but they don't have to be.
Our hour-long consultation is uniquely tailored to your needs, interests, questions, and curiosities.
Bring your questions! Topics we can discuss include (but are by no means limited to):
Talking through your specific pain points and struggles with the proposal, including how to identify key concepts like your book's argument or target market.
Strategies for positioning your book as part of a larger cultural conversation
Envisioning a reasonable marketing plan for your book, straight up
Helping you understand and organize your thoughts around different parts of the book proposal
What to research and how to gather and distill the kind of information that makes a case for your book
& more
There's an input form you'll fill out after booking that will help me prepare for our session, but be sure to prepare your questions in advance!
This consultation truly works at any stage of the process, but it will (obviously!) look different for you, depending on where you are.
If you're just starting out and haven't written much, it's important that, prior to the session, you do have a solid idea of the book you want to work on and can articulate what it's about (beyond just a topic, e.g. "I want to write a book about pop culture"!), as well as how you're thinking of structuring the project. These sessions will be more geared towards digging into how different sections of the proposal could look for you, as well as finessing things like project structure and how your book might tie into current conversations and strategizing where you might focus for your sample chapters. (Note that this isn't a syllabus for the session, just an idea for how it might go at that stage.)
If the book manuscript itself is underway, and you have a better sense of what the book is actually shaping up to be, that puts us in a great position to strategize more deeply about things like the book's audience, where it fits in the market, and how to make the case for it being in the world, in addition to any other specific concerns, questions, or clarifications you have about the proposal process itself.
Bring as many specific questions and concerns as you can!
I love figuring out how to sell a book.
The business side of the publishing industry is one of my favorite parts of being an author. Maybe it's because I've owned several businesses (including retail) myself; maybe it's because I used to work in content & marketing for tech startups. But the blurred line where art and commerce is one of the things that most excites me.
Doesn't mean it isn't hard. It took two separate proposals over two years to sell my first book, Heretic: A Memoir (HarperCollins) — but when I finally did sell it, it was at auction for six figures.
Over the course of that time (and in the years and projects since), I learned a lot about book proposals. At this point, I've helped dozens of friends and students
figure out how to articulate what the heck the argument is at the core of their memoir
uncover the stakes of their spiritual, meditative prescriptive nonfiction
learn the difference between marketing and publicity — and understand and PREPARE for their role in that process
research and deep-dive into who, exactly, their audience for the book is
and so much more
A class that is guaranteed to walk you through every nitty gritty part of the proposal (unless that's how you want to use our time!)
A review/edit of your actual book proposal (for that, you're looking for this package). This is a consultation in which you get to pick my brain and I help you strategize based on what you put in the intake form. (This is also why it's a good option for folks who are very early in the drafting process!)
Feeling intimidated and clueless about proposals is the main thing that kept me from trying to publish a book. With Jeanna's deeply informative lessons by my side, I wrote my book proposal in three months and had multiple offers of representation from major agencies within two weeks of submission. Every agent I spoke to said my proposal was one of the most polished they'd ever seen. Jeanna gave me all the knowledge I needed to write a killer proposal — but what I'm still carrying with me, every day, long after the proposal did its job, is Jeanna's unyielding faith in me and my writing.
After you purchase, you'll receive a confirmation email with a link to my availability on Calendly. Dates are currently open through the end of June. You'll also have an intake form to fill out while scheduling - being as detailed as possible will help me further tailor our session to your needs!
If none of the available times work, email me at jeannakadlecauthor@gmail.com and we will find a time!
Please note two important things:
If, for some reason, the kind of help you're looking for with your nonfiction project is highly specific and beyond the scope of my expertise (e.g. you're looking for subject matter editing in, say, biomedicine), then I will immediately cancel and refund your session.
Keep in mind that I live in New York City (Eastern Standard Time) and generally keep consultation hours between 11am and 4pm my time. If that doesn't work for you, then I recommend doing my independent study of How to Write a Book Proposal.
If sessions are canceled 48+ hours before, they are fully refunded.
If sessions are canceled within less than 48 hours prior to the session, there is a 50% refund & cancelation fee.
If clients simply do not show up to our session, there is no refund.
Note, every intake form has a required section in which clients will indicate that they understand that this is the policy. I will automatically cancel and refund anyone who does not agree to this policy in the intake form.