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Mini-Book Proposal

The MindBodyMed Press Mini-Book Proposal serves to help us get a glimpse of the “Big Picture.” A completed MindBodyMed Press Mini-Book Proposal will help us discern your influence as “The Expert” in the field and how to carry your manuscript to market. Your completed proposal will support our evaluation process and decision making whether or not to move forward, and sign you on as an author and publish your title.

The information you are submitting to us in this mini-book proposal needs to persuade us why we should publish your book. The MindBodyMed Press Mini-Book Proposal is wholly about the marketing aspects of your title rather than the book itself. Pondering about the marketing of your title beforehand will help you position yourself as “The Expert” in your field.

It is okay if you never published a book before. New and emerging authors are our business! All we ask that you contribute sufficient information within the context of this proposal so we can bring your book to the market with you, the author, as “The Expert” in the field.

 

Additional items to consider:

  • Use the MindBodyMed Press Mini-Book Proposal as a guide, but do not neglect to add your individual personal flair, in any place that you can.
  • Please proofread the manuscript you are attaching numerous times and have a friend proofread it for you. We cannot emphasize this enough: Eliminating spelling mistakes, typos, and grammatical gaffes up-front will dramatically minimize turnaround time.
  • Do you have an author photo? Think about taking one! We will not publish your book without one. Black and white! Be as original as you wish with poses, body language, facial expressions, etc. Tip: If you have a book dealing with the end of life decision making, an author photo with a huge grin on your face might not be the appropriate way to go. Be creative, but keep body language and facial expression (even attire), within the context of your manuscript.
  • We want to know if the topic is hot! Did Newsweek just do a cover story on recall healing? Did the Wall Street Journal write about how stress chemicals expressed in day traders’ brains influence the markets? Do you have some newsworthy items showing why prayer in cancer patients matters if you are writing about this topic? We would like to know if the topic you are writing about received national news coverage! Include the citations so we can look them up to see how we might help put those in the marketing context of your manuscript!
  • Will illustrations or photos accompany your book? Let us know and don’t forget to ask for permission to reprint from the copyright owner now.

Each field of MindBodyMed Press’ Mini-Book Proposal includes a description below the entry field to present you a broad sense why we are requesting this information.

We hope this form will excite you about positioning yourself as “THE Expert” in the field you are communicating about.

 So, most importantly! Have fun with it!

 

Reminder:

  • Did you read about MindBodyMed Press and why publish with us?
  • Did you read the manuscript submission and preparation guidelines?
  • Did you read about MindBodyMed Press’ Aims and Scope?

 

Encouragement from Nikola Tesla:

“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success . . . Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.”

We could not agree more with Nikola Tesla.

 

Completing the MindBodyMed Press Mini-Book Proposal

We know that you the prospective author are a busy person, so spending an hour or so on a form is on your list of least favorite things to do. Nevertheless, as I explained above, this information will help MindBodyMed Press to position your title for publishing success from the very beginning.

To make the process more streamlined and so you can work offline we are equipping you with a PDF version of this form. The PDF version of the MindBodyMed Press Mini-Book Proposal also incorporates a screenshot of a front and back cover with corresponding numbers to the form’s fields. This way you can recognize in what way a portion of the information we request in the proposal is utilized on the front and back cover.

The PDF version of the MindBodyMed Press Mini-Book Proposal incorporates screenshots of this form as well. This means you can prepare your entries in a word processor offline, and copy and paste them into the form once you gathered all the information. We highly recommend sending your manuscript to a published expert in the field you are writing about to garner a back cover quote. Just like Kathy did in Item 7 on the back cover of “The Experience of Being Diagnosed with Cancer.”

We also understand that this is only a beginning point, and collectively we will tweak this information to position your title in the best possibly way.

Here is a link to the PDF version of the MindBodyMed Press Mini-Book Proposal. Come back to this page (a link is provided on each page’s footer of the PDF version) whenever you are ready.

 

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Get Started Today!

Find out how MindBodyMed Press can help you unfold your creation into publishing success.

 

NOTE: When completing the fields with maximum character counts, please bear in mind that this is a count for ALL characters. In other words, a space counts as a character.

