How to get a book deal before you write the book

Selling on proposal

Novels are sold finished. For most adult nonfiction, Jane Friedman's advice is the reverse: "Rather than completing a manuscript, you should write a book proposal," which works like a business plan for the book (Friedman, updated February 18, 2025). The publisher buys the idea, the plan and you, then pays you to write the rest.

This is called selling on proposal, and it is the normal route for most adult nonfiction, from business and health to history and science. It usually does not work for a first memoir. Friedman says memoir follows the fiction route and "most first-time authors must finish their manuscript before approaching editors/agents." Published writers with a track record are the exception.

Selling on proposal is not a shortcut around writing. The proposal itself is a serious piece of work, and the sample chapters have to be finished, edited prose. What you skip is writing the rest of the book before you know whether anyone will publish it. Our guide to writing a nonfiction book proposal covers the parts and the length.

What a publisher is buying

An editor who makes an offer on a proposal is betting on three things, and each part of the package answers one of them:

The third item decides most deals at large houses. Friedman says a New York publisher typically won't sign a nonfiction book unless it expects to sell 10,000 to 20,000 copies, and that nonfiction authors "must already have the platform and authority" to write the book. An unknown author with a strong idea and no audience is the hardest proposal to sell to a big publisher, however good the sample chapter is.

Smaller publishers set a lower bar. Friedman's publishing paths chart describes smaller presses as "friendly to less commercial work and authors without platform" (Friedman, updated July 8, 2026). The trade-off is a smaller advance. See small press and university press publishing.

The route from idea to offer

1. Write the proposal and sample chapters. Finish both before you contact anyone.
2. Find an agent, if you are aiming at a large house. Friedman estimates "probably 80 percent" of the books large New York houses acquire come through agents, and the publishing paths chart says the Big Five "almost always" require one. Agents work on commission, so Friedman notes a project may need to be worth "at least 5 figures" in advance to be worth an agent's time. See how to find a literary agent for nonfiction.
3. Or go direct. University, independent and specialist presses often read unagented proposals. See how to get published without an agent.
4. Submission and offer. The agent sends the proposal to editors. An editor who wants it usually has to win support inside the house before an offer is made.
5. Negotiation and contract. The offer sets the advance, the royalty rates, the rights the publisher takes and a delivery date for the finished manuscript.

No one publishes a reliable average for how long these steps take, and for many proposals the answer is that no offer comes. Plan for both.

How the advance is paid

When you sell a book before it is written, you do not receive the advance as one check. You receive it in installments tied to milestones, so the publisher holds money back until it has a book it accepts. The Authors Guild Model Trade Book Contract, which the Guild publishes with commentary on what is fair, pays the advance in three parts (Authors Guild, section 4):

1. "on the execution of this Agreement," meaning at signing;
2. "on acceptance of the complete manuscript of the Work"; and
3. "on Publisher's initial publication of the Work or within _____ months after acceptance, whichever comes earlier."

The Guild's commentary gives the targets to negotiate toward:

• For advances of $40,000 or less, try for the full amount in two equal installments.
• For advances of $40,000 to $75,000, no more than three installments.
• Larger advances are sometimes split four or five ways, with the last held until the paperback edition or 12 to 18 months after first publication.
• Payment on delivery is "vastly preferable" to payment on acceptance, "since the timing of acceptance is in the publisher's control."

That last point matters most when the book does not exist yet. If the middle installment depends on acceptance, it can sit unpaid while you revise. If the final installment depends on publication, it may arrive well over a year after you deliver: the model contract gives the publisher 12 or 18 months after acceptance to publish, and the Guild says 18 is "far more typical" (Authors Guild, section 9).

The model contract calls the advance "non-refundable" against sales: if the book sells poorly, you keep it. Rejection and non-delivery are different, as the risks section below shows. For royalty rates, earning out and agent commission on the advance, see book advances and royalties explained.

What happens after you sign

Signing starts the writing, not the publishing. Under the model contract (Authors Guild, section 7):

1. You write to a delivery date. The contract names the date and the file format. The Guild advises negotiating a realistic date and adding a clause that lets you extend it by written notice if events outside your control interfere.
2. You deliver. The publisher then has, in the model, "60 days following Publisher's receipt of the complete Work" to tell you in writing whether it is editorially acceptable.
3. You revise. If changes are needed, the publisher gives written editorial comments and you get 60 days, unless otherwise agreed, to revise. The publisher can reject the revision within 30 days of receiving it.
4. The book is produced. Penguin Random House describes the work after acquisition this way: "an Editor works with the author to turn the manuscript into a finished book," while managing editorial and production editorial handle "turning manuscripts into bound books" (PRH department guide). Design, sales, marketing, publicity and subsidiary rights each have a part.
5. The book is published, within the 12 or 18 months after acceptance that the contract allows. In the model contract, the publisher decides the format, cover price and cover.

The writing period is where selling on proposal gets hard. The book you deliver has to match the book you sold, and the model contract lets a publisher ask for revisions if the manuscript "fails to meet" the description of the work in the contract.

The risks, clause by clause

Selling a book you have not written means signing obligations you have not yet met. These are the clauses where that shows, with the Authors Guild model as the benchmark:

Two further clauses reach beyond this book. An option clause can give the publisher first look at your next book, and the Guild advises limiting it. A competing-works clause can restrict what else you publish. Both are covered in rights and contract terms.

What most people get wrong

• Treating the advance as money in hand. In the model contract, part of it waits for acceptance and part for publication, which can be up to 18 months after that.
• Pitching a memoir as a proposal. Unless you have a publishing record or a large platform, expect to finish the memoir first.
• Overpromising in the proposal. The contract describes the book you sold. Promise only what you can deliver by the date you agree to.
• Signing a delivery date you cannot meet. Missing it, after the grace period, can end the contract and bring a demand for repayment.
• Ignoring the repayment terms. "First proceeds" and "repay regardless" read alike at a glance and are very different promises.