Crafting Non-Fiction Book Proposals: Gamer Girls by Mary Kenney
Wow, it has been a while since I wrote one of these! Apologies, especially because you’re about to get quite a few of them.
Years ago, I met Mary Kenney though her former gig at Telltale Games. I’d been a wild fan, following along, finding out what games she had written. I knew she was someone I was going to want to work with at some point.
And this is why, as I state on social media all the time, it’s so important to have a homebase with your contact info, published clips, and the like, particularly when you want to write non-fiction. Agents and editors are keeping an eye out for people who look like they might have a book in them.
And Mary certainly did. And I’m so glad we got to talking.
GAMER GIRLS came out earlier this summer, and is a collection of essays about the women behind the video games we all know and love. How their oft looked-over influence shaped the world of gaming. It’s a book I hope will inspire a lot of young kids to get into games themselves, and Mary’s exactly the person to inspire them in that way.
How did this book sell? On a proposal. We worked on this proposal together, and sent it out to publishers. Here’s how we did it, and how you can too.
First, as always, a few quick disclaimers!
Remember how subjective this all is. What works for me as an agent, might not work for someone else. There are some great additional proposal guides written up by Jane Friedman, Brian Klems at Writer’s Digest, and Nathan Brandsford. Learn as much as you can.
Make sure you are reading agency guidelines before sending anything. An agent might want something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. But I imagine a lot of what we are going to dig into here, such as author platform, proposed contents, sample pages, etc… will be across the board for everyone who requests a proposal.
And last, if this helps, please pick up a copy of Gamer Girls via your favorite retailer, or request it at your library. And if this is helpful, buy me a coffee! The cafe near my house is open again!
Alright. Let’s dig in.
THE BASICS
I’ve said this in previous proposals blog posts, but when it comes to crafting a really great non-fiction book proposal, there are a few sections you should have in every single one.
In my opinion, the breakdown should look a little something like this, and we’ll dig into each of these in a minute.
About the Book: Exactly what it sounds like. What’s the jacket copy (ie: the back of the books on your own bookshelf) look like? What is this book?
Meet the Author: Let’s get to know you. Remember, part of non-fiction is explaining why you are THE person to write this book, why you’re the expert.
Author Publicity & Platform: What’s your platform like (this doesn’t just mean social media!), where do you write, who will support your book, what are your numbers? This could also just tie into the Meet the Author section, though if you have a lot to dig into, break it off. Give us a whole section.
Comparative Titles: What books would yours sit with in bookstores? What book would fans of your book, also potentially like?
Potential Media Relevance: Covering a topic that gets dug into in the media? Shows us a bit about that, if possible.
Manuscript Overview & Proposed Contents: What you’ve got so far, and where you see the work going.
Now, when it comes to non-fiction proposals, there will sometimes be sections that are pretty specific to that kind of proposal. If this were a cookbook, you’d likely have some sample photography. If you’re a social media influencer, then sure, social media counts.
Varies book to book. This project is a YA non-fiction title. So a non-fiction book for teenagers.
Now, let’s break down these sections a bit more. I’ll include summaries of what we discussed in the proposal as well as some screenshots, which I hope will give you a helpful overview of what goes into one of these.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Here we go. This is the part where you give us the general details about the book you’re working on. This should read like the jacket copy for your book. If you want an example of what Mary ended up with as her jacket copy, you can check that out here.
Here’s a glimpse at what the opening pitch for the book looked like:
For GAMER GIRLS, we opened up talking about the assumed landscape of gaming, and pointed out how it hasn’t really been that way in ages. And how, in fact, women have been driven a wild amount of innovation in the gaming industry, and often get overlooked.
This was a quick, one page summary of the project, again, much the way you see with jacket copy on your favorite books. While some of the other proposals I’ve shared had slightly larger pitches, this one stuck to the one-page, quick-and-to-the-point format you really want to see not just on the back of books, but also in your query letters.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When it comes to non-fiction, you’re never just selling the story or the book. You’re also trying to sell the publisher, and the general readership, on the author. Why is this THE person to write this particular book. How are they an expert? Why should I buy a book about this topic from them and not someone else?
When it came to Mary and Gamer Girls, the answer was easy and clear to get across.
