This is the first in a series of articles on writing a book proposal. In this edition, we will address the thorny matter of getting endorsement for its proposal.

At least once a week, I get a message from a writer who wanted to know if I can write an endorsement for the proposal he is writing for his novel.

The answer is very clear cut: no and yes.

If this sounds confusing, well. Because the application is ambiguous in the first place, so it’s just that the answer must be too ambiguous.

A little history: It seems that publishers increasingly encouraging unpublished novelists to include a list of possible support in their proposals. From the editorial point of view, this makes sense. If a guy novelist Steven King knows well enough to get a backup, then that’s a big marketing advantage.

The problem, I think, is that many writers are confused about exactly what is required here. And that translates into mass confusion when he said, asking writers to published authors for approval annoying.

The thing is that you have a number of ways you can play this. Some of them are reasonable and some unreasonable. Here are your options:

a) Make a published novelist, I have never known how to read your manuscript and write a backup that can put in your proposal.

b) Make a published novelist who knows you well to read the manuscript and to write an endorsement for its proposal.

c) Make a published novelist who knows you well and that you have read his work to write an endorsement to put in your proposal.

d) Ask the experts who interviewed him for his novel to read your manuscript and write an endorsement of his proposal.

e) Ask one of the people above to agree to read the manuscript of “someday”, if accepted for publication and then possibly write an endorsement.

Now you can see why the answer to a request for support is so ambiguous. There is a difference in the options (a) to (e). We will see that turn.

a) If you ask a published novelist you can not read a manuscript that has not yet been accepted for publication, which is asking a lot. You can take all day to read his book. His book can not be good. Or it could be in desperate need of a good hard edit. So he is essentially asking the novelist published to do the same work as agents and publishers often do – except that agents and publishers get paid to do such work. But it is unethical to pay a dime to his endorser. The only possible answer to this type of request is “no.” Because saying “yes” even once guaranteed that a flood of similar requests flood the author’s will, who are dying of hunger, because he
never write another word.

b) If you ask a published novelist who knows you well to read a manuscript that has not yet been accepted for publication, you are still asking a lot. This has all the dangers above (a), with the added bonus that now you are putting a strain on their friendship really asking for something unreasonable. Some novelists to say yes to this, but really should not. Because if your novel is worst, having put in a terrible predicament.

c) If you ask a published novelist who knows you well and that you have read your manuscript, although it has not yet been accepted for publication, are a sort of chicken. How the hell did you hear about this saint? Presumably, this novelist is his critique group. Or she is a relative or longtime friend. In any case, you want to tread lightly here. If you ask a direct endorsement, is the terrible risk that his novel is bad and going to put his friend on the spot. Help here if I told you that she loves the book. In fact, you should ask if you really just loves books. Now, if she is the saint I think she is, she will probably offer to write an endorsement for you, even before asking. That’s the best of all worlds, because then you are not putting in place, she is volunteering. I have written this endorsement only twice that I recall. I do not mind volunteering, when the book is good. I do not mind being involuntarily volunteer. I do not like to be put in place.

d) If you have an expert to interview for his novel, then you’re in good shape. This expert can be a street cop or a scientist or a veteran of World War II or a llama breeder or anyone who gave him special information for his novel. These people have two things going for it. First, do not usually have a thousand other novelists are asked guarantees, so to say “yes” to avoid putting them at risk of being inundated with requests. Second, as an expert usually is not expected to know how to write good and evil, so if your novel is bad, do not know and nobody will blame his lack of trial. So no pressure on them for that reason. So ask your expert! The worst thing you can do is say “no.”

e) In all previous cases, I have asked someone to read the manuscript and write an approval before it is accepted for publication. The statement then serves in part to validate the editor and publisher. But you have no choice. You may ask if you are considering the reading of the proposal on condition that you sell to a publisher. So we really do not have to read until after some editor somewhere that purchase. You can see that it really takes its spot potential endorser. She’s not as “quality control” to publishers. So it’s safe to say “yes” here, since only will always need to be read, if it really is good enough for publication. And every endorser knows she always has the option to read 20 pages and then quit. Or read the whole thing and not write an endorsement. So there is no pressure here. You’ll note that this also makes a very empty promise. If desired, you can align a group of novelists in its proposal that the promise to read the novel “for possible adoption. “But all they could take back, so there is much value in the alignment of the endorsers as possible in the proposal stage. With one exception: if they are experts on the subject you’re writing. Expert sources will not withdraw from written approval if they do not like his style. Probably going to love her style, provided you have the correct information. So line up some experts in the section of the approval of its proposal, if the experts are relevant to the book you’re writing.

My personal policy, when someone asks for an endorsement of the proposal is as follows: First, I note that you can not read and approve the unsold manuscript. Secondly, I say that I’m always happy to read books for “the eventual adoption” once they have been sold, so please sell the book first and then come back and ask me and I’ll say “yes” – always and when in a genre that I like. My friends know that genres that I enjoy reading. Third, I ask you not to include in the proposal as an “endorsement potential,” for very good reason I do not want the editors think I’m going to give any kind of “seal of approval” in R Paradise t ‘even looked yet.

Occasionally, a manuscript strikes me in a writing conference, and then tell the author to use my name when talking to publishers or to write a proposal. Or you can even make an introduction to an appropriate editor or agent. But I prefer to volunteer for this, because then I have a degree of quality control.

I have read and approved by the books I’ve ever known. On the other hand, sometimes I read books of close friends and certainly not endorsed the book. This may mean that I was too busy to finish the book or you can say I did not care for the book. Or you could say I’m in a grumpy mood, grumpy, Grinchy today. No wonder you do not need to tell.

I would bet that most of the writers published a policy similar to mine. I was a little more than a dupe in my early career, until my agent said it’s not my job to save the world. It’s fine to leave some of this work to anyone else.

About the author:

The award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, “the Snowflake guy” Advanced Writing fiction published E-zine, with more than 21,000 readers each month. If you want to learn the art and the marketing of fiction, and make your writing more valuable to publishers, and have fun doing, http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com visit.