The Business Concept That Made THE BRO CODE a Bestselling Book

In 2008, I created a New York Times bestselling book that, to date, has sold over 300,000 copies.

And its first line? Bro’s before ho’s.

That’s right, I’m the mind behind The Bro Code. Not the whole code, but the book version. At the time, I was an editorial assistant at Simon & Schuster. My roommate and I loved the show How I Met Your Mother and one day, the character Barney Stinson (played by Neil Patrick Harris) mentioned a book supposedly written in the 18th Century by an ancestor to his friend Marshall (played by Jason Segel). I thought, “That should be a book.” 

I had to do a lot of convincing, but the publisher let me call Twentieth Century Fox, the show’s production company, and strike a deal. As it turns out, that was an excellent business decision.

Because The Bro Code? Is a great example of product-market fit. 

Product-market fit is why great products and services, including books, sell. There is a ton to learn about this topic. However, to be simple — product-market fit is achieved when you take the opportunity to create a solution that doesn’t exist yet for a specific market. 

At the time, I’d heard guy friends and exes talk about “the Code.” 

I also knew the show was popular. 

I took the opportunity: to create a written version of the code 

(which didn’t exist yet) 

for the audience of the show. 

And it was a surprise bestseller, hitting #9 on The New York Times bestseller list the first week it was on sale, with only a short commercial at the end of the show to promote it. The success of that book wasn’t an accident, however. 

Unbeknownst to everyone but me, the publisher’s son, and one marketing manager at Simon & Schuster at the time there was a huge, underserved market of bros and people who loved the show who wanted a fun, $13 book. 

Product-market fit is what I’m looking for when I talk with prospective clients. 

You see, one of my gifts is being amazing at spotting opportunities in people and ideas. That doesn’t guarantee your success, but if you get a “yes” from me that means I see potential in you. The same potential that The Bro Code had — to achieve product-market fit and become a bestseller.

Just a Little . . .

You’ve got your book idea, and the dreams that come along with it.

But do you have patience? 

A coach I work with likes to preach that there are three things every entrepreneur needs to be successful: certainty, consistency, and patience.

I’m going to make an assumption. Like most of the folks I chat with, I will guess that you feel eager and excited to get your book out in the world — as soon as possible. 

I mean, people need you, right? Your words and advice are important. You will make a difference in the world. The sooner you can put your book out, the sooner you can make an impact. 

But here’s the thing: your advice and impact doesn’t need a book to be successful. 

You can share your ideas now.

You can offer useful and effective advice now.

You can send an email, post an Instagram story, do some 1-on-1 coaching . . . 

And all of that will contribute to your success as an entrepreneur, a leader in your niche — and eventually as an author when your advice works for hundreds, if not thousands of people. When you’ve got the audience, the following, the results, and the author platform that the traditional publishing industry needs to help a book sell.

But like Axl Rose once sang, what you need is a little patience. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah . . .  just a little patience.

How to Build a Huge Following Online

A question I get a lot is “What’s the best way to get more followers on Instagram?”

And honestly, I don’t f*ing know. 

I have a social media manager who does everything on Instagram for me. I made the decision to hire her early on, when I looked at Canva and thought, not for me. 

Truth is, I don’t need thousands of followers to succeed. I’m not trying to grow my audience organically, and I also don’t want to get a traditional book deal. But for you, it’s different. Because you want to be a traditionally published author, your social media presence is important. Publishers and literary agents expect authors to be on social media. 

However, social media is just one component of an author platform. You can, and will, succeed at getting your book deal with less than 100,000 followers. My client Dr. Katrina Ubell — whose book comes out this September — is a great example. Her book sold to Grand Central Publishing with only 3,000 followers on Instagram. In her case, the opportunity to attract readers to her book was from her podcast, which had thousands of listeners. She also had an active and engaged email list that she sent content to weekly, as well as an ability to reach readers through her ads and sales funnels. 

In the end, Katrina didn’t need to be Internet famous to get a major book deal. 

Instead of looking at how to gain followers for followers’ sake, I encourage my Author Platform Builders to look at all the different components of an author platform and decide where they want to invest their time and money. If you don’t want to spend your time on social media, that’s OK. There are alternatives, whether that’s hiring someone to post and engage for you (like I do) or building out another part of your platform so that publishers feel confident you can sell thousands of copies.

Every author I work with has built their audience and author platform in a unique way that works for them. The way to build a huge following online is the way that works for you. Unfortunately, there are no fast solutions or a singular way to succeed. 

I wish I had better news for you, but the one positive I can leave you with is that you don’t need to be an Internet famous influencer to be successful. All you need to do is to choose where you show up, do so consistently and put in the work — like Katrina and so many of my clients do.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.

