getting a publisher

How to Get a Book Deal: 7 Qualities to Cultivate

October 9, 2018 by Lisa Tener

Have you ever wondered how to get a book deal in this increasingly competitive environment? Certainly, there are the actual steps to take, including writing a top notch book proposal and growing your author platform.

Yet, there’s another side to getting a book deal—and that’s the grit. How do you stick with it? How do you complete all the steps to get there—sometimes in the face of disappointment, rejection and even what seems like failure?

Thursday’s Happy Book Deal Story

I received an email last week from a client sharing his good news: he’d just heard from his literary agent with the first offer from a publisher! It was particularly thrilling because things had not been looking so rosy a month ago. In fact, the rejections had been pouring in and he wondered whether he would ever get a book deal at all.

I believe this author’s success in getting a book deal is based largely on several particular qualities of his. Let’s see if you can guess what they are…Without reading ahead, close your eyes and think of a few qualities you believe to be crucial to an author’s success in getting a book deal. Open your eyes and jot ’em down.

Now let’s see if you guessed right! (Or perhaps you’ve identified additional qualities—please share them as a comment below.)

Visionary

When I first met this author, I was intrigued by his book idea, but I wasn’t sure I was the right book proposal coach for him. While intrigued, I wasn’t particularly excited about the subject at first glance.

Yet, when I hesitated during our first phone call, the author convinced me that this book was necessary, groundbreaking and transformational. He shared his vision and I soon shared his enthusiasm—a complete turnaround.

This visionary ability—and the enthusiasm with which he shared his vision—served him time and again in developing his platform, signing a contract with a top literary agent and ultimately in getting a book deal.

Flexible and Coachable

Some folks will tell you why they can’t do xyz, or why building a platform isn’t going to work for them or why their book has to be 750 pages. And they may be right, but it may not be so easy to help them get a book deal with that kind of rigidity.

On the other hand, authors who take each recommendation step by step and figure out a way to do even the uncomfortable, the daunting and the downright terrifying have a better chance of developing the platform and proposal that publishers want to see. Some of those efforts may meet with success while others may miss the mark. Yet, if you’re willing to try a number of challenges, some of them will work.

Maybe you don’t get a commitment from the New York Times bestselling author you’ve identified to write the foreword for your book, but you do get some yeses for endorsements and even a couple of commitments for special sales (or bulk sales) that you can include in your book proposal.

This author took each of my recommendations and, step by step, implemented them, even though he didn’t have a huge budget to implement everything all at once, or the time to initiate all suggestions at once. It took time but slowly, step by step, his platform grew—developing a professional website, blogging for Psychology Today online, tweeting actively, setting up speaking engagements, adding video to his website. When he hit a wall, he came back for advice, listened and took it!

Intuitive and Creative

Now, I’m not saying ignore your intuition and listen only to your book proposal coach! But weigh the advice and check in with your heart. Are you open to what’s possible? Is it truly your intuition speaking or your fear? Only you can answer that one.

If you hit a wall, can you get creative? If you can’t grow your platform one way, or get commitments for presales, are there other, creative ways to accomplish these goals? This author set a number of challenging goals, achieving some and not others. When something didn’t work, he looked for new ways to accomplish a similar goal, creatively.

Persistent

In the same way this author knew he wanted to work with me, he was completely clear about the literary agent he wanted to work with. He contacted her a bit early in the process. She expressed interest and encouraged him to continue to work on his author platform, providing several specific suggestions.

He consistently did the work on his platform and it grew enough that he decided to approach her again. Again, she encouraged him to work on platform, as he still needed to build it. Yet, he felt that to continue to do the work, he needed the motivation of having signed with this agent (there’s that intuition again!). He promised to do the work and asked her to take him on as a client.

Now, this isn’t the advice I generally give a client. Why tie yourself to a particular agent when that agent is clear that you are not yet in the position where she would be ready to pitch your book to publishers? Doesn’t it make sense to wait until you have what she requires? Well, that was my orientation but in this author’s case, his persistence paid off. She signed him as a client, gave him a couple more platform suggestions and he had the emotional boost he’d needed to keep on truckin’—another example of trusting your intuition about what you personally need to be successful in getting a book deal.

Eventually, he felt he’d accomplished what he could on the agent’s list and asked her to pitch the book. She did.

