book proposals

of course, i have no bloody idea about wht to do if it progresses beyond the proposal stage (which may do ... i emailed the publisher direct and the main dude told his employee to send him the proposal direct...yikes! .... but what to do?) suzy?

i've sold short stories to literary magazines before and it was cut and dry like record reviewing, etc ... but a book???

What is it you need to know? The proper format for a book proposal? I've sold two books (so far) using the following formula:

1-2 page summary of the whole thing.
Table of contents.
1 page summary of each chapter.
1-2 page autobiography, credits, etc.

That's pretty much all any publisher should want up front.

get an agent.

get a lawyer.

the birdland story

Phil's outline is pretty good. I used to have to read through hundreds of these things...the publisher I worked for would get particularly excited about authors who would include marketing information--who might be interested in doing a review, what type of people would buy it (i.e. would this be a must read by every fan of said band), any cross-promo with the band, say...really anything that will let the publisher know that she or he will get a return on the money invested. You also might want to include a vision of the book itself--how many photos (colour? b&w? throughout? section in the middle (cheaper if you're interested in throwing in colour photos)?), how much design will be necessary, what size the book will be, etc. etc. This gives the publisher info re: how much money she or he will have to invest.

Granted, the fact that you actually have full access and publisher interest is a definite plus. I don't see why you're worried.