A 330-Word Guide to Writing Book Proposals is written by a person who says he/she “was a book editor (200 titles), a magazine editor (1,000 + articles) and, briefly, a literary agent.”
There’s no sense in investing a huge amount of time in something that isn’t going to be published and for which a writer is not going to be paid.
Contract first. Book second. Hear me now or hear me later after you’ve wasted a year or more of your life.
At any rate, I had an email exchange today with a writer who is struggling with the proposal. I sent that writer this document I dredged up from the depths of my back-up hard drive. It struck me that it might be of use to other suffering writers. And so, here it is.
Van der Leun then goes on to give five easily understood rules.
Also, you could look at this post of notes I took from publishers on How to Get Published.