The United States of Pizza
    • Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas
    • The Good Pantry
  • Events
  • Categories
    • Awards
    • Cookbooks
    • Career
    • Contests
    • Ethics
    • Food Blogging
    • Freelancing
    • Literary Agents
    • My workshops and conferences
    • Personal Stuff
    • Photography
    • Promotion
    • Proposals
    • Radio interviews and writing
    • Recipe Writing
    • Restaurant Reviewing
    • Self Publishing
    • Social Media
    • Travel Writing
    • Uncategorized
    • Useful Links
    • Writing
    • Memoir
    • Writing Apps
  • Resources
  • My Free Newsletter
  • Blog

Wall St. Journal

Book Proposals that Don’t Deliver

July 12, 2009 by diannejacob

Traca Savadogo of Seattle Tall Poppy sent me a Wall St. Journal story about business plans that don’t deliver, and wondered if I saw parallels to book proposals. Indeed I did.images-1

Here is the newspaper’s top 5 points of flawed business plans. They translate well to the same reasons book proposals end up in the trash:
1. Writers are smitten with the elegance of their technology. The corollary is  writers who are so in love with the subject of their book they don’t bother to explain why it needs to be published in the first place, and who would care
2. The writer isn’t sure what the initial target market is. Even worse  are book proposals writers who say “everyone” will buy the book. “Everyone” is not a market. It’s better to have a smaller, identifiable market than a vague large one.
3. The numbers look good on paper. Book proposals don’t contain numbers. But they do need to be believable. Agents and editors can see right through hype, such as saying the book is destined to become an immediate bestseller.
4. The team doesn’t have hands-on experience. The author lacks sufficient qualifications to write on the subject of the book.
5. The writer can’t find anything but good things to say about the opportunity, instead of acknowledging some weaknesses. It’s best to address any fears or doubts that might come up in the mind of the reader, instead of leaving him or her to wonder.

I’ll take a realistic and specific proposal every time that’s easy on the hype, and one that answers and slays any concerns that come up.

Filed Under: Cookbooks, Proposals Tagged With: book proposals, Wall St. Journal

Primary Sidebar

Get Blog Posts by Email

My Books








Awards and Honors


2020


Best Essay 2016


2016 Grand Prize
MFK Fisher Award


2016


2016


2010


2007


2005

Member

Secondary Sidebar

Get my free bi-monthly newsletter on food writing by signing up here. Once you confirm you’ll get my free e-book on writing recipes.

Food Blogger Pro Ad

Categories

  • Awards (17)
  • Career (72)
  • Contests (23)
  • Cookbooks (112)
  • Ethics (58)
  • Food Blogging (226)
  • Freelancing (53)
  • Literary Agents (12)
  • My workshops and conferences (34)
  • Personal Stuff (19)
  • Photography (6)
  • Promotion (24)
  • Proposals (10)
  • Recipe Writing (67)
  • Restaurant Reviewing (22)
  • Self Publishing (17)
  • Social Media (21)
  • Travel Writing (2)
  • Useful Links (23)
  • Writing (137)
    • Memoir (15)
  • Writing Apps (3)

Archives

Most Popular Posts

  • New FTC Rules on Writing Reviews, Affiliations, and Sponsored Posts 266 comments
  • Adapting a Recipe Doesn’t Make it Yours 263 comments
  • Is Food Blogging Too Much Work? 237 comments
  • Are You Making These 3 Mistakes on Your About Page? 206 comments
  • 5 Notes to Self for Coping with Conference Anxiety 203 comments
  • Food Bloggers Fight Firestorm of Abusive Facebook Pages 200 comments
  • Should Bloggers be Praised for Recipes They Don't Write? 198 comments

Copyright © 2021 · Dianne Jacob      Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Genesis Sample Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Enter your name and email to get my newsletter... it's FREE!
Sign up now and receive my free e-book: "The 15 Biggest Errors to Avoid When Writing Recipes"
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party. You may unsubscribe at any time.