Here, we spent a solid page and a half detailing why Mary was the person here. It’s a book about women in gaming and she’s a woman in gaming, who has written actual video games.
In addition to that, we stressed the places she’d also published pieces, writing articles for outlets like Salon, Kotaku, and The New York Times.
The about section shows why you’re the person. Mary was absolutely the person.
PUBLICITY AND PLATFORM
Okay, everyone hates talking about the platform part of non-fiction. Everyone. So I want to offer up my annual disclaimer here.
It’s never too late to build a platform.
I mentioned this earlier in the post here, but you don’t need a million social media followers (though hey, that would be nice!), but you should have something that establishes that you are the expert on your topic. In the case of Mary’s platform here we brought up her social media presence, sure…
But that’s not what we stressed.
Platform also has to do with your career. How you’re an expert.
Here, we talked about the places that Mary’s written and the many places that have featured her. We listed places where she’d been a speaker, conferences and the like. We talked about the accolades associated with her games and writing.
Platform here wasn’t in social media (though sure, we mentioned it), but in expertise. That’s just as valuable, and as an agent, that’s something I pay way more attention to than Twitter followers.
MEDIA & MARKET
This is probably a hot take from me, but while you should know the market for your book, I think it’s an agent’s job to wrangle up this section. Which I happily did. It’s an agent’s job to understand where your book potentially belongs in the publishing space and discussion.
But having a section like this in the book proposal you send off, shows that extra bit of knowledge.
Mary and I worked together to pool a list of media hits tackling the book’s subject and relevance. This doesn’t just help when pitching agents, but when pitching editors.
Remember, it’s not just an editor who has to say yes. Their publicity and marketing team have to like the idea too. Giving them as much as you can, helps a lot.
Wild looking at those dates on those pieces. We pitched this book around in 2019 / 2020, and announced the sale in the summer of 2020. It came out this year (2022).
Publishing. A game of patience.
COMPARATIVE TITLES
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the job of comparative titles isn’t to say “my book is just like this book.” It’s to give us an idea of where the book will be on shelves, to give us an idea of voice and audience, and sometimes, to show us that your book is MISSING from a particular space.
That was exactly the pitch with Mary’s book.
In our comparative title section, we showed the books that are in this space (which we’re both fans of) and how Mary’s would stand out. How there wasn’t a book like her’s on the market yet.
The comp title section didn’t say “my book is like these books” it said “this is how my book is different and stands out.”
MANUSCRIPT OVERVIEW
When you’re pitching non-fiction, it’s never just “an idea” and then an email. You have to have a concept in mind, an overview. Some kind of vision there. Sometimes an agent will be able to help with that, and sometimes an agent will reach out wanting to explore an idea they’ve seen you talking about.
But the book as a whole, you should have an idea of what you want to say. What you want to cover.
For Mary’s proposal, we detailed a list of fascinating and influential people in this space. This was a solid three pages of names and brief bios.
What followed after that were sample pages.
Now, while I can’t paste in screenshots of sample pages from the proposal or the book, I can talk about what we sent over. Mary’s sample pages in the proposal had a detailed introduction, which also served as something of a “letter to the reader” here. It told the reader (and editor reading the project) why this book was so important and needed, and why Mary wanted to write it.
Mary also included a glossary afterwards, which ended up in the actual book (so did that introduction), detailing gaming terms that a reader (or editor) might not understand at a quick glance. The best kind of non-fiction, in my opinion, is accessible. Someone who might not understand the topic but is curious about it, can pick up that book and grasp the concept.
A glossary certainly helps!
The sample pages for the book dug into three of the people Mary planned to cover in Gamer Girls. That was it. Three essays. It was about 10,000 words all together (with a good 2.5k dedicated towards the proposal bits), and I think that’s an important piece to takeaway here.
Non-fiction sells on proposal. That means you aren’t writing the whole book out of the gate. You’re proposing it, and ideally, the advance gives you the wiggle room you need to write the book and take time away from freelance work, full-time work, you name it. It gives you breathing room.
And there you have it.
Crafting a non-fiction YA book proposal.
Be sure to pick up a copy of GAMER GIRLS. It’s out now. And give Mary a follow on social media. She’s working on some great things.