How to Publish a Book: 3 Things You Need

What it takes to get a traditional book deal is pretty simple.

This example actually shows why so many celebrities write books. If a literary agent or talent manager came to me tomorrow with a reality TV star and said let’s get this person a book deal, it wouldn’t be that difficult. That person already has a platform — or an audience — that’s easy to sell to because those folks already know this person. In a lot of ways, their audience is ready to buy the book. What I would do in this situation is simply create the editorial — a concept and the actual words on the page — to match their audience, persona, and brand.

However, this isn’t the case for most authors because most people aren’t celebrities. So, when people find me — and this may be the case for you — what they have is the opposite. You may have an idea (and sometimes multiple ideas) for a book — so you have potential — but you don’t really have the platform yet. And that’s a problem because publishers won’t touch your project without a distinct audience to sell your book to. That’s why selling memoirs is so hard for the average writer, because it’s so hard to build an entire audience and platform around a personal story.

This is one of many reasons why I choose to work exclusively with entrepreneurs and experts — because y’all have another reason to build your audience and platform outside of your book. You’re selling something else to your people. It’s a lot easier to fit a book into a platform than to create a platform just to sell a book. And, from a business perspective, it’s easier to see a direct return on investment because the things we do to build a platform — like showing up consistently on social media, building an email list, and refining your content marketing — also increase the bottom line for your business. 

In other words, there’s a business case for investing in your dream of becoming an author. As an entrepreneur or expert, wanting a six-figure book deal isn’t a vanity project or a waste of time and money. Instead, it’s a legacy play. When you decide to pursue this dream, your business benefits — both today and for years into the future.

Don’t Believe This Myth About Your Book

I hear a lot of crazy crap about publishing. 

Most of what I hear is outdated advice or simply incorrect information. Something I’m passionate about is sharing what I know as a publishing expert with authors and entrepreneurs so y’all can make an informed, educated decision about what to do with your content. 

Today I’m going to tackle the biggest myth I hear about writing and publishing a book. The idea that a book will make you successful and famous is about as outdated and wrong, in my opinion, as bucket hats. (If you love bucket hats, you do you . . . but this is a ’90s trend I wish had never come back.)

The idea that your book will do the work for you to get your message out there is so pervasive in the entrepreneurial world that it’s honestly hard for me to know where to start dispelling this myth.

Let’s start with what used to be true. 

Five years ago, it was possible to leverage a book into a bigger brand. Back in the day, I even attended a workshop called “Book to Brand.” And while a book can expand an existing audience . . . that audience needs to exist, usually in the thousands, first. 

What doesn’t happen is that you put a book out into the world and without any work on your part thousands of people find it, buy it, love it and then suddenly follow you on Instagram, join your email list, and buy your products. Does that last sentence sound crazy to you? Because it should. Just like you need to put yourself out there and market your business to make any money, you need to put yourself out there and market your book in order to sell copies.

Because this myth used to be true, there’s still a ton of messaging out there about authors who have been successful. But when you look a little closer, you see that their success isn’t recent. For example, my client Denise Duffield-Thomas sold thousands of copies for her first two books, which were self-published . . . in 2012 and 2013. 

Not 2022, when there are a ton more people talking about money mindset. 

Similarly, I recently got on a call with a prospective client who cited the success of Andy Weir as evidence that his book would sell thousands of copies without an author platform or any credibility in the space. But here’s what that person didn’t realize. Andy Weir initially published his science fiction novel The Martian on his blog — in 2009. I mean, remember blogs? 

Not only is the example of Andy Weir in an entirely different category (science fiction) — and therefore for a completely different market — but it’s also from more than a decade ago. Which in Internet years might as well be the Pleistocene era. 

Over the past two years, I’ve talked to dozens of self-published authors who believed in the myth that their book would do the work for them, whether that meant bringing in clients or impacting peoples’ lives. These well-meaning folks put their heart and soul into their books, and put their work out there, only to sell a few copies (think dozens, not thousands). Not only does this feel awful, but it also decimates your chance to get a book deal in the future.

What I want you to know is that if you are writing nonfiction in 2022, you need more than just a good concept with solid advice to sell books. You need proof that your advice works, it gets results, and that you have an audience ready to buy 10,000 copies of your book. It’s no longer possible to use your book to leverage your brand in the way that it used to be.

Instead, I encourage you to consider using your brand to create your book. 