  • This is the very first item we examine when reviewing a proposal. Engage us with something that grabs our attention but definitely spells out what your manuscript is all about. Try to be as succinct as reasonable. Use a minimum of four words and a maximum of 72 characters. For titles, the following elements are relevant: Titles should at all times contain the keyword you think is most important for your book at the start of the title (if feasible). The remainder of the title should entice people to take a closer look at your book. After reviewing your manuscript, we might recommend amending the title if we believe that an alternate title might be more suitable to help get your book discovered and noticed.
  • As with your title, try to be as crisp as feasible. Use at least four words and a maximum of 150 characters. Following the main title, the subtitle is a secondary or explanatory title. Not only do subtitles add detail or reinforce the meaning of the main title they are also applied by MindBodyMed Press as Meta description when announcing your book on blogs and websites. When you do a Google search, and you glance at the results page, the Meta description is what you see underneath the clickable blue link and the green website information in black ink. Keywords related for the search are in bold. The Meta description could further be utilized on the back cover. We are asking for a second Meta description in Item 6.
  • Think of this as a tweet of 140 characters or less to whet a potential reader’s appetite for your book. What sort of thing would you pen in order to “hook” a potential reader in order to create a desire for them wanting to read more? What would you say to garner a “RT” (retweet)?
  • The author prefix is a title that precedes your name. Name prefixes are usually not included in the name field and include titles such as Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss and Dr.
  • Provide your legal first name for Library of Congress Online Catalog registration.
  • Because the author information for your forthcoming book may not previously have appeared in the Library of Congress Online Catalog, the cataloger may need more information than that provided on the title page. This will help to differentiate you from another person in the catalog with the same or similar name. It will also help to "establish" a unique name heading by which you will henceforth be identified in the Library of Congress Online Catalogs.
  • Provide your legal last name for Library of Congress Online Catalog registration.
  • The author suffix follows your full name and provides additional information about you. Do you have academic, honorary or professional suffixes?
  • Please list your name exactly as you want it to appear on your front cover. Include any academic degrees, titles, professional certifications etc. (If you would like to include those). Are you generally known as Janet Doe, Janet J. Doe, or Janet Jane Doe?
  • The author byline is a one-line description of you, the author, below your name. For example: Psychotherapist and Holistic Health Counselor | Harvard Educated Neurosurgeon | Author of... etc.
  • As briefly discussed in Item 2 earlier, use 150 characters or fewer. When you do a Google search, and you glance at the results page, the Meta description is what you see underneath the clickable blue link and the green website information. It is presented in black ink. Keywords related for the search are in bold. Depending on other design elements of your back-cover, this Meta description may or may not be utilized on the back cover. What would you communicate with the back cover quote, now that you have a potential reader’s attention, to shift the scales in favor of a purchase? Need an example? "A Harvard educated neurosurgeon reveals his remarkable experiences-in and out of the operating room-with apparitions, exorcism, after-death survival, and the miracle of hope."
  • Since the back cover is normally the final part of promotional material that a buyer sees before making a buying decision, the copy should slant the scales in support of a purchase. Do you have someone, preferably an established author who is enthusiastic about introducing and endorsing your book on the back cover? We recommend you find an established expert in your field who his willing to endorse your manuscript. Endorsements, reviews, and blurbs are frequently the most powerful selling features on a back cover. If you have the great luck to accumulate some positive reviews, be certain to add them here. If you do not have an expert endorsement, another approach to shift the purchasing scales is through an enticing book description. A well-crafted book description informs and influences the reader. For non-fiction, that means precisely defined facts that are simple to locate. Nonetheless, no cliff notes, no author’s life narrative, no thanking supporters, but incorporate features that will encourage your target audience to buy the book.
  • Once the back cover copy and/or endorsements are in position, a brief biography of the author conveys a touch of personalization and validity. This is extremely powerful for non-fiction titles, where the author’s experience and expertise count. The bio presents just enough data about the author’s credentials to validate the title. Author bios are typically written in the third person as if someone else is defining what you do. Keep in mind that media professionals and folks who book you to talk or be a guest on any number of events, will frequently copy and paste your bio. When composing your author bio it holds critical that you present yourself like “THE” Dr. Oz of your field. This is a sales piece! So, try to present yourself as someone that could make your title a bestseller without any effort from us, the publisher. It is essential to arrange your author bio with the most interesting and compelling information first. We honestly do not mind if you did or did not attend Oxford University. We consider whether you can market your title to hundreds, perhaps even thousands of potential customers. Hence, who are you and what makes you an authority on this topic? Specify as much as you possibly can. Highlight big items, the material that gives you widespread influence. Preferably, we have you introduce