The Book Shelf

Book Proposals

Book Proposals


If you dream of seeing your book in a bookshop or winning a major accolade, then you almost certainly need a publisher on board. But how do you convince a publisher to take on your book? Do you need an agent or can you submit directly? We can answer these questions and more…

Get in touch

Our nonfiction book proposal service is ideal if you:

  • Want to land a publisher but don’t know the process.
  • Aren’t sure how to write a strong book proposal.
  • Have written a proposal but don’t know whether it’s good enough.

This service will help you:

  • Understand the book proposal process and where agents fit in.
  • Create a strong book proposal to pitch.
  • Figure out your sample chapters.

You’ll get insider information on what agents and publishers are really looking for and objective feedback on your proposal.

The service

  • To get started, we’ll have a call to discuss your book and your publishing goals, including whether you need an agent and the process of submissions.
  • If you haven’t started your proposal yet, we’ll provide a template proposal and guide you through the process of writing it.
  • When you’ve got a first draft, we’ll review it and give you feedback to help you improve it.
  • We’ll work with you until the proposal is ready.

Our book proposal service with an expert nonfiction book coach is £300 and this covers:

  • A 30-minute coaching call to get you started
  • A template book proposal document
  • A critique of your book proposal and sample chapters, with reviews until it’s ready
  • A 30-minute call after the review

What next?

You might want hands-on editing for your proposal and sample chapters from one of our experienced editors. You can find out more about these services here.

The Book Shelf

The legal bit

If you’d like to record the call for future reference, feel free to do so, but please don’t share it with anyone. 

We take our authors’ privacy seriously, so rest assured we won’t share your documents, details, or the content of our discussions with anyone. 

We delete all files after the project’s completion aside from those used for marketing purposes. 

You can see our privacy policy here.

The Book Shelf

Our experience

At The Book Shelf, we specialise in nonfiction books that make the world better. We empower our authors to write life-changing books for their readers. We’ve worked on over 500 books with authors around the globe—from first-timers to New York Times bestsellers to non-native speakers and everyone in between. If you want to change your readers’ lives, we want to help you achieve that.

Our specialist areas are:

  • Business: This might include entrepreneurship, leadership, getting out of the rat race, or building a business. It might relate to your particular business, teaching the reader a skill or sharing expertise on your subject matter (such as property development or animation).
  • Personal development: This includes books on how to make the reader’s life better, such as how to become happier. It might also mean teaching them individual skills such as goal-setting or nutrition. It often includes aspects of psychology, health, and wellbeing.
  • Philosophy: This can be any area of philosophy from ethical theories to ways of life, metaphysics to morality. It may be an analysis of traditional philosophy or proposing a new approach for readers.

What our clients say about our coaching services

"Ameesha was great to work with. She offered extremely useful advice on my book proposal and sample chapters, and ways to improve the readability. I would happily work with her again."


Rebekah Mullen, upcoming author, Dec 2020

"I got exactly what I was looking for with Ameesha. She gave my nonfiction book 100% and more. She is knowledgeable, genuine, dedicated and passionate. I was really wary of giving someone I didn't know my 'baby', but she instantly understood my book and I felt so lucky to have her on-side.

Ameesha caught my eye when I read her bio: 'We should all strive to make the world a better place for others'. She means it! My book is finally ready for agents and publishers and I couldn't have done it without her. 

After Ameesha did a fantastic job on helping me complete my book, I asked if she could take a look at my book proposal and query letter. Ameesha made it stronger and personalised my query letter for each individual literary agent and the independent publishers I had chosen to send to. For my book proposal, she went to lengths researching things I wouldn’t even have thought to include. Once again thank you for your outstanding work. I would love to work with amazing Ameesha again in the future."


Carly Peacock, upcoming author of "A Pocketful of Porn"

"Ameesha opened my eyes to so many things in the publishing industry. I took tons of notes from our meeting and believe because of her advice and guidance, I will have better query letters and proposals submitted compared to other authors. She was amazing!"


Jeff Clark, upcoming author, Nov 2020
406 x The Book Shelf on The Book Shelf
58 x The Book Shelf on The Book Shelf

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