Resilient

Feedback was tough. As I mentioned, the book was groundbreaking. It served a good sized audience that hadn’t really been served by a book specifically for their challenge before.

And, unfortunately, publishers tend to prefer books that compete in an established space. Acquisitions editors wondered whether there truly was an audience for the book. Without having sold products or programs (such as a webinar series) to such an audience, it wasn’t clear whether the intended audience would just look for information in online articles or whether they would actually buy a book to help them resolve this challenge.

And so, initially, no offers came in. One publisher did suggest a different book that they’d be interested in from this expert. And yet, the author felt it would be disappointing to turn his back on the book where his deepest passions resided. He considered the other book, but he didn’t feel quite the same enthusiasm as he did for the first. He hung in there.

Well, you know what happened. Fortunately, he didn’t have to turn his back on the first book because the first offer came in, and then a second offer.

Your Turn

I look forward to the day when I can share more details about this particular book, once the contract is negotiated and signed. Meantime, what takeaways to you have from the story? What insights do you have for qualities you can cultivate in yourself? What’s been serving you in your work in writing your book proposal or book and what qualities or tendencies could you cultivate in order to get a book deal? Share your insights and experiences as a comment below. Thanks!

Whom Do I Contact First? Finding an Agent, Getting a Publisher and Sending a Book Proposal…

August 11, 2015 by Lisa Tener

Are you at all confused about the order of finding an agent, getting a publisher and sending a book proposal? Do you wonder, “Where do I start?”

A couple of days ago, Jennifer wrote this comment:

Reading through your website and other people’s questions and ideas has been extremely helpful.
I am very new to this, however, and I’m unsure of the process/protocol in finding a publisher, editor or literary agent. Is there an order of operations as to who to reach out to first and when?”

The first question is easy to answer: First, reach out to a freelance editor if you want to polish your book proposal and/or manuscript. It’s a competitive market and that extra step is almost always crucial.

Next, if you can attract a literary agent, I always recommend querying literary agents before looking for a publisher. Agents can negotiate a better offer, plus they can time the offers to increase likelihood of the book going to auction. In addition, literary agents know the acquisitions editors personally and know what they are looking for. Here’s more about why to work with a literary agent.

This publisher, New Harbinger, contacted the author directly. Since then, I have contacted the publisher directly for a client who had a modest, but not big, platform and a very focused market for her book.

The answer to the third question is a bit more complex. Jennifer is writing a memoir, so let me start there. The publishing process with memoirs tends to be a bit different from other nonfiction. In general, agents and publishers will want to see the entire memoir before signing you on. Once they like your proposal and sample chapters, you’ll need to send them the rest of your book–and you want an absolutely perfect, polished manuscript.

Don’t wait until their request, however, to polish your manuscript. Once an agent or publisher expresses interest, you want to send your polished manuscript while your book is still fresh in their minds and they are excited about it. So, with a memoir, have your manuscript fully edited before sending out a query or book proposal.

That is not so true with self-help and how-to books. With these books, it’s possible that an agent or publisher has strong ideas about changing the structure or content of your book. It may save you time to write the bulk of your book once you sign with an agent or publisher.

[bctt tweet=”Steps to Approach Literary Agents with a Book Proposal for a Memoir”]

1. Polish your entire memoir, including multiple rounds of editing–from developmental editing to line-by-line copy editing. I can help you find an editor, through my editor referral program.

2. Write a polished book proposal. I highly recommend consulting a book proposal coach to write the best proposal possible and make an airtight case for your book. If you don’t have a platform/following, you will most likely need to develop your author platform before moving forward, as this is crucial to most publishers.

This author found her agent through a friend.

3. Identify appropriate agents who represent the kind of memoir you are writing. Here are some good resources for finding the best agent:

Publisher’s Marketplace
PubMatch
The Acknowledgements section of books in a similar genre or subject area to yours.
Word of mouth from successfully published authors
Attending writers conferences where many agents in your genre will be present, such as the San Francisco Writers Conference.

4. Query appropriate literary agents.

5. Immediately send the polished book proposal, including sample chapters, when they ask for it. Be ready to send the whole manuscript when they ask for that, as well.

Do not send a book proposal or manuscript without first querying the agent or publisher and making sure they want to see it.

