Skip to main content

Book Review: How To Write A Book Proposal


I received a free copy of Michael Larsen's book, "How To Write a Book Review" from Thomas Nelson Publishing as part of their Booksneeze program for bloggers.  I don't know if I will ever write a book, but I can dream, can't I?  Having never written one, I can't say for sure that this book will be effective, but it sure is an interesting read. It appears to have all the bases covered. This book is divided into many very small, easy to digest chapters, and I look forward to applying it, once I figure out what to write about. Sadly, that is the one bit of information this book doesn't offer. But I cannot hold that against it. 

"How to Write a Book Proposal" not only contains directions and advice for crafting a book proposal, but also guidance on the writing of the book, writing an outline, hiring a publicist, finding a niche, promoting your book, and several other items, plus four sample proposals. The Appendix, with links to dozens of helpful books, websites, and other resources, is probably worth ten times the cost of the book.

After reading this book, I am inspired to go and create something worth reading.

Comments

James, Whether you ever write a book or not, know that you're filled with wisdom. You're an insightful voice on the Internet, even when I don't see eye-to-eye.
James said…
Thanks, Larry! I'm gaining a lot, both as a blogger and as a man, by getting to know you through your writing, as well.

Popular posts from this blog

Saying goodbye to one set of twins, and hello to another

"It's been ten whole years already? Wow! Hard to believe." Many a father will say something like that while shaking his head in disbelief, when his oldest approaches the 10th birthday. It's a milestone, not just for the kid, but for the parents. It's a head-shaker because I am reminded that on that day, 10 years ago, my life changed forever. In some ways, it has passed very quickly.  In other ways, it seems like it's been every bit of ten years. There are two distinct things, though, about the ten-year anniversary of my dadhood. The first is that I became a father of not one, but two little bundles of joy that Tuesday morning. Abby was born at 8:48, followed by her brother Jacob at 8:50. The second is that their birth marked some rare joy in the midst of the darkest day in our nation's history.  As my wife was in labor, a nurse came in and told us that an airplane had crashed into a skyscraper in New York. I turned on the labor room...

Embarrassing video clip--John Cougar

I recently stumbled across some Youtube gold: a live performance by John Mellencamp when he was Johnny Cougar. He appears to be have been about 23, and he's singing "Ain't even Done With The Night", in front of a fairly unresponsive crowd with Bobby Bare (?!) in the front seat. Cougar/Mellencamp is dressed in a nerdy sweater and generally bears no resemblance to the singer as we knew him just 5 years later. He looks a lot more like Potsie from Happy Days than the guy who sang "Pink Houses". Certainly, there is no way to watch this and make a connection to the guy whose song "This is Our Country" beat us to death by overuse in pickup truck commercials. But the real entertainment value from this clip comes from the guys behind Cougar. In hot-pink tuxedos, there are 5 Pips-like backup dancers/singers who don't sing, but clap their hands real well. They essentially spend the entire song performing cheerleader dance routines not unlike those ...

The Two Christmases

As I walked through the front door of the Post Office to make my stamp purchase, I was faced with a choice. On my left was a vending machine, and to my right was the customer service desk, where I could make the purchase from actual human beings. Because there was no line at the moment, I chose the human interaction. I strolled up to the middle-aged, slightly balding postal employee, read that his name was "Rex", and I asked for two books of stamps. As it was mid-December, Rex asked me "would you like Christmas stamps, or...". Once I realized he wasn't about to complete the sentence, I looked down and saw that he was holding some very un-Christmas-like stamps bearing images of the Liberty Bell and the word "Forever." Knowing that my wife had planned to mail several Christmas cards, I told him "One of each." To my surprise, the decision-making did not stop there. Rex hit me with a follow-up: he held up two types of stamps: one had a pi...