DT – If you’re writing a proposal letter don’t reinvent the wheel. Your reader expects a standard format.

Traditional publishing is a very small world and a very incestuous one at that. Over the years they have naturally developed a number of standard formats that are used. Some are in the form of book formats (trade paperbacks, popular paperbacks and so on), but many are in the form of incoming information. For example, the manuscript is expected to be double spaced with a particular font and particular margin size and so on. It took almost ten years after the rise of the internet for electronic manuscripts to be acceptable. In fact, the same format that worked in print is expected electronically.

Proposal or query letters and outlines are the same. The industry has found what works for them and if you vary from that format your submission will not be well received. So if you wish to sell your book even to the agent, you need to give your customer what they expect.