Following up on this, can someone either provide an example or link to of a non-fiction book proposal. I've Googled it naturally, but what I'm a little more interested is not an example that tells you the elements of a good proposal, but what it actually looks like.
That is, does one simply start with a query? If a query should include an actual proposal and sample chapters and you are supposed to paste that into the body of an email I worry about how informal that will all look. With fiction pasting a sample chapter into an email is easy, but with non-fiction the sample chapter(s) might not even be the most important part. You want your proposal to shine, and if it's in the body of an email format might look sloppy. But maybe agents are aware of this.
I'm just trying to get a sense how the query and submission process progresses, and what submissions actually look like. These aren't the days of mailing in a formally printed and bound proposal, so I'm wondering how polished proposals actually are and look when done by email. I guess if an attachment is asked for, you can make it look stronger but if not what to submissions look like?
Thanks!