Why Book Proposals Are Like Easter Baskets (Stick With Me Here!)

Yes, I know it’s well past Easter and creeping up on Mother’s Day (yikes!), but it struck me the other day how book proposals – and, by association, query letters and books themselves – are a lot like… wait for it… Easter baskets.

Some baskets are pretty on their own right. Maybe they’re glass, or porcelain, or bamboo or wicker. Then again, maybe they have cute designs or a funky shape or are a different color. I even see baskets these days shaped like superhero heads or sports balls or princess tiaras.

What you bring to your writing is a lot like the type of Easter basket you resemble. Are you a pretty writer, who has a lot of quality, lyricism and craft, like a porcelain or fancy wicker basket? Or are you a kind of gimmicky writer who maybe isn’t literary but still has a lot of style and humor or personality to offer, like a Spiderman-shaped Easter basket?

Hey, to me, no style is better than another. When I’m in the mood for something literary and crafty, that’s what works for me. But just as often I’m in the style for something clever, fun and gimmicky, no matter how well it’s written. Just like Easter baskets, when it comes to writing, it’s all about variety.

But no matter how pretty the basket (i.e. what type of style you write in), it’s still just a basket until you start filling it with stuff.

Now, the “stuff” is what you bring to your book proposal and/or query letter.

So let’s say you have 20,000 Facebook friends; that is definitely an egg you want to put in your basket!

Maybe your book is the first of its kind and ahead of a growing trend; add another egg to your basket.

Maybe you are the first “insider” to write about this topic before, or you have a few famous friends who could “blurb” the book; two more eggs for your basket.

Do you see where I’m going here? The way you write is one thing; even the book you’ve written is another. But now more than ever agents and editors at big publishing houses need to see not just another pretty basket – and trust me, they’ve seen ‘em all – but they want to see that basket loaded down with clever, unique or concrete things to help sell that book.

So before you consider that proposal finished or that query letter polished, look at it once more to make sure it’s not an empty basket. And even if it’s only half full, see what else you can bring to the table to help an agent or publisher sell your book.

Yours in publishing,

Rusty