by Hallee Bridgeman, @halleeb
As an indie author with 30 books published, I learned something new this year – how to submit a proposal for my agent to use to submit to publishers.
He called me on the Friday before spring break and asked for a four-book proposal due by the Monday after spring break. I spent all of that week (thank God school was out or it would have been a mess!) plotting the books, writing the synopses, writing the first three chapters, and then putting the proposal together. Until that moment, I didn’t have any idea there was more to it than submitting a synopsis.
My full proposal ended up being 58 pages long. I sent it to my agent late night April 5th, and on July 17th, I signed a 3-book contract with a major Christian fiction publisher.
What did my proposal contain? Here are the subject headers from the table of contents:
Series Vision
Why this series at this time? Are characters connected, or is something else tying it into a series?
Author Bio & Discoverability
What is your author bio? What makes you special for this series? What stands out about you for this series?
Marketing & Promotion
List your marketing ideas. In every instance where there is a measurable, quantifiable number, give it. (I have xx number of Facebook followers, my website gets xx hits per day.) I enclosed graphs, charts, and systematically discussed each avenue of marketing. In a recent proposal, this was 4 pages long.
Previously published works:
What have you published before – and – how many copies did you sell of each series and/or title?
Author Contact Information
I listed my name, address, phone numbers as well as the name, address, and phone numbers of my agent.
Series Information
In this section, I discussed the page count of each book, the chapter count, and the discussion questions and recipes I plan to include in each book.
Are the books complete? When will they be complete?
Settings & Research
Where does each book take place? How do I know how to write each location? Do I have any special, personal ties to each location?
What research has been conducted for this series? What kind of special education or knowledge do I have that will contribute to writing this series? What kind of interviews have I conducted and/or plan to conduct?
Full synopsis for each book.
First three chapters of Book 1
Stripped of everything, Alex comes to Jon for help, and only then does she learn her true value. Jon falls very quickly in love with Alex’s zest for life and her perspective of the the world around her. He steps off of his path to be with her. When forces move against them and rip them apart, he wants to believe God will bring them back together, but it might take a miracle.
With nearly a million sales, Hallee Bridgeman is a best-selling Christian author who writes action-packed romantic suspense focusing on realistic characters who face real-world problems. Her work has been described as everything from refreshing to heart-stopping exciting and edgy. Hallee has served as the Director of the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference, President of the Faith-Hope-Love chapter of the Romance Writers of America, is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), the American Christian Writers (ACW), and Novelists, Inc. (NINC). An accomplished speaker, Hallee has taught and inspired writers around the globe, from Sydney, Australia, to Dallas, Texas, to Portland, Oregon, to Washington, D.C., and all places in between. Hallee loves coffee, campy action movies, and regular date nights with her husband. Above all else, she loves God with all of her heart, soul, mind, and strength; has been redeemed by the blood of Christ; and relies on the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide her.