This is how a dozen entrepreneurs just like you got book deals in 2021 with my team’s help. A book can’t do everything for you; it’s just paper and ideas. You need to show up and demonstrate why the words in your book matter — over and over again.

Are You Ready to Land a Book Deal? (Answer Inside)

Hiya! 

Answering your most common questions has been fun for me, and I’ve been getting great feedback. Thanks to those of you who hit reply and told me that this is helpful.

(Check out #1, #2, and #3 if you have no idea what I’m talking about.)

Today I’m going to answer #4 — 

What kind of numbers/metrics do I need to work with you on a proposal?

For those of you who don’t know, in prescriptive how-to nonfiction you get a book deal based on a proposal. Something that’s different about MSB is that we don’t write proposals for people who aren’t ready . . . . and most of the time people aren’t ready because they don’t have an audience or platform big enough.

Naturally, the next question a lot of folks have is about the magic number. 

How many followers and email subscribers will make you ready?

I’m going to tell the truth and say that I used to have numbers. 

But I don’t anymore because I realized, painfully, that metrics don’t tell the whole story. A client can seem to have the right metrics — thousands on an email list for example, or a huge social following — but not have enough unique content for a proposal, much less a book. 

Or, a client can have a very small social media platform but unique content, a great network of support, and unwavering confidence that makes writing a killer proposal easy.

Publishing is a subjective business, which is why I don’t guarantee success.

I can believe in a client wholeheartedly, feel strongly that their idea and platform is worthy of a six-figure deal, and get turned down by a dozen literary agents or have every publisher say no. That doesn’t happen often, because I’m very good at what I do and am picky as fuck about what clients and proposals I take on — but it does happen. 

About 10% of the time, in fact.

So: This answer is short. 

Numbers and metrics don’t qualify you to work with me on a proposal. 

Instead, I look at numbers and metrics but also the uniqueness and salability of your idea, the overall feel of your brand, what other books are being published or had recent deals announced, how you show up when we talk, and what’s going on more broadly in our culture, the world, and publishing as an industry. 

Spotting someone that’s ready is a lot like pornography: I know it when I see it.

How We’ll Work Together

Alright alright. 

In case you missed it, I’ve spent the last two weeks answering my most frequently asked questions. (#1 and #2.) 

#3: How will we actually work together?

It depends — on where you’re at.

If you’re still growing your audience and developing your author platform — you could simply read these emails every week, dig into our resources, and do what you can for free. I think that’s a great place to start, especially if you’re new to entrepreneurship. 

That said — if you want guidance, help, and coaching — then you can join Author Platform Builders. You will get coaching from me once a month, answers to your questions and shared community in our clients-only Slack channel, and have access to over 30 hours of virtual workshops, past coaching calls, and talks with experts in publicity, speaking, and social media as well as a core curriculum based on the strategies my clients have used to land six-figure book deals. 

And — if you’ve built an audience of 50,000+ followers/fans and have proof of concept for your idea (i.e. your advice works and people buy it) then you may be ready to write your book proposal. That process is highly collaborative and takes 4 to 8 months. You’ll meet with a collaborator on my team every week to develop your ideas and create the editorial content for the proposal. After that, we’ll work together to finesse your author platform and marketing plan to impress and get your book proposal ready for literary agents, editors, publishers, and the six-figure deal you’ve been dreaming of. 

The #2 Question I Get Asked

A conversation that happens in traditional publishing all the time goes like this: 

Publishing Person (to potential Author): Good idea, but you need to build your platform.

Potential Author: Okay. How do I do that?

Publishing Person: Uhhhh . . . 

That’s a vast simplification, obviously, but until I built my own platform I was the person going “uhhh” or giving really basic advice (“post on social media”) that didn’t really serve authors.

When I started marketing my business, I realized that ~80% of the people who were reading my emails, following me on social media, and wanted to work with me and my team didn’t have what’s necessary to get a traditional book deal. 

They needed to build their platform first.

That was right around the time I realized that I had built a platform myself.

I have my own audience. 

I have a network of fellow entrepreneurs who support me. 

I know how to get press, how to land speaking gigs, and how corporate buys work. 

And I’ve worked with enough online entrepreneurs to know how to play that game, too.

Thus Author Platform Builders was born — which leads me to today’s question:

What’s the difference between business coaching and Author Platform Builders?

The advice and coaching offered in Author Platform Builders is specific to building an audience that will both support you landing a book deal and leading a successful business. 

