ABSTRACT
If you are planning a book and you have decided what kind it is to be and are confident about style and related matters, start writing. A sensible first step-certainly an early one-is to channel some of that writing towards a proposal to send to a publisher. This helps to clarify your thoughts, though that is not the main objective. If you followed the advice in section 1.8 you should have one or more publishers in mind. Until recently, simultaneous approaches to publishers were frowned upon. Some publishers now do not mind multiple submission of a proposal providing they are told you are doing that; but, at risk of being dubbed old-fashioned or too gentlemanly by half, for nonfiction I recommend offering a book to only one publisher at a time. If a publisher is lukewarm about your idea and knows you are submitting the proposal elsewhere, this may swing the decision against you.
