My First Book Debuts

catch an agent's eye

write strong chapter synopses

The expository exercise of writing a summary for each of the 12 chapters was my least favorite part of the book proposal writing process. I was eager to write the chapters, not explain them. But writing chapter synopses is much like writing a business plan: It is not only necessary but vital to the success of selling your idea to both a literary agent and publisher.

I must admit that I tackled writing two chapters of my book first. I felt a compelling urge to bring to life on paper my experience of setting my younger son on a proper course of development after he was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder a week before 9/11.

There is nothing wrong with this approach, but if you don't write summaries the direction of your writing is likely to veer off course and lack focus. And you wouldn't get away without including chapter summaries in a book proposal. Of course you can scrap this advice if you're writing fiction because an agent expects to see a completed manuscript, not sample chapters.

There's no rule on the length of a chapter synopsis. Mine tended to run about a page of double-spaced type, sometimes a bit longer. While most summaries explained what I planned to write, I included some anecdotes to capture my emotions during a certain situation or provide imagery (download a chapter synopsis from my book proposal).

After Penguin-Perigee bought my book, I learned that my chapter synopses were the strongest selling point of my proposal. Other publishers that bid on my book were impressed with the quality of my writing. All points add up to make a winning book proposal.

The most important advice I can offer about your chapter synposes is that once you've secured a book contract, don't change them. You don't want to turn in a book that's different than what you sold.

TUESDAY: getting book jacket blurbs

read your competition?

Short answer: No

Long answer: As you write your book proposal, you should at least read the introduction and first and last chapters of books that come close to executing your idea. When you get a book contract, you should read, from cover to cover, those books that you believe will compete most directly with yours. Don't forget to also read books that would complement yours.

In your book proposal, you'll need to list your competition (and don't say there aren't any or you're delusionary). The best way to do that is to search on Amazon.com, using keywords that a potential reader might use to find your book.

I like to use this free keyword selector tool to come up with keywords and search phrases that I might not have thought of. This tool only lists keywords from Yahoo!'s search engine. Wordtracker, a fee-based sevice, aggregates search terms from all the major search engines. [These tools also are handy when creating "tags" for blogs and your author's website.]

When you find books that appear similar to yours, use the "Search Inside the Book" feature, if it is enabled. The Introduction or Chapter 1 typically comes up when you click on the Excerpt tab. Read until "the reader" won't let you advance any more, which is about three pages, sometimes more. Use the search field to search for other relevant terms.

I often buy the books that seem most meaningful and competitive. I also peruse my local bookstores and take advantage of sitting in a chair and reading as much as I feel is necessary before I either buy a book or place it back on the shelf. Visiting the bookstore also offers a visual feel for how books end up in either little corners or displayed as posters facing out of the windows (I'll cover that in another column.).

For my book proposal's competition section, I called it Competition, gave a brief introduction (less than one page, doubled spaced) and then continued with the subheading, Comparison Titles and Why Almost Normal Is Different. I listed six books (don't list more, or if there are more you might want to think about not writing it; listing too many books will scare off an agent).

My No. 1 competition was listed first. Here's what I said to show that mine would be different and stronger.

Parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder wrote the following books.

Could It Be Autism?: A Parent’s Guide to the First Signs and Next Steps, by Nancy Wiseman. Broadway Books, 2006, 272 pages, 8.6” x 5.8”, hardcover, $22.95. This book is the primary competitor of Almost Normal because it also stresses the early warning signs and early intervention. Lytel’s goal is to improve and expand on the coverage in this book so that anyone comparing the two will choose Almost Normal. Lytel’s book digs down to a deeper level of detail when providing parents with hands-on advice. For example, it offers parents who are assembling a home-based therapy program the wording for ads that they can adapt for their own situation, specific instructions for building a sensory room, how to set up a room for a Floortime therapy session and what toys best help children think abstractly and develop symbolic play. Almost Normal also doesn’t just drop in anecdotes, as Could It Be Autism? does, but presents a comprehensive narrative of Lytel’s journey that offers parents insight, empowerment and hope. Moreover, the Almost Normal website will include interactive features, such as video, which will allow parents to watch a child with behavioral problems and then review some strategies to defuse the behavior.

Notice all the detail about about the book's dimensions, year published, price and format. You'll need to include all this information.

Big tip: Don't criticize your competition but emphasize why your book will be better. You may list, as I did, a book whose publisher is now interested in buying your book. You don't want to diss the book, even if it is lousy. Also, having gone through the process of writing a book, I have too much admiration for authors and the work they put into their work, whether their book sells or not.

Writing this section can often leave you feeling down, that your great idea has already been taken. But if you're a clever writer and an expert in your field, you should be able to refocus the lens so that it offers further depth of field.

MONDAY: essential elements of your chapter synopses

secrets of great titles

To cover some basics, every book proposal needs a strong title. In the end, however, naming your book rests with your publisher, but you do have a say. Sometimes your title will come to you; other times you'll struggle with making it click.

When I came up with the title Almost Normal, I had both positive and negative reactions to it. My writer friends and agent loved Almost Normal. But professionals working in the field of autism shook their heads no. To them, Almost Normal sounded pejorative, and I understood that. In the book proposal, I offered other titles. Healing Autism was one of them. Coming up with the subhead also posed a challenge. I went from using the title as the subhead, as in Healing Autism through Early Intervention to How Early Intervention Shines Hope Along the Autism Spectrum.

To make my book proposal punch, I also included a color photograph of my son on the cover. Adding a visual, as long as it adds value and is tasteful (don't use amateur clip art), I felt, would at least move an agent to pick up my proposal and read the overview, which ranks right up there with being one of the most important parts of your book proposal. [That picture is my son, Leo, the one I used on the cover of the book proposal. You may be thinking, he looks so normal. How could he be on the spectrum. Many children who are diagnosed with this disorder are, in fact, beautiful.]

It wasn't until I handed the book in that I learned the title would be changed. After talking to the sales force at Penguin, my editor said Almost Normal wasn't going to fly because it sounded too "memoiry," and that my imprint at Penguin doesn't sell memoirs; it sells self help. Indeed my book was perscriptive but what made it unique from other books on autism was that it blends memoir (back to that "showing") with advice. Moreover, the sales force said memoirs on autism weren't selling very well. I deferred to their judgment.

Since my book is on the importance of early intervention, we wanted to get that message across in the title. How to execute the message is a separate step. We wanted to stay away from jargon in the title, which meant using "early intervention" was out. We next came up with Act Early, but the sales force turned that down because it didn't have "autism" in the title.

If autism wasn't in the main title then it wouldn't come up in a keyword search on Amazon. Amazon doesn't always index the subtitles. You want your book to come up on Amazon, so I suggested Act Early Against Autism, which won approval, and then we played around with the subtitle, using words my editor came up with, finally settling on Give Your Child a Fighting Chance from the Start. A subtitle shouldn't be any longer than 10 words, but I've seen that rule broken.

If you need more help writing your title, I recommend the book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Other Die by Chip and Dan Heath. This book is all about messaging and offers examples on great versus okay messaging. Topics also include writing a memorable title. The Heath brothers also write a blog that is worth checking out.