In my experience, business coaching doesn’t include a ton of education about traditional publishing. And even if it does, it’s usually skewed to one person’s perspective as an author-slash-business coach. In contrast, Author Platform Builders is the only resource online I know of taught by a traditional publishing expert who is also a successful online entrepreneur. 

Today, Author Platform Builders includes:

• Access to me via an APB-only Slack channel

• 1 group coaching call per month

• Live bonus calls with guest speakers related to audience-building, book publishing, and platform growth

• A core curriculum based on the successful strategies and techniques of entrepreneurs who landed six-figure book deals

• Access to 2 virtual workshops with experts and literary agents

Don’t get me wrong: I think business coaching is awesome, and it’s one of the main reasons I’m writing this email to you today. In fact, I encourage my clients to have business coaching in addition to Author Platform Builders. 

That’s the best of both worlds — because business coaching will teach you how to become the best known in your niche and Author Platform Builders will help you become the bestselling author in your niche.

What is an Author Platform?

At MSB, we aim to make traditional publishing more equitable and diverse by sharing our industry expertise freely. I want to start off this new year by answering the most commonly asked questions that my team and I get about our work.

What is an author platform?

I like to think of an author platform as who you can uniquely sell to. 

It’s a built-in audience for your content and also your ability to market and promote your future book to a target audience of potential readers. The reason I choose to work with entrepreneurs and experts is because y’all need a platform to promote your work. The trick is that often, the size of an audience that an entrepreneur or expert needs to succeed is much smaller than what literary agents and traditional publishers want to see. 

There are four categories to an author platform. Keep in mind that every author’s platform is unique. There’s not one “right” way or mix of these that guarantees success.

• Press/Media
  Interviews/profiles/mentions, TV, radio, blogs, and podcasts (guesting and hosting)

• Audience (Email List / Social Media)
  If your book was out tomorrow, how many people could you tell about it? 
  How many fans do you have? And out of that, how many are buyers?

• Reach
  How many friends and colleagues will help promote your book upon publication?
  (And — more importantly — how many followers and fans does that add to your audience?)

• Speaking and Corporate Clients
  Could you potentially get an order of 25, 50, or even 100 books from a client or to sell in the back of a room at an event? And if so, how often?

It’s important for you to know that platform building is a process that never really ends for entrepreneurs and experts. What I’ve learned over the past year or so is that the dream of getting a book published isn’t enough for many people to do all this hard work. 

You need to be passionate about the book and your business and the people you serve. When you have that combination, it can be a joy to build an author platform because you’re not seeing the work as a means to an end (i.e., “I have to build my author platform in order to get my book published”) but rather as part of the process (I build my platform so I can grow my audience, grow my business, and have my book published). 

Are You Creatively Constipated?

When I decided to go all in on my goals, I sat down and made a list.

A list of everything I needed to change in order to get the result I wanted.

I learned this from running. If you want to finish a marathon faster, there’s usually a few things you have to change — like how many miles you’re running and how much beer you’re drinking.

I applied the same idea to my business. After learning from successful entrepreneurs, I had a ton of ideas that I wanted to take action on.

Weekly emails.

A consistent social media presence.

A strategy to reach authors who had no idea I existed but definitely needed my services.

I tried to be comprehensive, and in doing so created a looooonnnng list. Seeing 50 or 60 items with empty checklist circles in my Notes app was intimidating. Having to scroll to read everything — or open it full-screen on my laptop — was scary AF.

All I wanted to do was pretend I was done and watch The Crown.

But then, I did what I do whenever I feel resistance. Find a way through.

I reviewed the whole list and created major categories. Content creation, for example, and everything related to my website. The list was still gigantic, but there were only 10 or 15 things in each category. I breathed a little deeper.

Then, the next thing I did — and here’s the revolutionary moment, y’all — is just delete shit off the list that I felt icky about or incompetent at. Like designing pretty opt-ins or affiliate marketing or helping people self-publish (sorry DIYers).

I deleted what I didn’t want to do. Which removed 10 ideas off my to-do list that I probably would have been crap at anyway.

Next, I made a list of what I felt incompetent at. And put up some job listings.

Authors often find me in panic mode, feeling like there’s a book idea inside of them, pushing to get out. But they have no idea how to actually execute on the millions of ideas circling in their brain.

The best way I can describe it is creative constipation.

And here’s the thing — you’re not going to get ANYWHERE in that mindset. You’re scattered, unfocused. The part of you that gets shit done is definitely not driving your car.

And frankly, you’re not going to produce good work in that state.