too much and then help you trim your bio down, than discover right before going to print, that you write a weekly column for The New Yorker, but you simply neglected to communicate this to us. Your bio should cover the most pertinent aspects relating to your subject matter or expertise: Your field of expertise Any significant media coverage you might have garnered Publications that you write for Relevant business experience (if any) A link to your website The author bio for the bestselling book Wheat Belly, illustrates this detail. “William Davis, MD, is a preventive cardiologist whose unique approach to diet allows him to advocate reversal, not just prevention, of heart disease.” Here is a different compelling author bio: “Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a leading authority on global business trends including ‘big data’, self-employment and the social media revolution. He’s the author of the award-winning book, Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed (2011, Wiley) and a regular speaker for Bloomberg TV. Patrick has spoken about global mega trends, big data and the social media revolution at conferences and business events around the world.”
  • This is self-evident, however, bears mentioning. Provide us with citations of newspaper mentions and magazine articles that featured your work, or wrote about you (blogposts, bylined articles, etc.). Provide us with citations of any public appearances (radio, TV, interviews, webinars). It is always better to trim the information down.
    Please select only one category that best describes the methodological category of your work. Is your manuscript based on a lit review? Original research? If so what type of research did you conduct? Qualitative? Quantitative. Perhaps you did a mixed methods study? Or perhaps, your work is not based on traditional research per-se, but falls into the Creative Nonfiction category? What is Creative Nonfiction? Tilar J. Mazzeo (Ph.D. in English, teaches British and European literature at Colby College) and author of The Widow Cliquot: the Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It and The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The intimate History of the world’s most Famous Perfume, sums up how to write creative nonfiction in this way: To write great creative nonfiction, a writer must tell a fact-based story in an imaginative way—not as easy a task as it sounds! Nonfiction writers must be dedicated to preserving the truth of their stories— the who, what, why, where, when, and how. The creativity enters through the use of perspective, which, like a camera lens, allows the writer to focus the reader’s attention and engage his or her imagination.
  • Here is where you tell your potential customers and us about your title. For the Amazon.com listing, your book description can have up to 4,000 characters, or about 760 words. What to include in your manuscript description? The manuscript description tells us what your book is about. Think of advertisement. We do not fancy to read pages and pages on the latest gizmo out there. An advertisement grabs our attention because ads only highlighting the most interesting features. Your manuscript description is indeed an advertisement for your book. In many instances, your abstract will suffice, but think about adding a little sex appeal to your abstract. Think of your abstract as a “sales pitch” for your published work. We recommend you use 400 words or fewer. Remember; make it entertaining, so people want to read your book bad enough they are willing to pay for it! Yes, it is okay to tweak the abstract. Why does your book stand out from all the others? Focus on the book itself, but you may also include references to other comparable books and/or authors. Also, try to keep the book description at a high-school reading level. Flesch-Kincaid reading level of 50 -100 (word → preferences → Spelling and Grammar → check “Show Readability Statistics”).
  • Keyword1:Keyword 2:Keyword 3:Keyword 4: 
    Add a row
    List a minimum of 4 keywords and/or key phrases that you think are appropriate for the manuscript you submitted.
  • Pick a photo that is stored on your computer and meets the following guidelines. Only JPEG (or JPG) photos (no GIFs, PNGs, or other formats). The photo should not be bigger than 1MB in size and between 300 and 2500 pixels in width and height. To see your pictures dimensions, right-click on your picture and select Properties or View Image Info. For excellent results, please upload a black and white picture. If you do not have a black and white picture available, a colored image will do. However, we will convert a color image to black and white.
  • Manuscript Preparation Manuscripts should be between 7,500 and 50,000 words. Total word count (which includes all text including the abstract, manuscript, notes, tables, figures, etc.) should appear on the title page. Your Manuscript Illustrating this point, we slightly modified the following Bob Greene quote: “If theory turns out to be right, [the manuscript] will be [the] tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake.” We all know that terribly icing can totally ruin a cake. The manuscript will show us your style, voice, and tone. Manuscripts should include an abstract of 400 words or fewer. Following the abstract are 4-5 keywords. All manuscripts should conform to style guidelines set forth in the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Most importantly, to go to press as expeditiously as feasible while also rendering a high quality book, we ask that you meticulously check grammar, punctuation, and style before submitting your manuscript.
  • Almost done! Please enter a valid email address that you monitor regularly, so you do not miss any communication from our editorial team. Once you hit the submit button a confirmation message will display on the screen. We'll also send a confirmation message to the email address you just provided.

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to MindBodyMed Press. Together we are changing the way mind-body scientists, clinicians, and practitioners communicate with the public.

We look forward to helping share your book and expertise around the globe and will be in touch shortly.

The MindBodyMed Press Editorial Team