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STRUCTURE GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING A BOOK PROPOSAL

The following content is required for CQB to assess your manuscript. This content needs to be provided in MsWord format.

Author Personal Information and Author Biography 

Give your name, mailing address, and telephone number(s).  Enclose a current vita (CV) which indicates your present position, educational background, and previous publications.  Please state in what ways you are qualified to write the book that you are proposing. Include a short 100-word biography of your life, including works already published and awards won. Content may be used on the cover.

For fiction writers, if you are writing a story with a specific theme, setting, or plot that pertains to your area of expertise, include that in the bio.

Working Title

Indicate your proposed tentative title for the book, with subtitle, if desired, and give possible alternative titles. Castle Quay Books reserves the right to alter titles.

Description of the Book

For non-fiction titles, in about 250-450 words, describe the book that you are proposing.  State what the nature, focus, purpose, or argument of the book is?  What is its thesis?  Your description may be used for the publisher’s catalogue.

For fiction books please provide a 300–500-word short synopsis of the content.

Description of the Book Cover

If you have your own cover concepts that you believe will best express the content of the book please provide a short 50-100 word description of your proposed cover art concept along with a description of why this reflects the content so well.

Marketing of the Book

In about 50 words summarize the story as a blurb and include the character or content components that make your book unique. Include key words, visual elements, places, and objects that are key to the story.

Include a quote of no more than 100 words that best reflects your writing style.

Make a list of potential endorsers and possible markets that would have a special interest in your book. Include ways that you are able to help market the book including speaking engagements that you plan, groups that you are connected to, and web sites that you are involved with. If your contacts have other contacts for blurbs and alumni and/or professional organizations, please include them.

Table of Contents/Outline

Give a tentative table of contents of the book by chapters.  Beneath each chapter title give a brief outline of the chapter and a brief summary of its contents.  This summary should explain the focus and development of the chapter and indicate how the chapter advances the argument of the whole book.

Readership

Include what audience, specifically, your book was written for?  General readership? Lay leaders? Seminary/graduate students?  Pastors or religious professionals?  Indicate what you believe would attract a potential reader to read your book?  Does it have potential for textbook adoption?  If so, in what courses? Indicate if the book covers a particular age group- children, teens, adults?

Alternatives Currently Available

To the best of your ability list books in this same genre and subject, including publisher.  What does your book offer that these books do not?  How will your book be superior or different from them?

Manuscript Length

What is the word count or estimated length of the proposed or existing manuscript based on a submission that is typed or printed double-spaced on 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper, 26 lines per page, 65 characters per line?

Electronic Manuscript Submission

A manuscript must be submitted in electronic form using MsWord and the use of “track changing is essential.

Date of Completion

Indicate the date by which you expect to submit a completed manuscript.

Sample Pages

Enclose a sample of 15-25 pages, perhaps of the introduction or first chapter, which illustrates your writing style in the book.  These should be pages that are typical of the book as a whole, highlighting your argument and giving a good overview of the book.

Style Guide

Please remember to ONLY use the Chicago Manual Style Guide and the Canadian Oxford dictionary for your manuscript. A compete writing Style Guide is available from our editors for those who are interested.

Send your proposal by e-mail in MsWord or PDF format to:

larrywillard@rogers.com   or lwillard@castlequaybooks.com

It usually takes 6-12 weeks before you will hear from us, as we receive hundreds of proposals each year and all submissions receive careful review.

Please also note the following as well:

• We do not publish poetry collections or plays except for Personal Publishing projects
• Do not send a complete manuscript
• Do not call about the status of your manuscript before the 10 week review period is complete

When our editors receive your final draft, the manuscript is edited for style and substance (spelling, grammar, fact-checking, consistency of argument, etc.). Layout, proofreading and printing generally takes 7-12 months. We reserve the right to approve interior design and cover design elements. Our authors receive a royalty yearly in the month of July except in cases of higher volume sales.