Thoughts on writing a book proposal

Or work it out before you gogo x

Having finally finished the edits (well, near enough,) of the all new edition of The Flower Farmer’s Year (pub date Green Books, Bloomsbury, Feb 2026,) naturally thoughts turn to what’s next. And having survived the rigours of a full-on May (see the Chelsea Flower Show piece I wrote,) and fallen off the cliff at last (right now feels like flying joy,) it’s time to start to overload the system again.

The normal person might think. ‘Hurrah! I will now spend the summer harvesting and supplying the flowers that were mostly booked and paid for last winter. And do nothing else.’ But I have loved the process (despite the wingeing) of re-writing The Flower Farmer’s Year and there are two more non-fiction books nagging at the back of my head to be turned into more than ideas.

And so I must write a proposal.

Why not just write the books on Substack as I am the novel Licence to Crenellate? Well, I might yet work out the chapters as I go for the Club. But these will be illustrated books as much as written, and for those I need good production values and I’m not sure I can self-publish those or I’d certainly think about it. One of the two books I have in mind will be at least half photographs - step by step how-tos with finished products at the end - and a well designed book by pros who know what they’re doing will make much more of it than I will. The other, less illustrated, but still a lot of step by steps, will benefit also from a clever team of designers who’ll be able to break up the text in ways to make it easy for people who don’t necessarily read work from beginning to end, for people who like to dip in and out of a subject and so will appreciate repetitive themes which will show them where they are in a chapter, give them lots of space to add their own notes, people who like a bullet list and a box of top tips, people for whom a spreadsheet as it appears on a screen might find themselves going boss eyed as they look at it. Good design makes non-fiction more easily digestible.

So I must make a proposal in order to get myself good designers.

There, I’ve learned something about why I wouldn’t publish non-fiction myself.

What else is useful about writing a book proposal?

Well, not only does one have to rationalise the idea for the book into chapters, possible lengths, one must also arrange those chapters into a shape with a useful, workable arc which can help the reader achieve the ambition offered them on the cover. Very helpful for when one sits down to write as well as for a prospective publisher.

Making a list of those chapters tells one what one doesn’t know - where the research will have to be.

And now we’re motoring.

The next consideration is how long this whole process is going to take. Looking at a whole book is too amorphous - you’ll be picking time frames out of the air which bear no relation to reality. Given that you very likely have to earn an actual living most of the time and so can’t take the time to write the book unless you’re paid for the time, it’s worth working out how much time it’ll take. I’ve been thinking hard about this and have decided that with focus, planning and no mucking about sucking my pen and staring at the ceiling, or going to see if the ladybird larvae have hatched yet I can write and photograph a full chapter in six working days. So if I want the smart design and glossy production values offered by a good publisher I need to persuade them to pay me an advance that will cover the time I spend over six days per chapter. How much will my day rate be? Well I run a business so I know what my day rate is: it needs to cover the work I won’t be doing for the business while I’m writing with a little profit. Profit? Yes! Not vulgar amounts. But enough that I’m not coming out at zero after paying somebody else to do my flower farming job while I’m doing the writing job. You see? Yes, writing a book is an investment in the future, but you need to be able to pay the electricity bill today. So I have a day rate, which gives me a chapter rate. And once I have an arc of the book laid out in chapters I have an amount I need to be paid as an advance in order to make it possible to write the book.

Now I need to make a proposal which is short, interesting, convincing and attractive enough that I can confidently send it to a selection of potential publishers. This is the most challenging part: turning a book which will likely come in at about 75,000 words into a couple of pages interesting enough to sell the idea.

Plus my CV. CV? I’m a 58 year old woman! Why do I need to give them my CV? Well, maybe CV’s not the right word: but they need to know who I am and what I do, the books I’ve published in the past, career highlights they might be able to turn into marketing ideas, how many people I engage with on social media each month… A publisher, even if they’ve published your work before, wants to know the person they’ll be publishing work with so that they can sell it - because with books, as much as any other product, people buy from people not just because the work is good. And since I won’t be the only person who’s ever written a book on the subjects I think I have something interesting to say about, I’ve got to encourage the publisher to believe that people will want to hear stuff they may be able to buy written by others from me. So I need to share what kind of a communicator I am, where I’ve been communicating before, possibly links to chats where I was useful and interesting and demonstrated my ability to talk fluently on a subject about which I know a good deal. Really? Yes! If the publisher works with me to publish a book they’ll want to sell some in order to recoup their investment, and that will involve me the author chatting up local radio stations, podcasters, YouTubers and more.

So enough of this marvellous displacement activity and on with the book proposal. Wish me luck!

And if you have useful experiences/points of view do add to the comments. I’d love to hear what you have to say.