How to Land a Book Deal

I wasn’t always an online entrepreneur.

For the first six years I was in business, I had no email list — just a website.

The authors I worked with were celebrities, experts and some lucky individuals who had cash to spare on making their dreams come true.

But in 2013, I got the chance to work with Robyn Youkilis on the proposal for her first book, Go With Your Gut. Robyn explained how her business model was different. As a health coach, she did some one-on-one consulting but mostly sold online courses through email and social media marketing.

And she had created it all from scratch herself.

Frankly, my mind was blown.

I thought Robyn was brilliant.

And then, over the next five years, I met dozens of other online entrepreneurs — all creative and smart, all with their own niche, all doing important work, all with amazing ideas for books that would make a difference.

The only hurdle?

Publishers didn’t always get the power of sales funnels. (And still don’t.)

I would work with a successful female entrepreneur (like Susie Moore) who had an awesome idea for a book and it would get turned down by editors all over New York. The literary agent and I would be stumped, because the idea and the author’s “platform” (how the author intends to market and sell the book to a specific audience) was strong.

An entrepreneur could have thousands of followers on social media, a robust email list, and an awesome idea but still get rejected. And that’s when I realized that there was a gap between how entrepreneurial authors present themselves and what publishers need to see in order to say yes.

I’ve sat at the table where editors say “yes” to offering a six-figure book deal.

But I’ve also been on the struggle bus trying to connect LeadPages to ConvertKit.

With experience on both sides, I realized that there’s a gap between online entrepreneurship and traditional book publishing. The truth is that publishers need entrepreneurs like you to write books. Without content and ideas and authors with audiences, publishers don’t have anything to sell.

But entrepreneurs need publishers too — because what I’ve seen happen to LOTS of clients — including Robyn — is that a book supercharges your business. A book deal gives you instant credibility with your audience and helps to attract your ideal clients.

So how do you bridge that gap?

What do you really need in your proposal to help an editor or publisher say yes?

I’ll give you a hint — it’s more than a good idea. It’s being able to show how your book will be different, how you can help your book sell to the point of it almost being a freaking guarantee, and not seeming like a total con-woman or psycho in the process.

I know - it seems like a tightwire act, and in a lot of ways, it is.

But the trick is to think like a publisher - a stressed-out, worried, numbers-driven person who knows that an idea can be great and still not sell. How can you make her life easier? How can encourage her to say yes?

What often makes a book proposal sell is something entrepreneurs are all too familiar with.

Can you guess it?

Sales funnels.

Seriously. A platform is just a sales funnel in disguise.

Publishers want to know who you’re going to sell to and how.

Hello, sales funnel!

The catch is articulating that in a language they can understand.

Which you can do if you learn how the publishing industry works — which is easy because you’ve got me on your side sending you emails ABOUT THAT. (#winning)

So what might have seemed like an insurmountable obstacle?

Is a small task, really — at least for an awesome entrepreneur like yourself.