A small-press editor opens a non-fiction proposal with two questions: what is this book, and can we sell enough copies to justify the work? The second question makes writers nervous. It should not. A good proposal answers both plainly. It shows the book, the reader, and the route between them. What follows is a checklist for the four parts small presses scrutinize most: platform summary, chapter outline, market analysis, and sample material. Treat it as a working document, not a hoop.

Platform Summary: Show the Route to Readers

Platform does not mean celebrity. For a small press, it means evidence that you can reach the first few hundred or few thousand readers who make a niche book viable. A specialist press with a modest marketing budget needs authors who can help a book find its people. That help can come from a newsletter, a teaching practice, a professional network, a local community, or a record of giving talks to groups that care about your subject.

Write the platform summary in plain language. State who you reach, how often, and what you can realistically do around publication. Avoid adjectives such as “large,” “engaged,” or “passionate” unless you attach a fact to them.

What a useful platform summary includes

• Existing audience: newsletter subscribers, workshop participants, students, association members, or a local readership. Give the number and explain how you communicate with them.
• Professional standing: relevant credentials, jobs, volunteer roles, or lived experience that make you credible on the topic. Keep this specific to the book.
• Reachable networks: organizations, conferences, bookstores, libraries, or media contacts where you have a real relationship, not just a name on a list.
• Promotional capacity: talks you can give, workshops you can run, articles you can place, or events you can organize during launch and the following six months.
• Honest limits: if your audience is small, say so. Then show why it is the right audience for this book.

If your numbers are modest, do not pad them. A small press would rather see a clear route to 500 attentive readers than a vague claim about reaching “millions.” “I teach this material to 60 people a year” is a modest fact. “I have a platform in this space” is not.

Chapter Outline: Make the Book Visible

A chapter outline is not a table of contents with working titles. It is the place where an editor checks whether the book has a spine. For each chapter, write a short paragraph that explains its job in the argument, the material it will cover, and what a reader will take from it. Aim for three to six sentences per chapter, not a full synopsis.

Include estimated word counts. They show that you understand the length of the project and that the book will fit the press’s list. If the press publishes 50,000-word books and yours is 110,000 words, explain why it needs the extra space. Do not assume the editor will guess.

What each chapter entry should answer

1. What question or problem does this chapter raise?
2. What argument, story, or evidence carries it?
3. How does it connect to the chapters before and after?
4. What will the reader know or be able to do by the end?

Specificity helps. “Chapter 4 covers marketing” tells an editor nothing. “Chapter 4, ‘The First Ninety Days,’ explains why some small-press launches lose momentum after publication week and offers a simple schedule for events, follow-up, and reorders” gives an editor something to judge. It also keeps you from writing a book of twelve chapters that all do the same work.

Market Analysis: Place the Book Without Pretending

Small presses live or die by fit. They need to know that your book belongs on their list and that a defined audience will buy it. Market analysis is not a sales pitch; it is a map. Name three to five comparable books, explain what each one does well, and say where your book differs. Choose books that a bookseller could put beside yours, not bestsellers in a different category.

Describe the primary audience first. “General readers” is not an audience. “Independent bookstore customers who buy narrative history and regional travel writing” is. Then add secondary audiences: students, practitioners, members of an association, workshop participants. If the book is for practitioners, say what they will use it for. If it is for general readers, say what curiosity brings them to the subject.

Answer these questions in one or two pages:

• Where will this book sit on a shelf? Give a section, category, or shelf mate.
• What makes the book different? Point to a gap in the existing books, not a gap in the market that only you have noticed.
• Why this press? Mention the press’s catalogue, a series, or a group of books your work would complement.
• Why now? Offer a reason rooted in the subject, not in a trend you cannot verify. A current debate, a local anniversary, or a new practical need can help.

Do not invent statistics or claim a market size you cannot support. A careful comparison and a clear audience are more persuasive than a page of numbers that no one can check.

Sample Material: Give Editors Pages They Can Judge

Most small presses ask for a sample rather than a full manuscript. The sample is often the introduction and one chapter. Follow the submission guidelines exactly: length, file format, and whether the press wants a synopsis. If the guidelines ask for 2,000 words, do not send 10,000. If they ask for the introduction, do not send a chapter that only makes sense later.

Choose a sample that shows your voice and your structure at the same time. For a practical book, include a chapter that delivers a complete technique or tool. For a narrative book, include a chapter with a scene, a problem, and a turn. The sample should stand alone well enough that an editor can read it without the rest of the proposal, but it should also show where the larger argument is going.

Before you send the sample

• Read it aloud for rhythm and clarity.
• Check that the first page establishes the subject and the reader’s stake.
• Make sure quotations, citations, and permissions are in order.
• Keep the formatting simple and consistent with the press’s guidelines.
• Include a one-page synopsis if the guidelines allow it, so the editor can place the sample in context.

Send your best pages, not your first pages. A small press editor is reading to see whether the book is already alive on the page. Give them a sample that answers that question.

Packaging and Press Fit

Small presses often publish regional books, craft and practical books, literary non-fiction, or titles tied to a particular community. Read the catalogue before you write the proposal. Note the books that sit near yours, the series they belong to, and the way the press describes its authors. Then use your cover letter to say why your book belongs there. A generic letter that could go to fifty publishers is easy to spot. A specific letter that names two or three books on the list shows that you have done the reading.

Keep the proposal in the order the guidelines request. If no order is given, use this one: overview, platform summary, chapter outline, market analysis, sample material, and a short author biography. State the word count and whether the manuscript is complete. If you are submitting to several presses at once, check each press’s policy on simultaneous submissions; if it is allowed, say so in the letter.

Final Read-Through Checklist

Before you press send, read the whole proposal as if you were an editor with twenty other proposals on the desk. You have about one page to earn the next one. Make that page clear, specific, and free of claims you cannot support.

1. Does the first page state the book’s promise, audience, and word count?
2. Does the platform summary use real numbers and specific commitments?
3. Does every chapter have a distinct job in the argument?
4. Does the market analysis name comparable books and explain the difference?
5. Does the sample show your best prose, not a draft you have not revised?
6. Have you followed the submission guidelines exactly?
7. Is the proposal free of inflated claims and vague phrases?
8. Would a stranger understand why this book belongs on this press’s list?

If you can answer yes to those questions, you have a proposal that respects an editor’s time. That is the practical beginning of a good publishing relationship.

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