A proposal is
enough.
Non-fiction is the one part of publishing where you do not need a finished book. A strong proposal with sample chapters is a real submission, and for a first-time author it is often the better one. Here is what goes in it.
No agent required · No author fees · Initial response within 30 days
Why proposals exist
Fiction is bought finished, because a novel’s promise lives in its execution. Serious non-fiction works differently: it is bought on the argument, the authority behind it and the readership waiting for it, and publishers routinely acquire it from a proposal before the book is written.
The bar is no lower for it. A proposal is judged as hard as a manuscript, on far less paper, and every weakness shows. There is also a real advantage in it for a working expert: you find out whether a publisher wants the book before you spend two years writing it, and the book then gets shaped with an editor rather than repaired after the fact.
The parts, in order
The pitch: a page at most: what the book argues, why it matters now, and why you
The chapter outline: every chapter in one or two lines, each moving the argument forward
The sample: a real chapter or two, usually the opening, roughly 10,000 words
The readership: who buys this book, described as actual people, never as everyone
Comparable titles: two or three recent books your reader already owns, and what yours adds
The author: the expertise, experience or access that makes you the writer of it
The practicalities: target length, how much exists already, and a realistic delivery date
Before the sample, this usually comes to five to ten pages. Longer is rarely stronger: a proposal that cannot compress its own argument is making a quiet admission about the book.
Comparable titles, done properly
Comparables are not competitors to be beaten; they are evidence that your readership exists and is already spending money. Choose two or three books from the last decade that your reader has actually bought, and for each, say what it does well and what yours adds: a different vantage point, access nobody else has, the argument the field is missing.
The claim that no comparable titles exist never lands the way authors hope. To a publisher it reads as one of two things: the market has not been looked at, or the market is not there. There is always a nearest neighbour, and naming it precisely is what expertise looks like.
Platform, weighed honestly
Some publishers weigh platform, the audience already listening to you, heavily; for certain categories it is close to decisive. Expect the question and answer it truthfully: the newsletter, the practice, the lectureship, the years inside the industry, whatever is real. Do not inflate it. Reach is among the easiest claims in a proposal to check.
Our own weighting is stated across this site: expertise matters more than platform. A decade inside a subject, with something to say that outsiders miss, counts for more here than follower counts. If your authority is deep and your audience is small, say exactly that. For serious non-fiction, the readership can be built around the book; it does not have to precede it.
Where proposals go wrong
- A readership of everyone, which behaves commercially like a readership of no one
- The claim that the book has no competition. See above
- Credentials without an argument: a CV is a reason to trust the author, not a reason the book exists
- A chapter outline that restates the pitch ten times instead of advancing it
- Adjectives doing the work of evidence: groundbreaking, essential, timely
- A sample that does not demonstrate the book the pitch promised
Questions
Does the book need to be finished?+
No. For non-fiction, a proposal with a strong sample is a complete submission at most houses that read direct, including this one. Be straight about what exists: a target length and an honest delivery estimate beat an optimistic one that slips.
What if I have already written the whole book?+
Send the proposal anyway, and say the manuscript is complete. The proposal is still how the argument, the readership and the positioning get judged, and a finished manuscript behind it strengthens rather than replaces it.
How recent should comparable titles be?+
Prefer the last five to ten years, because they are evidence about today’s market. A classic can join them when your book genuinely converses with it, but at least one comparable should show that readers are buying books like yours now.
More for authors
How to get published without an agent
Which publishers read direct, what to send them, the fee traps to walk past, and what to check before signing.
How to write a synopsis
What a synopsis is actually for, the rules that never change, a structure that works for fiction and non-fiction, and the failures we see weekly.
What happens after you submit
The publisher’s side of the desk: what happens to your manuscript after you press send, at most houses and, step by step, at this one.
How we publish
What happens to a book here, from the day we say yes to years after publication. The process, stage by stage.
Send the
argument.
A covering letter, the proposal and your sample chapters are a complete submission here. No agent, no fees, and an initial response within 30 days, whatever the answer.
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