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Writing the Book Proposal

Tuesdays: July 28 - August 18
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

Led by RAKSHA VASUDEVAN
with class visits from Irvin Weathersby Jr., Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Noelle Falcis Math, & Pilar Garcia-Brown

$420 ($370 until May 4)

Please register with the email to which you’d like to receive class correspondence and readings.

A book proposal must do the seemingly impossible: Pitch a project that doesn’t fully exist while anchoring it in practical details like structure, audience, and timeline. It must function as sales document, project plan, and creative vision—all at once.

How to craft such a thing? How to begin when there are so few examples of book proposals that are publicly accessible? How do you get agents and editors excited about a project that doesn’t yet exist? And how do you do it all while allowing space for the mystery and experimentation that’s crucial to the artistic process?

This four-week Masters’ Series course, led by Whiting Grant-winning essayist and journalist Raksha Vasudevan, author of Empires Between Us, a forthcoming reported memoir from Graywolf/Knopf, will address these questions and more. Sessions will feature Pilar Garcia-Brown, Senior Editor at Penguin Random House; Noelle Falcis Math, agent at Transatlantic Agency; Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of the critically acclaimed The Fact of a Body: A Murder & A Memoir, and the forthcoming Both and Neither; and Irvin Weathersby Jr., author of In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space.

Together, we will study the anatomy of successful proposals from real-world examples, learn how to balance clarity with imagination, and explore how to make the case for a book’s urgency and perspective. 

Open to writers at any stage, this course is designed to transform the proposal from a daunting publishing requirement into a generative, guiding force for the book to come.

In this course, students can expect to:

  • Parse the strategic considerations behind book proposals: what a proposal is and is not, how agents and publishers evaluate proposals, and how crafting a proposal might actually support you in writing the full manuscript.

  • Delve into proposal structure. We’ll look at what each section of a standard proposal—from the overview to the chapter summaries to the author bio and more—should accomplish and how they all work together as a cohesive whole. 

  • Analyze real examples of proposals that successfully sold to publishers.

  • Gain a grasp on how to refine and tighten this document, including tips about how to get in the mindset of agents and editors while honing their book proposal draft.

  • Ultimately, transform the process of writing the book proposal into one of clarifying the book’s vision and execution. 

About the Instructors

 

Raksha Vasudevan

 
 

Irvin Weathersby Jr.

Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

Noelle Falcis Math

Pilar Garcia-Brown

 

Details

This course will take place on Zoom. Participants will receive a Zoom link prior to the course as well as a recording of the course afterward.

After you take a course with Off Assignment, you’ll be invited into our private writing community for alumni on Slack. It includes channels for publication opportunities, reading recommendations, meet-ups, and more—not to mention literary companionship that outlasts the course itself.

There is a 10% cancellation fee if you cancel your enrollment more than 1 week before the start of the course. No refund will be given if cancelling within less than a week of the course start date (or after the course has begun).

Please email courses@offassignment.com with any questions.

FAQs →

Financial Aid

The full price for this course is $420, with early bird pricing at $370 available until May 4. Payment plans are available at checkout via ShopPay. A limited number of scholarships are available. Please fill out this form by May 11, and we’ll get back to you within a week after the deadline.

 
 

Off Assignment’s Masters’ Series courses are unique four-session courses that delve deep into a specific writing topic by harnessing the expertise and craft tactics of a renowned writer in a particular niche, plus four celebrated authors. Participating writers gain a wealth of advanced techniques while benefiting from a cohesive community of disciplined writers.