Against Using the Book Proposal to Rethink Your Book: Why and How to Work on Your Book Instead

Drawing from personal experience revising my dissertation into a book and helping dozens of authors do the same, I put language to a critical yet challenging phase in this process: working on one's book. After describing what working on one's book entails, elucidating how it fundamentally differs in posture from writing a book proposal, and explaining why authors might abandon this work prematurely in favour of more familiar modes of working, I offer actionable prompts and exercises that authors can use to make working on their book more concrete.