Querying for a Nonfiction Self-Published Book

Q. Do agents like self-published books to be sent in with a proposal instead of a tradition set of printed chapters? A. Agents will want a book proposal if the…

Q. Do agents like self-published books to be sent in with a proposal instead of a tradition set of printed chapters?

A. Agents will want a book proposal if the book is nonfiction. With a self-published book, you have to approach it much like a normal query, but there is added pressure to prove that the book needs a second incarnation and that new sales can justify this.
I just wrote a long piece on this (querying agents with a self-published book) for the October issue of Writer's Digest, which comes out in August.


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Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.