How do you write a nonfiction book proposal that gets an agent's attention and sells to a publisher?
With Kelly Bergh, Literary Agent, Lucinda Literary.
Short answer: A nonfiction book proposal is a business plan for the book, not the book itself: you do not need a finished manuscript, but you do need a concrete vision, a natural fit with your career, and a document built from three non-negotiables, a big idea, a strong platform, and writing strong enough to prove you can execute long-form.
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What is a nonfiction book proposal, and why don't you need to have written the whole book?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: A book proposal is a business plan for your book: agents sell the idea and the author's personality to publishers rather than a finished manuscript, so you do not need 100,000 words written, but you do need a concrete vision for the book and a clear picture of how it fits your career.
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What three things does every sellable book proposal need?
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.
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What sections go into a nonfiction book proposal?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: A proposal opens with a cover page (title, subtitle, author name and credentials), then a proposal table of contents listing: overview, About the Author, About the Book, audience, marketing, comp titles, the book's own table of contents, chapter summaries, and a sample chapter.
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What goes in the overview section, and how long should it be?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: The overview is 6-10 pages, written in first person, that compresses everything else in the proposal: what the book is about, why you're the best person to write it right now, who the intended audience is, and what structure you're using.
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What goes in the About the Author and About the Book sections?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: About the Author is a one-page, third-person bio showing why this writer is the right person for the book. About the Book can be a sentence or two stating the estimated word count and expected manuscript-delivery timeline.
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What belongs in a nonfiction proposal’s marketing section?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: Document the audience-building work already in place: media, speaking, bylines, partnerships, endorsers and owned channels. Kelly says the more marketing work you can show, the more a publisher is likely to offer, so this section shapes your advance.
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How do you choose comp titles for a nonfiction proposal?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: Find 3-5 traditionally published titles from the past five or six years (post-2020), open the section with a paragraph on what those titles have in common and what market gap remains, then work through each one individually, noting what it did well and what your book will do differently.
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What goes in the book's table of contents, chapter summaries, and sample chapter?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: Use a bare list of chapter titles for the book’s table of contents, then summarize and justify each chapter’s place in the structure. Choose sample material that best demonstrates your long-form writing and range; Kelly suggests about 10,000 words.
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When should you query agents with a nonfiction book proposal?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: Query when the full proposal is ready, the pitch is concise and the project fits the agent’s list; relationships and public visibility helped many of Kelly’s clients, but cold querying remains a valid route.
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Should you use Canva or design elements in a nonfiction book proposal?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: No. Stick to plain 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced formatting; design goes unappreciated because the proposal is an internally circulated document, and the time is better spent polishing the content itself.
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Should you use AI to help write your book proposal?
Kelly Bergh’s advice: In July 2026 Kelly advised against using general AI to write proposal content or sample chapters, since it often fabricates facts like comps and shows in the writing, but she said it may be fine as a structural sounding board, for example to help order the points in a chapter summary.
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About the agent
Kelly Bergh is a literary agent at Lucinda Literary, which she joined in 2023. She began her career as a children’s librarian before working as an editor in academic publishing, and now works closely with journalists, PhDs, and subject matter experts bringing their ideas into the trade space. She represents adult practical nonfiction, with a particular focus on popular psychology, health and wellness, and self-transformation, as well as select children’s gift and fiction projects in these same areas. A certified yoga and meditation instructor, she holds a master’s degree in publishing from Drexel University and splits her time between Philadelphia and Seattle.