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Q&A What is the "Proposal" Part of a Query Letter?

A book proposal and a query letter are two distinct kinds of submissions. You write a query letter when you have finished writing your book and query whether the publisher is interested in it. Yo...

posted 6y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:46:34Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35981
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:46:34Z (over 4 years ago)
A book proposal and a query letter are two distinct kinds of submissions.

You write a **query letter** when you have finished writing your book and _query_ whether the publisher is interested in it.

You write a **book proposal** when you intend to write a book and _propose_ that book to the publisher.

Book proposals are more typical for non-fiction. For fiction, they are usually only written by authors who have already published with that publisher and they both brainstorm together which works would be good to publish next.

For fiction, you commonly write a query letter which should show that you

- have a great story
- know the market
- have angled the story for that market
- (have successfully published)
- (have a platform)
- (are willing to undertake certain marketing stints)
#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-05-07T13:39:29Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 2