The 5 Biggest Challenges of Working on a Book Proposal

1. You have to be five different people

You're a showman. You're a marketer. You're a competitor. You're a platform. You're a storyteller. You're an intellectual. Now do them all. At the same time. This is a book proposal.

2. You've got a middleman

Unless you're stupid, there's an agent between you and an editor. This is wise. This is terrifying. This is like playing a game of telephone. With several hundred people. What are the people in the towers in Manhattan thinking? You think you know. You have no idea. So it goes.

3. It's not you, it's them, unless it's you

Maybe you've tried this before and failed. Man, was that humiliating! Yet, here you are again. Symptoms: tension headaches, strange dreams, jolts of terror. This is the ride.

4. Patience is the bear

You are a sprinter. A book is marathon. Don't forget to sssttttrrrrreeeeeetttttcccchhh.

5. One is the loneliest number

Everyone is helping, but in the end it's just you and the page, you and the deal, you and the possibility of something you don't have yet, that's coming, maybe, you hope.