Writer Mama Riffs on Raising A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

I had my first phone consult with one of the February winners on Friday and it reminded me of some general suggestions for mamas crafting a first book proposal.

I’ll share a few tips here:

1. Keep it simple: Narrow the focus of your proposal so that you idea is very specific. Although I know how tempting it can be, try not to make your future book an amalgam or hybrid book. Just make it a straight how-to, memoir or anthology. If it starts out or evolves into too many dimensions, get feedback from published authors about which aspect is the strongest.
2. Crunch the numbers: If you can’t tell me exactly how many people are in your book’s audience and why they would read your book, how are you going to persuade an agent or editor that your audience is large enough to justify anther book in a jam-packed marketplace? Your local library’s reference librarian loves to help folks conduct exactly this kind of research. This number should be communicated at the very beginning of your proposal.
3. Remember whose is whose: Everything that is leftover after you’ve focused your book proposal is part of YOUR platform. Your platform is yours to keep and develop and do with what you will. It does not belong to your publisher, nor will your publisher build it for you. In fact, it is specifically your platform that makes you more appealing to a publisher in the first place. So don’t skip this all-important phase of development, especially if you are proposing a non-fiction topic.

For example, I partnered with Writer’s Digest Books to write and publish Writer Mama. However, my classes, speaking engagements, consulting services, etc. are my responsibility. Therefore, don’t be afraid of having “too many ideas” when you sit down to write your proposal. Keep track of them all. They just might become part of your platform someday.

If you are not sure what a platform is or how to build one around your topic, you may be interested in my upcoming class: Platform Building Basics for Writers. In this class, I help writers of all levels build a platform that has integrity in small, incremental steps. More information is available at Writers on the Rise on the “Classes” page.