Hello! I’m Clare Edge, the author of the “I choose the bear” feminist revenge thriller, Natural Selection.
The amazing team at Get Underlined offered me the opportunity to share some behind-the-scenes content about the book, so today, I’m going to give you a peek into the book proposal that became Natural Selection.
Actually, let’s rewind even more, back to summer 2023. I was brainstorming thriller ideas and wrote down a short, very alliterative pitch: “Boys, bears, bonfires, & betrayal. In a secluded mountain town, as the snow thaws, the secrets won’t stay buried.”
Boys, bears, bonfires, & betrayal. In a secluded mountain town, as the snow thaws, the secrets won’t stay buried.
And then it sat in my notes app until the “man or bear” viral phenomenon of early 2024, when it came roaring out of hibernation. But I didn’t write the entire book before I sold it. I wrote a proposal. Proposals vary a lot. Since I was early in my career, I wanted to make sure mine was robust. I drafted around 27,000 words (about 100 manuscript pages, just over 1/3 of the book), wrote a synopsis that covered the rest of the plot, and then made a pitch deck.
Pitch decks aren’t required, but I make them for each of my books to help me establish the visual world of the book and articulate the pitch. I have aphantasia (aka no visual imagination or memory) and creating a visual deck really helps me when it comes to drafting. It’s also a great sales tool. So I thought I’d show you some (slightly redacted) slides from the original pitch deck that went out to editors. Including the incredible editor Krista Marino, at Delacorte, who bought the manuscript and helped me turn it into the bear of a book that published this week!
So here it is! The pitch deck for the proposal of Natural Selection, page by page! (All created in Canva, I’m a Canva addict and am extremely wistful for only two short years ago when AI hadn’t infiltrated it.)
Title page!
An introduction to the vibes, the title (of course), and the genre! And if you look closely there’s a bear in the flames!
Table of contents!
Another chance to introduce the vibe with a background image and let the editor know what’s coming in the deck.
Tagline!
This wasn’t officially the tagline for the book, but it did end up influencing the tagline we ultimately used on the cover and in the marketing copy: “When it comes to boys and bears, always choose the bear.”
The pitch!
The most important piece of marketing copy. I LOVE a pitch. My friend Kelsea Yu (check out her YA thriller It’s Only a Game and her adult gothic horror Stormraven!) recently called me the “pitch witch,” and it’s a title I wear with pride. I was a copywriter in a previous life and marketing copy is so fun to me. I’m redacting the final paragraph of this pitch because HUGE spoilers, but sometimes spoilers are what can help sell a book through, especially to hook an editor’s interest! Pitches vary a lot based on who the intended audience is, and if you’ve seen the official description for Natural Selection, you’ll notice that there are very few similarities between what I wrote for the submission to editors and what is on the book!
Not sure what to call this page!
I also included a page that linked to a song I listened to a lot while conceptualizing the book. I always draft in silence (it’s a whole THING), but this amazing song by Lilith Max, particularly the viral reel and not the fully produced song she released later, played on my phone and in my head a lot while making this deck and while dreaming into the world of Riverside.
Bio page!
This one’s pretty self-explanatory, though I did tweak my bio to be more in the voice of the book. Couldn’t help it. And I WAS raised to be bear aware before I learned about stranger danger!
Vibes page!
Also pretty self-explanatory. Also I mostly pull images from Canva Pro’s stock (though watch out for AI these days, ooof) and from Unsplash and Pexels. I’m really careful about trying to only use fair use images as I like to repurpose my decks for promo on socials when the book is published!
Characters page!
My Meg(h)ans! I love them so. Also, eagle-eyed readers might notice some spelling discrepancies with the Meg(h)ans. The various spellings of Megan were a HOT topic in the creation of this book, so if you spy a few errant Meagans in these proposal pages, it’s because Megan Deloria’s spelling changed several times.
The comps page!
“Comp” is short for comparative title (or sometimes competitive title, tbh I can’t keep track of who uses which, but I’ve heard them both used). I went a little unhinged with my comps for this one, but I wanted to give a good feel for just what you’re getting into. Though I suppose one of them is a BIT spoiler-y. Whoopsies.
The selling points page!
This was a new one for me, but I decided to add it because I wanted to drive home that “I choose the bear” wasn’t going anywhere. Turns out, I was very right about that. But even if that viral moment had faded away or become less relevant (if only!!!), I wanted to articulate why I think the book is bigger than that moment.
Sample intro page!
One more chance for some vibes, setting expectations for how many pages to expect, and a quick content warning note.
And for this proposal, I also designed the synopsis. It was my first time writing a full synopsis without having written the book first, so I used the design elements to sort of trick my brain into being able to write it. Redacting this page a bit because it’s RIFE with spoilers, but I wanted to show off one of my prouder Canva moments.
And that’s that! The proposal that became Natural Selection!
