Pragmatic Bookshelf Book Proposal

We’re glad you are here! Thanks for considering The Pragmatic Programmers as your publishing partner.

What happens next? Start by getting to know our books and our style. We focus on readers and keep things hands-on. We skip background and theory, and instead start with simple activities that build confidence fast. Read through some of our books, and then use this document to tell us about your idea. You can download free sample chapters from each book’s table of contents at PragProg.com.

Once we receive your proposal, we review it as a team. Sometimes we can give an immediate yes. A definite no usually just means we’re not the right publisher for the project. Most of the time, this document becomes the starting point for a conversation where we dig in and learn more about what you have in mind.

We know there are a lot of unknowns at this stage, and some of these questions might be tough to answer. That’s okay. This isn’t a test. Just give us your best thinking and we’ll take it from there.

Please note that we want to hear your voice and see your writing. While we know LLMs are now part of many writers’ toolkits, we ask that you compose both this proposal and the sample chapter without AI assistance.

Finally, please delete the writing prompts after you’ve answered them.

About You

1. For each author, please give us your name, email, and timezone

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2. For each author: please tell us a little about yourself:

   • Write a third-person bio that tells us who you are and what you do. Imagine that this bio will be displayed next to your book on pragprog.com.

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Tell us about your experience and relation to the topic, including: * Your relationship to the community (how active you are) * Public speaking about this topic (podcasts, talks, classes taught) * Other content you’ve written on the topic (articles, books, tutorials) * Ways readers can connect with or follow you: - Twitter handle - LinkedIn address - Blog - Github page

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Book Title

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Page Count

When you think of the final book, how thick will it be (inches, mm, words, or rough page count)? Most of our books run 20-25 pages per chapter.

What Is This Book About?

1. Imagine you were writing the one or two paragraphs that people would see on your book’s Amazon page. You’ll want to get the essence of the content across in a compelling way. What would you write? (Don’t worry, we have people who’ll do the real marketing blurb.)

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2. What overall style do you envisage? (building a sample application, cookbook style recipes, short exercises, anecdotes from real-life stories, …)?

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Why Is This Book Needed?

Our books are not just a bunch of facts. Instead we want them to take the reader on a journey where they will come to master some particular topic. So tell us, in one or two paragraphs each:

1. What will readers be able to do after reading this book that they couldn’t do before?

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2. Who will benefit from this book?

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3. How are these people currently getting information about the subject of the book (other books, YouTube, online docs, …)? In what way will your book serve them better?

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An Outline

This might be the trickiest section. We’re not asking you to commit to a table of contents, but we do want you to think about the structure and the reader’s journey. Every author will start with some kind of plan, and every author will find that that plan changes as they start writing (and as our editors get involved). So what’s yours? Just give us a list of major headings and a sentence describing each. There’ll probably be from 8 to twelve sections here. You don’t need to include things like the preface and bibliography.

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Writing sample

We’d love to see a sample chapter from somewhere in the middle of the proposed book as a separate attachment. We are looking for hands-on, actionable content on a fairly meaty topic.

If you’ve written any other books, please link to them here.

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