You’re NOT going to build a platform because your efforts will be inconsistent.

You’re NOT going to spend time on tasks you can fully commit to.

And you’re NOT going to invest in someone like me to help you.

Instead, what you’ll do is:

• Try to find every free resource out there

• Spend waaay too much time on social media comparing yourself to more established people and brands

• Struggle to find any kind of traction . . . .

• And just like you would if you were constipated somewhere else, you’ll wait forever to take action and then the solution WILL be more painful.

Don’t do that to yourself. Instead, let all those ideas out. Relieve your creative constipation.

Make that gigantic list.

And then chunk it down into what you want to do, what you’re good at doing and what you can hire for. Then let the rest of that shit go.

How many followers do you need to get a book deal?

How big does my email list need to be?

How many Instagram followers is “good”?

Do I need to be on Snapchat? And what the hell is TikTok?

Unfortunately, I don’t have answers for you.

I don’t really know what TikTok is either, though I suspect it’s a new version of Vine (which I never used either).

Speaking of which . . . remember those Flip Video cameras?

Okay. So - in all seriousness, I can share that a top agent once told me that she wants to see 10,000 subscribers on an email list and 1,000 followers on Twitter.

But that was just one literary agent. And she told me that in 2017.

I could also share that I’ve seen authors with millions of followers write books that flopped. (Mostly YouTube celebrities, but also rock stars and experts.)

I could also tell you that I’ve had publishers reject authors with great connections, who had all the “right” stuff in place. (A proposal I worked on had endorsements from Danny Meyer and Tyler Florence, but still got turned down by every house in Manhattan.)

So honestly?

It’s a crapshoot.

There’s no benchmark to hit, because whether a platform is “good” or not is subjective. Every agent and editor is going to have their own opinion.

But every author needs to have a platform.

And I’ll admit that it’s a total pain in the ass to build one. For most authors, it doesn’t come naturally or easily. But you can do it.

The mistake a lot of would-be authors make is writing first and marketing later.

But you know better than that if you’ve been reading these emails for a bit.

So, what should you do instead?

Work on your platform daily. Nurture the audience you have, whether your list is 5 or 5,000. Pick a couple platforms you like being on and work that sh*t. Start sending emails, crafting posts and following a schedule. Stay consistent.

And above all else, as Marie Forleo says, focus on progress not perfection.

What publishers are really looking for is not a specific number.

Instead, agents and editors want to know that you’ve proved your concept. That people will buy from you, that they’re interested in what you have to say, and that when you have a $15 or $29 book available, your audience is likely to buy it.

If you market with that in mind — not some arbitrary goal number — you’ll offer your audience bits and pieces of what they want. You’ll seed the sale. And that’s really what platform is about in the first place.

Why You Should Tackle Marketing First

“So . . . where should I start?"

When an entrepreneur or expert or just a creative has a book idea, their instinct typically is to sit down and start writing.

But that's not what you should do.

If you're surprised I say that, you're not alone. Most people assume that writing and editorial is the hardest and most important part of any book.

Most people aren't in publishing, though, or successful authors (yet).

Creating editorial content, though important, isn't what you should do first when it comes to writing a book. Marketing is - at least for nonfiction books.

You might be surprised to hear this from someone like me, who bills herself as a ghostWRITER and collaborator, not a marketing guru.

But the truth is that most nonfiction authors will only get a book published (traditionally) if agents and editors think people will buy it.

That’s why I start by examining the business side of the book deal with my clients.

And you should too.

Examining how your business exists today — and what kind of platform that creates for you as an author — is crucial.

You could have the most well-written book proposal in the world with fresh ideas and a killer concept.

But if your website is janky and you don’t have an audience, agents will tell you no.

In fact, most agents would tell you to go fix your website, build an audience and maybe circle back to see if they’re still interested when you’ve got a fancy site and thousands of email followers. And even that would only happen if you had a truly awesome idea.

That’s why sometimes, with authors that need help building their platform or updating their digital presence, I start with making sure their marketing is on point or at least on its way.

Because we need to leverage those assets in order to create the best proposal we can.

And, like investing, the best time to start marketing was yesterday.

It’s to your advantage to prioritize marketing so time is on your side.

So, in this week of resolutions and a new freaking decade, it's the perfect time to develop a plan for how you're going to market yourself, your message, and ultimately your book.

Think about it this way.

When do you typically hear about a new book?

After watching a TED Talk?

Or when a friend gushes about it?

