Writing a book proposal may not be exactly like appearing on a reality-TV show, but thinking about it in that way might help to remind you what you’re up against.
In case you spend your Monday nights reading the pre-Socratic philosophers or sequencing genes and have missed the riveting TV series The Bachelor, here’s how it works: One bachelor is pursued by 25 bachelorettes (or vice versa). All the contestants have been screened well and seem close enough to appropriate on first blush.