Constant ResonanceBoutique Advisory Studio for Writers and Publishers

A working document for authors

Know the BookBefore You Pitch It

A considered record of the author, the work, and the communities it may reach.

You do not need to complete this in one sitting. Begin with what you know. Return as the book and your understanding of it develop.

How to use it

This is not a test of whether you deserve to publish.

It is a place to gather language, relationships, opportunities, and evidence that can help other people understand the work without asking the work to become something else.

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01The authorThe experiences and language you bring to the work.

How should your name appear publicly?

Describe yourself in about 50 words.

Tell the fuller story of your work, experience, and perspective.

What interests, hobbies, or ongoing practices help people understand you?

Which jobs, roles, or life experiences inform this book?

Which professional, cultural, civic, or creative communities are you part of?

Which writers or thinkers help locate your work? Where does the comparison stop being useful?

List lectures, readings, workshops, interviews, teaching, recordings, or other public experience.

02The bookThe work in your own language, before positioning takes over.

What is the current title and subtitle, if any?

What kind of book is this, and where is it in its development?

Why are you the person writing this particular book?

Describe the book clearly in one or two sentences.

Describe the book's movement, stakes, and promise in 250 to 400 words.

What made you begin this book? What keeps you with it?

Which questions, tensions, or issues does the book stay with?

What research did the work require? What did you discover that changed it?

What is distinctive, difficult, or surprising about how this book was written?

Who might need, enjoy, recognize themselves in, or argue with this book?

Which existing books share readers, questions, or qualities with yours? What does your book do differently?

03The book's communitiesSpecific people and places where genuine interest may already exist.

Which local or specialist stores might understand and carry this book? Include locations or contacts when useful.

List journals, newsletters, magazines, blogs, podcasts, or websites whose existing interests meet the book.

Which associations, clubs, companies, schools, libraries, agencies, or community organizations might care about the work?

04Public conversationWays to speak from the book rather than simply advertise it.

Which regional, formal, thematic, or community awards may fit the book? Note deadlines if known.

Which moments from the writing or research could open an interview or conversation?

What is timely, consequential, newly visible, or culturally useful about the book?

Which subjects connected to the book could you discuss in an article, essay, talk, or interview?

Which anniversaries, seasons, public events, or recurring moments connect naturally to the work?

05Early readers and advocatesRelationships that may help the work enter the world with context.

Which authors, experts, or community figures might respond sincerely to the work? Note the connection, if any.

Which people, groups, organizations, or book clubs may want an early copy? Add contact details only if you have permission to share them.

06ContinuityA record of the people who carried the work and the signs that it is finding its way.

Keep a running list of people, places, grants, and communities you may want to thank.

Note meaningful responses, useful feedback, invitations, breakthroughs, and other signs that the work is connecting.

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Source and adaptation

This original working form was prompted by Birukti's account of completing a publisher's author questionnaire. Its questions have been reorganized and reframed for the writer-centred practice of Acts of Constant Resonance.

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