July 29, 2005
The Book Proposal
So the lady from the book publishing company (see my previous entry) asked me to submit a book proposal. Specifically, she said I needed to include a working table of contents, information on my background, the perceived audience for the book and their needs, and any marketing promotional activities I would undertake to promote the book. She ended the e-mail with "well, you know how to write a proposal, so..."
OK, yes, I do know how to write a proposal. But somehow, a book proposal seems very different and more intimidating. A friend who wrote a book recommended that I purchase a book called "Write the Perfect Book Proposal" by Jeff Herman. So I picked it up at Borders. It's a very good book and it includes 10 sample book proposals.
But yikes! All of the sample book proposals include quite a bit more info than what the book publishing lady told me. Specifically, they all include fairly detailed summaries of each chapter of the proposed book. Some even include an actual sample chapter. I have come up with a fairly detailed table of contents for the book, but now I have to prepare chapter summaries! And the book I bought says that these should be 1-2 pages each. Since "my book" has 18 chapters, that's maybe 27 pages of text. How do people get time to work on stuff like this in between their other work?
Plus, I need what the book calls a "catchy title" and "catchy chapter titles." I wonder how long it will take to think those up.
All I can think of now is "why did I ever agree to do this?"
Posted by Deborah at 5:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 28, 2005
In a Funk
I haven't been blogging because I've been bogged down with things to do -- both work and home-related -- and I've been in sort of a funk about it. On the home side, we've been doing some major decluttering of one of our bedrooms. Up to now, my husband the packrat has refused to get rid of his zillion or so computer and hobby magazines, old college textbooks and who knows what, that he kept in that room and never looked at. Finally I convinced him, and it has taken us weeks to get rid of all that stuff. We now have to get the windows and lighting in the room replaced, and it is not easy to find home contractors that are willing to do small jobs.
On the work front, yes, I've been working on several different projects, none of which is really worth blogging about. I am still waiting for three RFPs to come out for two of my clients, and I'm waiting for my workplan client to return from overseas so that I can get going on the next phase of that project. And I've barely begun on the book proposal because I can't really seem to get excited about it. But I did promise to submit it, so I'm planning to spend the next couple of days and the weekend working on it.
It's just one of those in-a funk periods that seem to creep up on you every so often.
Posted by Deborah at 4:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 20, 2005
What Color is Your Proposal?
Yesterday I got this sort of panicky-sounding e-mail:
Subject: Technical proposal.
What does a score of yellow in this area mean?
DOD (and sometimes other agencies) sometimes use a color-coded system to evaluate proposals. I interpreted the above e-mail to mean that the writer had received a "yellow" score on her technical proposal and didn't know what it meant.She may have forgotten to look in her RFP, where the meaning of the colors are usually explained.
The color-coded system is usually something like this:
- Blue - Excellent
Proposal demonstrates excellent understanding of requirements and approach that significantly exceeds performance or capability
standards. Has exceptional strengths that will significantly benefit the Government - Purple - Good
Proposal demonstrates good understanding of requirements and approach that exceeds performance or capability standards. Has one or more strengths that will benefit the Government. - Green - Satisfactory
Proposal demonstrates acceptable understanding of requirements and approach that meets performance or capability standards. Acceptable solution. - Yellow - Marginal
Proposal demonstrates shallow understanding of requirements and approach that only marginally meets performance or capability standards necessary for minimal but acceptable contract performance. - Red - Unacceptable
Fails to meet performance or capability standards. Requirements can only be met with major changes to the proposal.
When the government uses a color-coded system to evaluate proposals, the colors indicate the degree to which the proposal has met the standard for each factor that is being evaluated.
Posted by Deborah at 5:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 19, 2005
I Know You're Out There
I don't know the names of most of the subscribers to this blog. Many people don't submit any name at all, and many use personal e-mail addresses and not the e-mail addresses of their companies and organizations. That is fine with me -- I don't have a need for names or e-mail addresses (except to send my update notifications). My mailing list is never used for any other purpose; it is secure and is never given out to anyone.
However, I do look at the list occasionally, and when I do, I am always surprised at the number of subscribers who are government employees (quite a few of them do use their government e-mail addresses). I am curious to know why they have subscribed to this blog, since it is geared to the "other side" -- writing proposals as opposed to reviewing proposals or preparing solicitations. Perhaps they are just curious themselves, or maybe they are preparing for a career change into the private or non-profit sectors. Or maybe they just want to learn what it's like to be on the other side.
Whatever the reason, I think we could learn a lot from these folks. So, government subscribers, I invite you to speak up! Make comments to some of the blog posts. Or if you have a topic that you'd like to write about, send me an e-mail and I'll arrange for it to be posted on the blog. In either case, you don't have to give your name, e-mail address or agency if you don't want to.
I know you're out there. So give us your thoughts from the government perspective.
