(New feature---see a complete model book proposal, last section on this page. It's a model recommended by the- everything-for-writers site Preditors & Editors.)

Writing Hints from S&B

Break the old rule: Try some apt foreignisms

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Below are some of the language- or writing-related sites I looked at during my research. They were still live as of 2006.

  maryhphelanart  

Chip Scanlan, head of writing programs at the prestigious Poynter Institute, is an accomplished journalist whose practical but soulful column and blog are musts for thousands of readers. The links:

Chip on Your Shoulder (column)

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gogogatsby.com is a welcoming environment for developing writers: a literary magazine with various opportunities for showcasing work and getting advice. Superbly organized and operated.  


The amazing Vikk Simmons brings the perspectives of published author, striving writer, bookstore staffer, and impassioned blogger to her main writing Web site, "Down the Writer's Path." One can't imagine anything worth seeing on a writing-advice and discussion site that isn't archived here, handsomely presented and with useful links up the wazoo.  
Down the Writer's Path

Vikk's starred books include Exploring Texas History (a cool travel book)  , Divided Loyalties (teen novel), & Video Magic (teen novel)

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 New York University writing teacher and prolific author Meredith Sue Willis offers a treasury of select writing information and resources on her Web site:http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/resources.html

Sarah Miller is not only an award-winning young author (Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller), but the kind of reader and blogger that authors dream of. She reads prodigiously and comments brightly and passionately on works that move her. Her blog describes the path that brought her from childhood to authorhood. Sarah Miller: Reading, Writing, Musing

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Model of a Successful
Nonfiction Proposal

The following is the proposal for what became Spunk & Bite: A  Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style. It was prepared by the author and "shopped" by his agent, Ed Knappman. Among publishers offering a contract was Random House, which published the hardcover in November 2005 and paperback in May 2007.

Note the various elements that constitute a full nonfiction proposal. The more a project seems thought out, explored, and compared to similar projects, the better. Yes, it helps for the author to have a "platform," meaning a following from previous books or other activities; but other factors, such as authority, timeliness, and potential market can weigh in as heavily.

The proposal, as presented here, is copyrighted and may not be published or distributed (beyond fair use) without the author’s permission.

By

Edward W. Knappman

New England Publishing Associates

Post Office Box 5, Chester, CT 06412

Phone (860) 345-7323 · Fax (860) 345-3660 · E-mail nepa@nepa.com

Masterly, distinctive use of language lifts an editor’s heart. It can edge manuscripts out of the slush heaps and into that gated community known as "serious consideration." And when serious contenders vie for publication, three things – locution, locution, locution – "pierce the empyrean and make the welkin ring" (as one locutionist said in 1913 of a skyscraper).

In some three dozen brief chapters, this amiable guide steers writers into language that beats the competition and beats a path out of Slushville. Loaded with stimulating locutions from both elegant and adventurous sources, it invigorates all types of writing.

Here are style pointers that go beyond Strunk and White’s often-inhibiting rules. Here readers will find friendly, up-do-date advice in such areas as force, clarity, texture, surprise, and contemporaneity – advice sparkling with fresh, concise examples from our brightest authors.

Showing the way is Arthur Plotnik, distinguished author, editor, and former publishing executive whose Elements of Editing has sold a quarter-million copies in some twenty printings. Plotnik’s hundreds of articles and six books (including two Book-of-the-Month Club selections) have piled up honors and praise, much of it for his engaging wit and style. As contributing editor of the venerable magazine The Writer, he regularly advises tens of thousands of aspiring authors.

In approximately 36 concise chapters (some growing out of Plotnik’s work as contributing editor to The Writer and Editorial Eye), RISING TO THE LOCUTION covers a wealth of topics not found in any other writer’s guide. Only here will buyers find all these chapter-length features and more: 

  -- undoing an "E.B. Whitewash"

-- elements of surprise

-- describing the extraordinary

-- writing for Generations X, Y and beyond

-- stellar leads, stunning endings

-- choosing narrative tense

-- diction: be the word

-- freshening the vocabulary

-- words with beautiful music

-- coining great locutions

-- hot nouns from verbs

-- world-class words from abroad

-- mouthwatering verbs

-- better color for your colors

-- finding the names of things

-- intensifiers for feeble locutions

-- semicolons with confidence

-- niceties worth preserving

-- the feng shui of writing

-- "disinfecting" your prose

-- hunting down danglers

-- modifiers with minus effects

-- using ephemeral imagery

-- achieving "edge"

-- language and terrorism

-- whom we write for

PROPOSED SIZE AND FORMAT:

RISING TO THE LOCUTION’s word count (45,000) and intimate style suggest a cozy 5" x 7" format running to some 150+ pages with generous margins and space around the many sidebars and chapter breaks. Chapters run 900 - 2000 words, averaging about 1,200. Author will provide index and (if needed for length) useful appendices.

