Writing a Proposal for a Programming Book
What Do Publishers Look For?
You have a great book idea, but you didn’t get signed by your first-choice publisher. Why? Following are some things that we look for in a nonfiction proposal on a technical topic. Though each publisher is different, some of our advice will help you get a “yes” from any publisher that serves a professional, working person’s audience. If you’d rather talk to a human than read an article, contacting us is as simple as sending an email.
Know Your Audience
Convince the publisher that you understand your audience and can speak to that audience. Defining your audience may seem simple, but can be a big stumbling block.
Do you remember what it’s like to be a novice? It is frustrating to be flung into a landscape of unfamiliar terms and concepts with complex examples that you can’t relate to yet. Similarly, if you have intermediate topic knowledge, it is equally frustrating to slog through information you already know and overly simplified examples that don’t apply to your actual problem.
🔎 Bottom Line: Define your audience with care, and write to that audience in every aspect of your proposal, including the sample chapter. Once you define your audience, you have to constantly be aware of them and work to keep your writing at the appropriate level. Readers abandon books that don’t address their audience appropriately (and leave bad reviews).
🚩 Red Flags: If you claim your book will be for multiple audiences at different levels, or worse yet, for everyone, your proposal loses credibility. If you truly think your book is for everyone, you need to be able to prove it.
Know Your Numbers
Publishers want to have a rough (but realistic) idea of how many people will be interested in your book.
How many developers are using the language? Is that number increasing or declining? It is your job to find the numbers and share them with the publisher.
🔎 Bottom Line: Use reliable sources. Use multiple sources.
🚩 Red Flags: If you claim all 23 million developers in the world will want to buy your book, then your numbers lose credibility. Quoting dubious sources also doesn’t go over well. Be realistic.
Use the Right Tone
Tone means the voice portrayed by your writing. Readers perceive tone as the writer’s attitude, bias, or personality.
When your audience is busy professionals who need to get something done quickly, you need a tone that is:
- Casual and helpful;
- Feels like a friendly guided tour;
- Designed to resonate with readers.
🔎 Bottom Line: Address readers as colleagues who are just as smart as you. They are just not familiar with this particular topic yet. If possible, throw in a little self-deprecating humor to show you are human.
🚩 Red Flags: Tone is something that hits a reader right away. Some warning signs that put your proposal at a disadvantage:
- Passive voice
- Third-person (especially when referring to yourself)
- Acronyms and jargon
- Multisyllabic, “intelligent-sounding” words
- Broad generalizations
- Exaggerations
- Long, run-on sentences
- Dense text (lacking labels and diagrams)
Address Reader Challenges
What issues do your readers face?
Try this exercise. Write down ten questions your readers have about how to do something related to the topic you are proposing, and then outline the answers for those questions. Those are probably the topics you should be writing about.
🔎 Bottom Line: Our readers buy books because they want to accomplish something: build a website, a robot, or a cool game; write a chatbot app; learn a new language to land a better job. Make sure your proposal addresses real-world challenges and clearly states how your book helps readers solve them. Focus on “how to.”
🚩 Red Flags: Topics that start with “what is” instead of “how to.” We want to help readers get something done, whereas “what” is the building block of reference books. A focus on personal experience (that’s great for your blog). The topic is on a particular technology that is not yet known but that you have a personal interest in. Proposals that suggest the book will become the definitive reference on a particular topic.
Bring Value
People buy books because they believe the content offers something they can’t find elsewhere.
When reading a proposal, we ask ourselves:
- How will this book help readers’ lives?
- Are there already books that address readers’ needs?
- Is it just a brain dump, or does the author actually teach?
- Could you just Google this material?
- Is the topic too broad or too narrow?
🔎 Bottom Line: Tell the publisher why your topic is the right topic, and why you are the right person to write about it.
🚩 Red Flags: Topics that sound like a collection of blog posts don’t fly. Proposals that don’t say how the book will help readers do something often get a “no thank you.”
Assess Your Motivation
Motivation is tied to value in that what you bring to the topic is a large part of the book’s value. Hopefully, your motivation starts with helping others with a topic that interests you (and lots of others).
Before you even start your proposal, ask yourself:
- Why do I want to write a book?
- Why do I want to write about this particular topic?
- Why will people care about this topic?
🔎 Bottom Line: If you really want to share knowledge and enthusiasm about a topic and are not afraid of a ton of hard work, then go ahead and write the proposal. Your proposal should convey a genuine interest in helping people learn how to do something.
🚩 Red Flags: If your personal answers center around money or enhancing your resume, that could show through in your proposal.
Show Your Connections
Do you have a strong connection to your audience and the community surrounding your topic of choice?
For your book to be successful, you should be willing and able to connect with the community and establish yourself as an expert on your chosen topic.
🔎 Bottom Line: When completing sections with labels like Marketing or Promotions, highlight your connections. Mention your talks, webinars, speaking engagements, and followers — all the ways that you can reach your audience to tell them about your book.
🚩 Red Flags: Glossing over this section or saying you don’t speak on the topic or have any connection to the community causes pause.
Guide the Journey
We want books with a laser focus on readers and their needs.
If you read PragProg Author Spotlights, you will see some form of the hero’s journey idea in all their interviews.
🔎 Bottom Line: Authors should make readers (and reader needs) the driving force of their books. The author is a facilitator and mentor. The reader is the hero.
🚩 Red Flags: Proposals where the author is the focus.
Follow Instructions
Even though our goal is to sign books, we are all busy and would rather not dig for answers and clarification.
Be sure you understand the intent of each section of the proposal guidelines, and if you are not sure — ask!
🔎 Bottom Line: Complete each section of the proposal as clearly and thoroughly, but also as concisely as possible.
🚩 Red Flags: Proposals that don’t provide the information needed to evaluate the proposal or gloss over a section throw up flags. If you are unable to make the publisher understand the topic and the value proposition, how good will you be at teaching readers?
Do all the things we’re suggesting, and most importantly, don’t give up! You may get an offer on your fifth — or tenth — proposal attempt if not your first.
If you enjoyed the article and are ready to try your hand at writing a proposal for The Pragmatic Bookshelf, have a look at our Become An Author page. You can also leave a comment for me here.
