The 3 Most Important Publishing People for Any Nonfiction Book Author

I’ve seen a lot of confusion online about who does what in traditional publishing. 

So today I’m going to define the three most important roles that my clients encounter on the path to a book deal.

Please remember that these roles only pertain to folks who are writing nonfiction how-to books, since that’s what I do. (If you’re writing something else like fiction, memoir, or a children’s book — your results and experience WILL vary.)

Person #1 – Independent Editor / Collaborator / Ghostwriter / Publishing Expert 

This is me. I am all of these things and do all of these tasks on an average day at work. 

Like any unregulated industry, these roles often vary person to person because there’s no universally accepted definition of what these titles mean. 

But in general — these folks work for themselves or an independent company — NOT a publisher — and charge you money in exchange for helping with your work. 

What they do for you also varies a lot so hiring anyone in this category, including me, is a buyer-beware situation. 

Personally, my team and I edit, collaborate on, and ghostwrite book proposals and manuscripts. 

I also act as a publishing expert, sharing content (like this) and teaching what I know through paid programs (like Book Deal Bootcamp). 

Person #2 – Literary Agent

A literary agent’s job is to represent you as the author — by submitting your proposal to editors at publishing houses, negotiating the terms of your publishing contract (the book “deal”), selling ancillary rights to publish your book in foreign countries or create a Netflix show and lots more.

While there is some standardization among what literary agents do and don’t do — as set by the Association of American Literary Agents — it’s still not a super-regulated industry. So you still need to be careful.

What you need to know is that reputable literary agents do not charge authors for their services directly, but instead take a commission on what you earn as the author. The standard “cut” is 15% of your advance and royalties. Literary agents and agencies vary on their commissions across all the different rights possible for a book, but that’s the basics.

Most authors land a literary agent through querying — sending emails and samples of their book. However, my clients don’t need to do this because I have relationships with 100+ literary agents and send my finished proposals to them directly. 

That’s actually a huge difference between me and the average independent editor or collaborator. I’ve been in the traditional publishing industry for nearly 20 years, have tons of contacts, and most importantly — a reputation for excellence that precedes me. 

I make life easy for a literary agent, because the toughest part of their job is wading through the thousands of queries they receive — monthly! — and finding an author whose book is likely to sell.

My proposals sell, usually for six-figures, and literary agents know that. Which is why they are quick to answer my emails and texts, allowing the clients who work with me and my team on proposals to skip the querying process altogether. (Huzzah!)

Person #3 – Editor at a Publisher

Major publishers like Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster are divided into imprints, which is a cross between a brand and a department. Imprints that you may have heard of before include Scribner (Simon & Schuster), Crown (Penguin Random House) and St. Martin’s Press (which is at McMillan). 

Each imprint has their own team of editors, as well as a publicity and marketing team. The boss and ultimate decider of the imprint is the Publisher, Editorial Director, or Editor-in-Chief (and sometimes all three; in this industry we do what we want.)

In any case, most of the time a literary agent doesn’t submit to the boss — even the best ones. Instead, literary agents develop relationships with individual editors to know each editor’s “taste” — or preferences on what they like to work on and acquire the rights to publish (the “deal” or “offer”). A big reason why I know so many agents is that I used to be an editor.

The editor’s job is complicated. Editors review submissions (for us, book proposals) that literary agents send, go to meetings where everybody at their imprint decides what they want to make an offer on and try to publish, makes those offers to the agents and authors, meets with potential authors, negotiates the contract . . . and that’s just to secure one book deal.  

After the book deal is done, the editor does a little bit of everything. They manage the project from start to finish, including working with collaborators like me on the manuscript, explaining the book and author to everyone they work with at the whole publisher, including sales, marketing, and publicity teams, and managing the production process to ensure that authors don’t end up with a fugly cover or a font they hate.

Oh and yes — they edit the book as well. So an editor has a lot going on, and many editors work on a dozen books in a given year. Editors are extremely busy and tend to be grateful for authors who understand and respect that.