Or by popping into a local bookstore and seeing a cool cover that intrigues us or reading a complimentary quote from another author?

In all those situations, we’re experiencing the marketing well before the editorial.

Agents and publishers have a similar experience. They know that marketing is what sells customers and therefore, it’s often what sells them too.

The read, unfortunately, often matters less.

Don’t get me wrong — the read still matters, and likely always will.

But marketing is the first thing a customer notices, whether that customer is a literary agent, an editor at a publishing house or a reader.

That’s why your marketing — including your overall brand and online presence - needs to be on point first, before digging into the editorial. And just like an investment, it’ll grow while you do other things. But you gotta put the money in today to cash dividends tomorrow.

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.

Book Editor. Ghostwriter. Collaborator.

What’s the freaking difference?

It’s actually pretty easy.

In my first semester teaching book editing at Pace University in their graduate publishing program, I got in an argument with a student about whether editors should rewrite. The student who decided to question my authority was dumb because a) I’m grading him and b) the answer is simple.

Editors don’t rewrite.

That’s the difference between editors and basically everyone else.

While an editor may suggest an in-line change or even go into a sentence and rewrite it to demonstrate a potential revision, editors should, and (especially at publishing houses) do not write or revise substantial amounts of text.

A sentence or two here and there? Sure. Maybe a paragraph. But not pages.

That being said, collaborators, ghostwriters and book doctors do rewrite directly on the page.

I know, so many terms.

A collaborator or ghostwriter writes on behalf of an author, using the author’s expertise, background, and/or personal stories to create a proposal or book for publication. This is what I do.

Personally, I don’t see a huge difference between the two terms but if you wanted to get nit-picky about it, a collaborator works hand-in-hand with an author and the writing is more collaborative (hence the name) whereas a ghostwriter is typically in a situation — like with celebrities — where the author contributes, but writes very little.

(A perfect example: on my very first ghostwriting project, the author bought a new computer to write his book but never had to open the box. I wrote everything.)

And last but not least, a book doctor is part-editor, part-ghostwriter.

I call this professional hand-holding. Most of the time, book doctors are called in by editors at publishing houses or by literary agents (or both) to help first-time authors complete their manuscripts on time or when a draft manuscript needs to be fixed substantially (more than what an editor can do) within a short amount of time.

Book doctors can and do rewrite text, and most of us work as collaborators too.

So there you go — all the terms you need to know.

How to Write A Book Proposal

It’s actually ridiculously simple.

My clients and I write book proposals the same way I’ve run five marathons.

By chunking that shit down. 

One of my favorite stories from working at Penguin was when celebrity author Danica McKellar — aka “Winnie Cooper” from The Wonder Years — told me she freaked out the day after signing the contract to write her first book, Math Doesn’t Suck. 

“I had no clue how I was going to write 70,000 words,” she told me. “But then I realized that writing is like a math problem — you just have to take it step by step, in little chunks.” And that’s how Danica wrote all her books. 

I take a similar approach with my clients — and when I run a marathon. Standing on the starting line, I don’t think about the four or five hours of running I have ahead. 

I simply concentrate on the first mile. I know that if I don’t chunk the marathon down, I’ll run the first mile too fast and the rest will seem impossible. But running the mile I’m in — a quote attributed to David Willey, the former editor-in-chief of Runner’s World — helps me to slow my roll. 

SO:

IF YOU ARE FEELING OVERWHELMED, TRY CHUNKING IT DOWN. 

What I like to do is divide the proposal into three sections:

1. The Editorial

• Creating a table of contents, which become Chapter Summaries

• Sample Chapters

• Hint: A full-length introduction (5 to 10 pages) counts as a sample!

2. The Business

• About the Author

• Marketing and Publicity

• Competitive Titles

3. The Overview

Notoriously hard to write, this section combines the business and editorial. I prefer to draft the Overview last — and insist on doing it for all my clients, even those that write their own proposals — because it’s just that difficult. 

In a marathon, there’s not a lot of point to predicting the future miles because literally anything could happen. You could be doing super well and then be visited by the Blerch. The trick I’ve learned — and this applies to writing, business and so many other things in life — is to stay present and focused on the mile you’re in.

So, when your task is drafting editorial content, draft editorial content.

Similarly, when your task is to draft the marketing section, draft that section.

Trust me when I say that bouncing around gets you nowhere but frustrated.

And count yourself lucky that no one shits their pants writing a book proposal.

(Or definitely shouldn’t anyway).