MARKET NOTES: 

Buyers of the book would include:

– Writers and would-be writers who buy such genial guides as The Elements of Style (Strunk and White); On Writing Well (William Zinsser), and Woe Is I (Patricia O’Conner). Rising to the Locution complements these bestsellers while promising a similar, pleasurable experience.

– Language enthusiasts. Often we forget the size of this consumer group. Lynne Truss’s 2003 punctuation guide Eats, Shoots & Leaves has 600,000++ copies in print. Rising to the Locution delivers, among other benefits, a cheerful look at language usage, including punctuation trends. – Libraries. Plotnik (who maintains his long-held associations with librarians and with editors of Booklist, Library Journal, etc.) gets reviewed in the library press, and libraries buy his books. As of 2004, some 5,000 libraries report holdings of his works (per OCLC’s World Catalog) – which translates to at least 25,000 shelf copies, according to an ALA sales-based formula.

– Editors who enjoyed his earlier books and his regular pieces in Editorial Eye, the premier monthly for working editors (readership, approx. 18,000).

– Other fans of Plotnik’s writing. A recent work of his, now in its second printing, has extended that fan base. (,Crown, 2000. See reader raves on Amazon.com.)

– Schools. Solidly established in writing/journalism programs, The Elements of Editing paves the way for other Plotnik writing guides, as it did for The Elements of Expression.

In addition to the buyers and readers mentioned above, audiences have been exposed to Plotnik’s work through publicity appearances, radio interviews, and press coverage. He is a polished, witty speaker, experienced print publicist, and an energetic user of the Internet as a promotional tool. His self-created website for his latest book has drawn over 2,500 hits. With his professional research skills, contacts, and knowledge of the writers’ marketplace, he can provide superior publicity/review lists and aggressive marketing activity.

RISING TO THE LOCUTION is a prompt book for ambitious language users. It is about the words, locutions, and approaches that enable a contemporary writer to rise above the crowd, to be up-and-coming. It is not a grammar review such as Woe Is I, a set of composition rules like The Elements of Style, or a teaching text like On Writing Well, though it shares the spirited style of these bestsellers.

Without flouting conventional wisdoms, the book shows how rule-breaking can often yield dazzling results. In this sense it calls to mind Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose (Broadway Books), Constance Hale’s enduringly "hip guide to modern language and writing." But there is no forced attempt at hipness here, nothing that runs amok of what editors currently consider publishable.

RISING TO THE LOCUTION will take its place on language-reference shelves, mainly in the writing/publishing sections. There it will distinguish itself by its compact format (and comparatively good price), author credentials, fresh and entertaining topics, and such promised benefits to writers as:

A boost toward getting published

A purging of fatal flaws and D.O.A. writing

More forceful openings, endings, narration, and description

Greater clarity, harmony, and specificity

Richer texture based on tense, sound, and word choice Ideas and resources for fresh locutions

Confidence to write for new generations of readers

A modern perspective on "right" and "wrong" language

Measures of purpose and performance

DELIVERY:Twelve months from execution of contract. (Possibly a month or two fewer if necessary.) Hard copy, plus digital copy in Word Perfect 10, Word, or other format convertible on Windows XP.

The writing examples are special in themselves, painstakingly selected to illuminate points in just a few lines. Prose examples are well within fair-use boundaries. For the rare few lines of copyrighted poetry, author will obtain necessary permissions. Examples represent a diversity of writers – women, men, blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc. While aimed essentially at prose writers, most chapters will benefit aspiring poets as well. Nothing limits the book to American audiences. Many examples are from contemporary British writers.

As a Web search will indicate, Arthur Plotnik is something of a brand name among writers and editors, respected and often quoted as a "noted authority." His Elements of Editing sits on shelves everywhere with Strunk & White – ever since the Book of the Month Club paired the two works. In addition to the 250,000 sales of Elements of Editing, a total of 29,000 copies have been sold of his The Elements of Expression (also a BOMC selection) and The Elements of Authorship, first published (respectively) by Henry Holt and Simon & Schuster and both still selling.

In addition, Plotnik has been a leading presence in the library profession as editor of American Libraries magazine of the American Library Association (1975-1989), editorial director of ALA’s book imprint (1989-1997), and a continuing name in the field (runner-up, 2004 Haycock Award for Promoting the Profession).

Fiction: 22 pseudonymous "potboilers," via Scott Meredith Agency, 1962-65