Get paid to write a book

When you’ve completed the first chapter, print out the entire proposal. Then go and do something else — go and watch a movie, or have lunch. Take a good break of at least a couple of hours before you come back to read your proposal.

How to revise

Just like your writing, your revision will go through several phases. Copyediting, or line revision, where you fiddle with word choices and grammar, comes last.

Here are the steps:

1. Read the entire proposal

Read the proposal straight through. Keep note-making to a minimum. This is so you can get a sense of how the material reads. When you’ve finished this initial read-through, ask yourself whether what you’ve written stays close to your blurb. If it doesn’t, you can either change your blurb — perhaps you’ve been inspired with some creative new ideas — or you can change your proposal.

While this read-through is fresh in your mind, write out your impressions. Have you covered most of what you want to include? What else do you think the proposal needs?

2. Slash and burn

Before you start cutting, rename your document (Version B or B1, or whatever naming process makes sense to you).

Now go through the proposal and take out the material that you’ve decided you want to eliminate. If it’s too painful to simply hit the Delete key, cut the material and paste it into another document.

3. Add material

In this pass through the proposal, add the material the proposal needs. Perhaps you’ve done some additional research — write up all the material you want to include.

4. Read for coherency

Print out your proposal, and read it through to check for coherency. Make sure that you’ve included transitions in your sample chapter.

5. Revise for style

In this pass through the material, you get to jazz it up, if you wish.

6. Copy edit

In this final pass through your proposal, check for grammar and word usage.

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