I’m working on a nonfiction book proposal. At this point I am writing a sample chapter and making good progress.  To stand a good chance of getting the book accepted by a university press, however, I’ll have to find a qualified co-author. Someone like a professor.

To interest that co-author I think I’ll have to go beyond preparing a simple double spaced Word .doc. I think I’ll have to mock up my sample chapter in book format, with illustrations and photographs arranged as I envision the title. I might have to learn new software.

Although I can’t reveal what subject I am working on (all writers are possessive of their ideas until their work is accepted), I can leave you this happy cow as a hint. Let me know if you have had a positive experience with layout software or if you have considered self-publishing. That’s a field I also need to know more about.