Now you'll know why you spent time writing your blurb. The Overview, the
description of your book, is the first part of your book proposal that literary agents and book
publishers will read. It's your book in a nutshell. It's also merely an expanded version of
your blurb.
I've included a sample Overview below. It's from the proposal for the book Writing
To Sell In The Internet Age.
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Sample Overview Writing To Sell In The Internet Age
The Internet gives writers unlimited new opportunities
Writing To Sell In The Internet Age empowers writers by revealing the immense
new earning power that Internet technology gives them. While many writers are
comfortable using the Internet for email and research, most are unaware that they now
have many new opportunities, including:
• Clever new ways to market their work and services with tools like autoresponders,
email mini-courses, ebooks, auctions, and promotional ezines;
• The opportunity to develop a loyal following of readers. They can write and publish
instantly, to a worldwide audience millions strong, with tools like Web logs (blogs). This
loyal following makes a writer more appealing to traditional publishers;
• The ability to target specific niches, and to garner an income much more quickly
than they can via traditional publishing routes. A writer can write an ebook or report this
month, and sell it forever.
The Internet gives writers the power to be their own publisher and distributor by
selling their work directly to readers. Many writers are already taking advantage of the
possibilities. Judy Cullins, who's building an online reputation as "The Book Coach,” says
of selling her ebooks online directly to readers: "The first months, I had no idea at the time
how powerful this method was. My income bolted to over $3000 a month in less than a
year."
The new rule for writers in the Internet age is: "Create, promote, sell.” What's
amazing is that writers can do all this in one day, even in hours. When I write a report, I
can format it in PDF (Portable Document Format) at the click of a key. That's the
publishing done. I can then add the report to the online store at my Web site in minutes ---
distribution done. Then I can send an announcement out to my subscribers (promotion
done) and watch the sales rolling in. Best of all I don't have to be anywhere in particular to
do this. I can do it as easily on a sun-drenched beach on the Great Barrier Reef off
northern Australia as I can in my home office in Sydney.
Are these capabilities within the reach of non-technically-inclined writers? Yes!
Although I've been writing about software, computers and the Internet for many years, I'm
by no means a geek. The writers who shared their anecdotes and success stories for this
book aren't geeks either. They're writers who've seen opportunities and grabbed at them.
Many of these writer/ publisher/ entrepreneurs didn't come to writing via traditional
publishing routes. Many started out as marketers, or entrepreneurs. They looked at the
Internet, saw how relatively easy it is to make money selling information online, and
worked out ways to do it. The Internet is the answer to writers' prayers. It puts writers in
control of their own destinies.
We see what we expect to see, so writers have seen the Internet as a magazine-style
"content" market. But because of the unlimited free content online, few sites buy content.
(This may change, as more sites with good content change to a reader-pays business
model.) Writers haven't yet seen that the Internet is a completely new environment, where
they can write what they want to write, and can, without too much effort, make a good
living.
A how-to plus a how-they-did-it
Writing To Sell In The Internet Age is a how-to for writers to access their new
opportunities, but it's also a how-they-did-it. I'll be describing the avenues that
writer-entrepreneurs are developing to use the Internet to make excellent money in many
new ways. These writers are exploring their new options with amazement and delight. It's
an exciting time. I'll be including their stories and tips in this book to inspire other writers
that they can do it too.
What I won't be including
I won't include descriptions of technology and the online environment. Information
on how to build a Web site, how to sell online, how to create a mailing list and other
technical minutiae is readily available online. Also because technology is advancing so
quickly, technical information rapidly becomes outdated. What won't change however are
the basic concepts of writing to sell in the Internet age.
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Include in your Overview:
• A description of your book;
• Why your book is important;
• Something about what's included in your book;
• Why you're the person to write this book.
Don't hype, BUT DO INCLUDE EVERYTHING RELEVANT.
Please don't try to hype your book in the Overview. Just tell your story as quickly
and as clearly as you can.
Also, don't hold anything back. I've read many book proposals from beginning writers
where the writer has tried to be coy: "For the complete details, you'll need to read the
book!" This kind of thing will work against you. You're asking a publisher to invest around
$30,000 to publish your book. Anyone who's going to spend that amount of money wants
all the details. Please provide them.
Your Overview's length
Your Overview can be as long, or as short, as you feel it needs to be. Some
book proposals have one-page Overviews, in others, the writer needs five pages to describe the
book. Use your own judgement here. If you need five pages, then by all means, use them.
However, if your Overview is long, make sure that you haven't repeated information.
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