Posted by Deborah at 5:12 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 15, 2005
RFP Delays
The government RFP you've been waiting for has been announced in FedBizOpps. The announcement isn't the actual RFP -- rather, it's what's called a "synopsis." Basically, the synopsis contains the RFP number and title, a short description of the project and, most importantly, the expected RFP release date and due date. It's an advance notice that the RFP is coming, which hopefully gives you a little time to do some pre-planning and scheduling for your upcoming proposal.
But the anticipated release date comes and goes with no sign of the RFP. Days or even weeks may pass and still no RFP. What's going on? You call the Contracting Officer whose name and number appeared in the synopisis and ask him or her when the solicitation will be released. Sometimes they'll give you a new release date; often they'll tell you that they are "still working on it." So now all your pre-planning and scheduling has gone to hell in a handbasket.
This happens more often than you might think. Right now, two of my clients are waiting for RFPs that are critically important to their businesses. The synopsis for one of these RFPs appeared in May; the other RFP was scheduled to be released on June 30. Neither of them have arrived. Not only does this create havoc with my clients' schedules, it presents problems for me (and other consultants' schedules as well). We are all sitting around in limbo because the government doesn't have its act together.
Most experienced contractors have gone through this waiting game any number of times. The real question is: why? The answer is ???
Posted by Deborah at 5:29 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
July 12, 2005
Rats!
Oh, I know you don't want to hear about this, but I've had a terrible time with my computer. Yesterday morning, we got hit with a power outage. When the power came back on about three hours later, I turned my computer back on. One of my e-mail messages had gotten corrupted when the computer had shut down, and my e-mail program (Outlook Express) was frozen and wouldn't work at all. All my messages were there, but I couldn't read them, delete them, or get any new messages. I worked on it for a couple of hours and was finally able to rename and move my entire inbox to a new folder. By doing that, I could receive and send new e-mail, but I couldn't get to the old messages, some of which I desperately needed.
A $35 call to Microsoft didn't help any. The Microsoft tech that I talked to was amazed I was able to move the message folder and wanted to know how I did it. I didn't bother to tell her -- all I wanted to know was how to be able to access the messages. After an hour on the phone with her, I gave up. She wanted me to delete the entire folder with all the old messages and I refused. I thought I could figure out a way to get all those messages back. But of course I didn't realize that it would take the rest of the day.
I tried a few demo "fix it" programs that didn't work. I made a change to the registry, which I've done to fix similar problems in the past, but that didn't work either. Then -- a brilliant idea! I thought maybe I could import all my messages into Outlook. Except -- somehow I managed to blitz Outlook from my machine when I made the registry change. So then I had to reinstall Outlook, another time-waster. But once reinstalled, it let me import all my Outlook Express messages, including my old inbox. Then I exported the old inbox back into Outlook Express. Success -- almost! Every message was duplicated three or four times, giving me an inbox of some 6,000 messages. So I spent the rest of the day deleting the duplicates.
Some fun. Now what I want to know is why Microsoft couldn't come up with that solution. They could have saved me hours and hours of work. And since both Outlook and Outlook Express are Microsoft products, you'd think they could figure it out. But no....
So now I have all my messages back in my inbox. But I'm exhausted.
Posted by Deborah at 6:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 8, 2005
July Site Update
I try to get around to updating my site once a month, but in reality it usually works out to every six weeks. This month, I've added ten new resources.
One of the best of these new resources is entitled "Typical Funding Sources and Advantages/Disadvantages of Each." This easy-to-read table was developed by Ellen Hatfield and is reproduced on Carter McNamara's extensive non-profit website.
The advantages/disadvantages table is a excellent resource for those of you who are seeking out and comparing different types of grant and funding sources.
For the full list of my new site updates, just go on over to my What's New Page.
And to my London-based friends and blog subscribers, please know that my thoughts are with you. I hope that all of you, your family and friends are OK.
Posted by Deborah at 6:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 6, 2005
Your Thoughts Are Welcome
Out of the blue, a major publisher has asked me to submit a proposal for a book on government contracting and proposal writing. Although I'm not sure right now that writing book is something that I want to do, I figure I'll prepare the proposal, send it in, and see what happens. If they don't like it, then I won't have to be concerned about it any more. If they do like it, well...I'll deal with that later.
The information that the publisher has asked me to submit includes a table of contents, some biographical information, my thoughts about who the audience for the book would be, and some of the ways in which I could help market and promote the book.
So I thought I would turn to you -- my blog readers -- to get your thoughts on what you would like to see covered in such a book. I'm seeking your ideas for sections or subsections of the table of contents. What kinds of things would you like to know more about? What kinds of things would you like to know how to do, or how to do better? Or any other thoughts or ideas you might have about what the book might contain or how it should be structured.
If you'd like to contribute your ideas, please use the "comment" feature below or send me an e-mail.
Thanks! I'll let you know about the progress of this venture as (or if) it proceeds.
Posted by Deborah at 5:07 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
