[Working title]
[Subtitle]

Fill in the brackets and write into the space under each heading. Keep the sections in this order: it's the order agents read in. Check each agent's submission guidelines first, since some want only the overview and one chapter. Before you send, delete this box and the checklist at the end, then export a Word file or PDF from the document menu.

• Overview, one to three pages: a hook (a scene, fact or problem) that makes an editor read on, then the book in a paragraph (the big idea, how it's organized, what the reader gets), then why now and why you.

• Target audience: a specific group (“new managers in their first year”, not “everyone who works”), with numbers and where they come from.

• Comparable titles: three to five books from the last five years that sold steadily, each followed by a paragraph of 100 to 200 words on what it does well and what yours adds. Leave out once-in-a-decade bestsellers.

• Marketing and platform: numbers, not adjectives: subscribers, followers, events a year, audience sizes. Each line of the plan says what you'll do, whom it reaches and when.

• About the author: half a page to a page in the third person, the way a conference program would introduce you.

• Chapter outline: a paragraph per chapter, in the present tense (“Chapter 1 opens with…”): its point, the story that carries it, the evidence and the takeaway, with its length in words. Include the introduction and conclusion.

• Sample chapters: one or two complete chapters. For a narrative book, send the opening; for a prescriptive book, the strongest chapter, not the introduction.