The agent’s answer
A proposal is a business document, not a draft of the book, and Kelly opens by reframing it that way. Because agents and publishers are buying the idea and the author as much as any pages already written, a nonfiction author does not need a completed manuscript, only a concrete vision of the book and of how it extends their existing career. She illustrates this with a deliberately absurd counter-example: a math teacher pitching a book on how to be an English major, or an environmental scientist pitching cryptocurrency, would not have that natural fit. Even for someone planning to self-publish, she argues the exercise is worth doing anyway, since it forces the author to gather every idea in one place, build an execution plan, and hone what belongs in the book versus the marketing around it.