What three things does every sellable book proposal need?
Short answer: Kelly Bergh’s advice: Every proposal Kelly has helped write contains three non-negotiables distilled from Get Signed, written by her agency's founder Lucinda Halpern: a big idea, a strong platform, and great writing that proves the author can write long-form.
Answered by Kelly Bergh, Literary Agent, Lucinda Literary.
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The agent’s answer
These three elements come from a checklist Kelly distilled from Get Signed, the book by her agency's founder Lucinda Halpern. The big idea is the writer's concept; platform is the audience and infrastructure the writer brings; and great writing is proven inside the proposal itself, since the proposal doubles as a writing sample for the material a publisher will eventually need to sell the book to booksellers and browsing shoppers alike. She frames the underlying test as a question of public relevance: because publishing means making something public, a memoir or family history written 'just for me' does not clear the bar on its own; the writer has to show why strangers should care as much as the author does.
In Kelly’s words
Each book proposal that I have helped my authors craft contains three things: the big idea, their platform, and their great writing.
Kelly Bergh, 07:48
Source: How to Develop a Sellable Nonfiction Book Proposal.