Review
The title of this book alone was intriguing when it first showed up in my Amazon book suggestions: The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need to Know About Selling Your Book to an Agent or Publisher in Thirty Minutes or Less. That's a long title for what's a 64-page booklet, but don't let that deter you, for author and literary activist Carolyn Howard-Johnson backs it up with a ton of information between the front and rear covers.
I first became acquainted with her works . . . when I purchased her book The Frugal Editor: Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success (HowToDoItFrugally Series, Number 2) (bit.ly/FrugalEditor) and found myself looking critically at a book that I was writing at the time. I set that book aside for the time being, and began working on another altogether different one as a result of some of the thoughts and suggestions I had found within the 208 pages of that book... and every page of her book now has numerous highlighted passages and Post-it notes protruding from it.
But I've returned to the semi-final edits on that first book, and am close enough that I was ready to start the next step, which is preparing it for submission to editors and publishers. The process, as many writers already know, is preparing the proposals for submission, and that where the author's The Great First Impression Book Proposal (bit.ly/BookProposalsII) is such a great help. There's a lot of emphasis on the "gatekeepers" here, those who can and perhaps will prevent your manuscript from being seen by those who can do it and you the most good, but she covers this topic quite readily. The author also includes a number of other resources in the back of the book, including an excellent basic sample query letter. These alone are worth the price of admission, so to speak.
This is an excellent booklet, and yes, it can be read in thirty minutes or less, just as Ms. Howard-Johnson suggests. If you want a good fast track on how to write that all-important book proposal, this is an excellent way to go... and you don't need a literary tome to do the job.
[Updated]
When I first reviewed Carolyn Howard-Johnson's small book here in 2010, little did I realize how dog-eared my paperback copy would get over time. I've been through it and bookmarked it so many times that it's tattered beyond belief, but I cannot get rid of it. It appears that Ms. Howard-Johnson has also released it in an updated edition, and that's why my review predates this one. And please note that now The Great First Impression Book Proposal is available as a Kindle edition. As a Prime member I could have borrowed it for free, but since I know already how many highlights there will be, it was worth buying again in the Kindle edition. If you're an aspiring writer in any genre, it's well worth it. ~ Reviewed By John Williamson, an Amazon Vine Voice
Writing a good book proposal is crucial. You can sit down and write the most well written, thought provoking book ever conceived. Your novel might be so noteworthy that it is going to eliminate global warming, bring universal peace, and heal the ozone layer all in one fell swoop. But, unfortunately, if your proposal isn't up to standard, your work will remain forever unpublished.
The Great First Impression Book Proposal [booklet] provides some guidance on writing book proposals. The author uses a method she calls The Great First Impression Proposal which uses an overview system to highlight the pertinent parts of your book. Essentially, this format is meant to catch the publisher's attention while giving them all the basic information that they will need to make a decision about publishing your work.
The Great First Impression Book Proposal is a great little resource for any aspiring writer. There are plenty of valuable ideas here. The author has even included a sample query letter. ~ Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady
"I just finished reading The Great First Impression Book Proposal. I like your style and encouragement. I was a bit intimidated about finishing my book proposal. I was thinking it had to be stiff and boring. I even have dialogue in it. I thought I'd have to cut it out. Now, I'll probably leave it in."
~Wanza Leftwich, author, blogger
"'This is a really smart proposal,' was one comment from an agent who went on to sell my nonfiction book to a publisher. The 'smartest' thing about it? I used Carolyn's guide to write it!"
~ Treacy Colbert, medical writer and author of End Your Menopause Misery
"I love [Great First Impression Book Proposal]! My husband was amazed at all the info crammed into this short book. You could have charged a lot more. I just re-vamped my proposal to follow the guidelines in it for my latest book."
~ Myrna Lou, palmist, psychic, and author
"Marketing is never easy . . . . Well, it might be if you follow the easy steps Carolyn Howard-Johnson offers up in The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need to Know About Selling Your Book in Thirty Minutes or Less. Howard-Johnson's bulleted lists are superior. They are easy to understand, easy to implement, and even easier to read. (She means it when she says thirty minutes or less). She gives us even more: A list of other resources on book proposals. I will recommend this book to all of our authors and potential authors at LadybugPress."
~ Georgia Jones, Editor in Chief, LadybugPress and NewVoices, Inc.
From the Author
This booklet, now  published in its second edition by Modern History Press, is the result of my extensive work with clients who hate writing book proposals and hate learning how to write them even more. I found myself coaching them through the process rather than doing it for them, for who could possibly recreate the passion an author feels for his or her own book better than the author? In doing so, I found I had written a booklet--not a tome--that took my clients only about thirty minutes to absorb. Voila! The Great First Impression Book Proposal was born.
About the Author
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's several careers prepared her for promoting her own and others' books. She was the youngest person ever hired as a staff writer for the Salt Lake Tribune-"A Great Pulitzer Prize Winning Newspaper." Writing features for the society page and a column under the name of Debra Paige gave her insight into the needs of editors, the very people authors must work with to get free ink. Being familiar with the way news is handled helps her see how different books fit into different news cycles. Later, in New York, she was an editorial assistant at Good Housekeeping magazine. She also handled accounts for fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert who instituted the first Ten Best Dressed List. There she wrote media releases (then called press releases) for celebrity designers of the day, including Christian Dior, and produced photo shoots for Lambert's clients. She also worked as columnist, reviewer, and staff writer for the Pasadena Star-News, Home DÃĐcor Buyer, the Glendale News-Press (an affiliate of the LA Times), MyShelf.com where she has written a "Back to Literature" column for more than two decades and others. She learned marketing skills both in college (University of Utah, Arizona State University, and University of Southern California) and as founder and operator of a chain of retail stores including the signature gift shop at Santa Anita Racetrack. That shaped her understanding of how authors might best partner with retailers to affect both of their bottom lines. Carolyn's experience in journalism and as a poet and author of fiction and nonfiction helped the multi award-winning author under-stand how different genres can be marketed more effectively. She was an instructor for UCLA Extension's renowned Writers' Program for nearly a decade and earned a certificate from that same school's Instructor Development Program. She also studied writing at Cambridge University, United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University in Prague. She turned her knowledge toward helping other writers with her multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers, including her flagship book The Frugal Book Promoter and her favorite, How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Her marketing campaign for the second book in that series, The Frugal Editor won the Next Generation Indie Best Book Award. She also has a multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally books for retailers. Howard-Johnson was honored as Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by California Legislature members Carol Liu, Dario Frommer, and Jack Scott. She received her community's Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing and the Diamond Award in Arts and Culture from her community's Library and Arts and Culture Commission. She was named to Pasadena Weekly's list of fourteen women of "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen" and Delta Gamma, a national fraternity of women, honored her with their Oxford Award. Carolyn is a popular presenter at tradeshows (retail and writing) and writers' conferences and has lost count of her radio show guest spots. She is an actor and has appeared in TV commercials for the likes of Time-Life CDs, Chinet, Blue Shield, Apple, and Disney Cruise Lines (Japan). Born and raised in Utah, Howard-Johnson raised her own family in sunny Southern California.
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