[bctt tweet=”Steps to Approach Literary Agents (or Publishers) with a Book Proposal for a How-to or Self-help Book”]

My favorite book on how to write a book proposal

1. Generally, I recommend you write a book proposal before writing the rest of the book, for the reason mentioned above. The proposal does include one or, more often, two sample chapters and outlines/summaries of all the other chapters. Polish that proposal, working with a book proposal coach or editor, to make your proposal as compelling and professional as possible. It’s a competitive arena and a polished proposal will give you an edge. It also indicates it will be less work to “take you on” than someone who makes a good case but whose sample chapters or formatting need work.

2. Identify agents who are a good match. See the resources and suggestions for memoir above.

3. If your platform is small or the potential market is narrow, or if you have tried finding an agent without success, identify appropriate publishers. Resources for identifying publishers include:

Writer’s Market, published by Writer’s Digest
Bookstores
Google searches
Searching related competing and complementary books on Amazon.com and identifying the publishers.

4. Send a Query Letter to appropriate agents (or publishers).

5. Send your book proposal to those who have said “yes!”

6. Keep writing or thinking about your book as you wait to hear back. Work on building your author platform, or reach, as well, since it will help you reach more potential readers in the long run.

7. Once you get an offer, evaluate the offers and choose the one that best meets your needs. If you do not have a literary agent, consider hiring an intellectual property attorney to read the contract and negotiate points. I often recommend a attorney who is also a literary agent. Generally, this costs about $600 and is money well spent as it will protect your intellectual property.

[bctt tweet=”When to Approach Publishers Directly Rather than Agents”]

autism — This author did not have a platform so she approached smaller publishers directly herself.

If your platform is small, you may have more luck querying small publishing houses rather than trying for big house through a literary agent. Small houses generally pay small advances and literary agents cannot afford to spend much time on books that are unlikely to garner a big advance. In addition, if your book appeals to a narrow niche audience, you may have more luck approaching publishers directly. Recently, I have worked with quite a few clients whose books appeal to a modest-sized audience and have pitched their books directly to publishers. While it’s generally ideal to have a literary agent, this strategy is good for cases where you are unlikely do find one due to platform size or market size issues. In this link, you can read more about whether to approach agents or publishers for your book.

As mentioned above, if you get an offer from a publisher, it’s still worth having an agent or attorney negotiate the finer points of your contract.

Have a question about publishing your book, finding an agent, getting a publisher interested, how to write a book proposal or anything else? Ask your questions here and I will answer…

Is it Harder to Sell a Book to Publishers in a Recession?

December 5, 2008 by Lisa Tener

The unfortunate answer to this question is, “Yes.” Yet, sometimes, “Obstacles can be turned into opportunities,” as my friend Patricia Raskin is fond of saying.

I sent an e-mail to an agent two days ago for a very exciting how-to book, with a clear audience, from a first time author with some regional (but not national) platform. Platform refers to your current audience–the people who are on your mailing list, reading your articles, coming to your talks or workshops, reading your blog, etc.

The agent wrote back that she “LOVES” (and, yes, she used capital letters) the book concept, but doesn’t think she could sell it unless the author has a national, or otherwise significant, platform. The author decided to beef up her platform before showing the proposal to agents.

What does this mean for you? The lessons here are:

1. If you want to find a traditional publisher, you need to be working on your platform. A great book concept, sample chapters, and even a killer promotion plan, may not be enough to get you a contract nowadays.

2. The good news is that this makes the competition narrower. If you can beef up your platform, you have less competition.

3. In addition, the work you do now on creating a platform will make it much easier to sell many books when your book is published.

You don’t have to do everything when expanding your platform–blogging, making and posting viral videos, public speaking, teaching workshops, writing national magazine articles, interviewing on TV, radio, and newspapers, syndicating a column, creating your own internet radio show, social networking, social marketing, pay per click advertising, website SEO…

You can pick a couple of areas to focus on and grow your platform in those areas. At the same time, you may not want to put all your eggs in one basket. Pick two or three areas for best success.

Be strategic about your activities. So many people on the internet want to sell you a single tactic for book sales or platform growth–sit back and develop a strategy that matches your strengths and goals.

Once you’ve created a strategy, find an expert, mentor or class to help you implement effectively, efficiently and successfully.

And, yes, self-publishing is a viable option, too. But if you want to sell books, whether your book is self published or traditionally published, you’ll still need that platform for book sales. You’ll be glad you developed it when you have that book in your hands and you’re ready to get it into the hands of readers everywhere.