Sample Acquisition Proposal

Acquisition Process article | The Purple Crayon home page

A typical acquisition proposal includes a cover sheet with several standard pieces of information. Various supporting materials will be attached. What follows are the main sections in a typical AP.

Details about the book:

Author, illustrator (if any), editor, imprint, title, possible season of publication, category/genre, projected price, projected print run, trim size, number of pages, etc.

Author:

Information about the author, focusing particularly on publishing history. This may consist of a short bio., like that seen on the back flap of a book, including previous titles, especially successful ones.

Illustrator:

Included if the book is to be illustrated: usually a proposed illustrator only, or an example of the type of illustrator to be sought out. If the editor has a particular illustrator in mind, there will be a short bio. and some sample titles.

The Book:

A brief description of the book, and a somewhat longer statement of the rationale for publishing it:

• What's distinctive about this book?
• How does the editor feel about it?
• Why does it make sense for this publisher to publish this book?
• How well is it likely to be received?

Additional Materials: Some optional, some required, depending on the publisher

• The manuscript--if a novel, probably only a partial ms.
• Sales history (if known)
• Competition/similar titles
• Reviews and awards for past books
• A P & L statement (profit and loss); a tentative budget for the book, demonstrating that it will be profitable, figuring in royalty costs, overhead, manufacturing costs, and possibly including break-even point, sub-rights income, and any unusual expenditures. The manufacturing costs should be based on:
  • A preliminary manufacturing estimate (PME) or something similar; this is the manufacturing department's estimate of the cost to produce the book, based on the specs (trim size, page count, binding, any special features) provided by the editor.
• Proposed contract terms; including royalty, advance, subsidiary rights included, any non-standard terms.

Distribution: A typical list--this varies greatly

• All the editors in the imprint
• The head of the imprint
• The art director
• The heads of all imprints in the division
• The president/publisher of the division or company
• The marketing director
• The sales director
• The publicity director
• The sub. rights director
• The finance department
• The managing editor

Copies of the approved AP will be distributed to a similar list.

Acquisition Process article | The Purple Crayon home page