Back in November, I compared writing a book proposal to climbing a mountain. It’s been a long trek (even if you weren’t writing your book proposal alongside this newsletter, I have no doubt it’s been a lengthy journey for you), but hopefully it’s also been a fulfilling experience.
For some, it’s also a surprisingly energizing experience. Maybe you’ve climbed Book Proposal Mountain, and you find you still have some creative energy. You’re at the summit, and instead of catching your breath you want to do some dancing.
If so, read on! Today we’re going to talk about “toppings” (yeah, I know I’m egregiously mixing metaphors) for your book proposal—opportunities to customize it in ways that highlight you and your strengths. But first . . .
Don’t do it just to do it
Have you ever been to one of those add-your-own toppings ice cream parlors? There used to be one near my place in Brooklyn, and the first time I went I grabbed a bowl, filled it with chocolate ice cream, and then started down the topping line. I saw some mochi early on, which I was curious about—into the bowl it went. Then I saw they had fresh fruit—in went strawberries and blueberries. But then I saw they had mini peanut-butter cups (which, frankly speaking, should have been placed MUCH sooner in the journey), and I couldn’t pass up the chance to have them with chocolate ice cream. And after all that I saw there was a separate sauce section, with hot fudge and caramel, and I wanted to try them as well. Not only was the unidentifiable result much worse than if I’d stuck to one or two toppings, it probably added like five bucks to my bill.
The same rough idea holds for your book proposal. Not only are these potential toppings COMPLETELY optional, they shouldn’t be forced into your proposal. If there isn’t a clear opportunity for an add-on, don’t try to add something just for the sake of adding something. Giving editors and agents more to read that doesn’t add value to your project will only backfire, and you’ll likely have gone through much more than five bucks’ worth of effort.
Instead, I suggest entertaining the idea of added toppings only if your brain has some sort of tickly feeling, a sense of “there’s something extra out there that this proposal could use . . .” If you have that sense—or if you already have a much more concrete idea of some additional angle to the project, or other facet of your background, that should be covered in the book proposal—I encourage you to get settled into a creative state with whatever rituals or tricks you like, and ruminate. But before that, let me give you some examples that might help your brain start cooking.
Some sample toppings
Because this is a totally personal endeavor, there’s unfortunately no way I can offer specific concrete advice on how to do this for your particular situation. Maybe you’ve got a heap of testimonials you can include; maybe you’re proposing an illustrated book and want the proposal to mimic the visual energy of the finished book; maybe you’ve got a massively popular newsletter and you want to share in-depth growth metrics; or maybe you’ve got something else entirely to draw upon.
Instead of continuing to throw out wild guesses ad infinitum, I’m going to highlight two clients of mine who did this really well—Alex Budak and Andy Ellis—and leave you to your own creative devices.
Alex Budak
I’ve discussed Alex Budak’s proposal for Becoming a Changemaker before—specifically in my post about the chapter structure and summaries in a book proposal. Becoming a Changemaker is based on Alex’s wonderful course at UC Berkeley by the same name, and so Alex decided to start the proposal with a story about his very first day teaching his changemaker course. That first day, Alex wanted to drive home an inspiring changemaking message, so as students entered he had a message projected in huge letters onto the wall at the front of the classroom:
“The world has never been more ready for you.”
I loved the way Alex told the story of his first day, and we wanted to try to give readers of the proposal a similar experience to that of his students. He struck on a brilliant yet simple idea: to have the very first page (after the title page of the proposal) contain nothing but that one sentence—“The world has never been more ready for you.”—in as large a font as possible. Not only did it start the proposal off in a mysterious, intriguing way, it allowed Alex to kick off the overview on the next page by getting right into the story of that first day of class:
OVERVIEW
January 24, 2019, 10:00 AM: I remember that moment vividly. I strode up to the front of the classroom, the words on the preceding page leaping off the screen behind me in size 140 font, so that even students in the back row would feel their weight. “Welcome to Becoming a Changemaker,” I said. “The world has never been more ready for you.”
. . . .
Much later in the proposal development process, when we were putting together Alex’s author bio, he hit upon another savvy “topping” that made perfect sense: adding in a bio for not just him as the author, but for the “Becoming a Changemaker” course itself, so that editors could get a sense for the phenomenon that was the foundation of the book.
The idea quickly proved to be even better than I had first realized—the final “course bio” ran to six pages, covering the history of its growth, its incredibly positive course evaluation scores, a collection of media coverage about the course, a list of impressive course guest speakers, and closing with a parade of student testimonials about the course’s impact on them. In retrospect, the course bio turned out to be essential to the proposal—the main goal of the book was to share insights, that until now had only been available to Berkeley students, with general readers everywhere. The best way to illustrate the value of that goal was to point to what the course had already done for Berkeley students.
Andy Ellis
I’ve also mentioned advisor and former Akamai CSO Andy Ellis, along with his forthcoming book, 1% Leadership, a couple of times in this newsletter. But just to refresh: 1% Leadership shares 54 “small, daily improvements that set great leaders apart” in lean, ruthlessly pragmatic chapters that deliver insights in no more than ~1,500 words. (I know I’ve already made a pitch to buy Andy’s book, but honestly 1% Leadership is one of the most accessible, value-packed books I’ve ever had the privilege of being connected to. If you want an appetizer, check out Andy’s Duha One newsletter, right here on Substack, for some teasers from the book.)
Andy’s add-on insight for his book proposal was related to his primary tilth strength: collaboration. Due to his hall-of-fame CSO career, he’s built up a healthy network of high-profile colleagues, and he’s a sought-after speaker or guest for many venues and outlets. There turned out to be so much collaboration material to share that Andy built out a new section of the proposal titled “Promotional Support”. In it, he re-shared his hydration links (refresher: here’s what I mean by “hydration”) with audience metrics; he outlined his network of authors, journalists, and thought leaders; and he included links to his recent appearances in the news, on podcasts/TV/YouTube, and at major conferences. The final result ran to eleven pages—it was a persuasive avalanche of ways in which Andy would support the publication of the book.
Andy, with his typical knack for turns-of-phrase, called this section “the room that sells the house,” and I think he may well have been right about that. We placed this promotional section at the end of the proposal because we didn’t want to get into any “logistical” support details before editors knew all about the book and the author. By the time editors got to it they had a strong sense for Andy and the project—if they had enjoyed the previous material at all, the Promotional Support section might just have been enough to seal the deal.
Also, this particular type of “topping”—a section that highlights some aspect or another of your tilth efforts—potentially has value beyond your book proposal. For Andy, putting together this Promotional Support section actually led to a reorganization and redesign of his website, to better feature his appearances, and I imagine this could apply in many other similar instances.
There are countless other potential topping ideas out there—I can only hope that this wholly inadequate sprinkling of examples is enough to spark some inspiration over on your particular summit. If you’re feeling the urge to dance, this is your chance—just make sure you have enough oxygen to get back down to sea level. After all, your book journey is just getting started. . . .
Scheduling note
I’ll be traveling two weeks from now, so my next post will be pushed back to March 3. And while I won’t have writing time during my trip, I will still have time to check on things here, so if you’ve got any specific toppings ideas that you’re thinking of adding to your proposal and want to get quick feedback on them, feel free to send them my way or put them in the comments and I’ll do my best to weigh in!