I love country music. Growing up in the ’90s, I had to ride a bus to school for an hour both ways, with twang on the speakers the whole time. 

One of the biggest songs from that era is “Chattahoochee” by Alan Jackson. 

Alan is one of the best selling music artists of all time, with over 75 million records sold worldwide. Thirty-five of his songs have hit #1. He’s a big deal. And something that makes him different from a lot of country artists is that he writes or co-writes most of his own songs.

When Alan wrote Chattahoochee (with songwriter Jim McBride), he thought he was mostly writing about himself and his own experiences growing up in a small town in Georgia. 

Alan didn’t think this little song about his experiences growing up would matter to anyone else. In fact, in the liner notes for his Greatest Hits album, Alan wrote: “We never thought it would be as big as it's become.” 

But he was wrong. Very wrong. 

The song was named Single of the Year by the Country Music Association (the CMA) and was #1 for several weeks on the country charts. “Chattahoochee” was everywhere for years. It was the “Smooth” for country music. You couldn’t get away from it, that’s how popular it was.

I’m sharing this story because it proves what I see all the time — that we are bad at gauging what other people want to hear from us. 

In Author Platform Builders, I advise our members to collect objective data (like open rates) for their content to see what people are resonating with, rather than relying on their own subjective feelings or opinions. That method helps them know what they don’t know. 

Similarly, when we work with folks on book proposals, my team and I start with a “Spew” conversation where nothing is off the table. Through that work, we’re usually able to uncover a topic or an approach that our client has blown off or underestimated the impact of. 

Because that’s where the magic is — in knowing what you didn’t know before.

For Alan Jackson, he didn’t know that many of his fans and country music listeners overall would resonate with his description of spending time on the Chattahoochee River. 

But they did. Knowing that, he was able to share more of himself in his music — and ended up becoming the #34 best selling artist of all time.

Why You’re Not Ready to Write Your Book (Yet)

So far in 2022, my team and I have talked to 60 people about their book ideas.

But only half of those folks were ready to work with us. 

Something that makes my team and I different from other book coaches and collaborators is that we only take on clients we know we can help. And the honest truth? If you’re reading this, there’s a 50/50 chance that you are not ready yet. 

And that’s totally cool. You’re obviously not alone.

In fact, it’s part of my mission to share what I know about publishing so entrepreneurs who want to write a bestselling book can avoid easy, common mistakes. 

I want to be clear: nothing is wrong with you for not being ready, and this isn’t a forever problem. It’s totally changeable and the good news is that you can change it when and if you want to. 

The main reason that we turn down the opportunity to work with folks is because it’s too early in their business. When you’re just starting out, you need to focus on showing up consistently and figuring out what your audience wants to hear. Even after you’ve grown your audience to thousands of people and have gotten great results for clients, it can still be too early. Because y’all tend to be impatient. 

The absolute best time in your business to think about writing a book is when you are achieving most, if not all, of your business goals. When a client can talk to me specifically about their business — who their ideal client is, how they reach them, why and when those clients buy, and the transformation they receive, I know that person is ready to work with me on a proposal. Even though sometimes — more often than you think — that client still isn’t sure whether it’s possible.

So, when is the best time to write your book? 

It really depends. Everyone is different. 

But if you want to know where you’re at and when you’ll be ready — take our quiz and we’ll happily tell you.

The Secret to My Success. [You Can Do It Too]

The morning I sat down to write this I thought, 

Maybe I can skip my run today. 

I’m awfully tired.

Rest would probably be better. 

I could totally skip it.

But then I thought: BULLSHIT.

I went running. I did give myself the teeniest break by not setting a target distance on my watch like I usually do. I just went. I felt sluggish toward the end, but a run was totally within my capability that day.

After all those thoughts, I ended up running the same distance and speed I normally do.

I knew that my thoughts about skipping the run were excuses because I have developed a finely tuned bullshit detector. It’s one of the secrets to my success. By paying attention to my inner monologue and the thoughts I think, I can tell if I’m legitimately too physically tired to go run . . . or if I’m talking myself out of it. 

And that allows me to make the right decision — instead of defaulting to the first choice that comes to mind. It’s important to know and remember that our mind is hardwired for survival. Fear and doubt are ways to protect us from harm — including doing anything new.

Deciding that you want to be a bestselling author is easy. 

But actually taking action toward that goal can feel difficult and scary. It’s new. You don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s a lot of uncertainty. Your mind is unsure and saying DANGER to your body. And once you learn that building your audience and author platform does not guarantee success, your brain is even more likely to offer up a gazillion reasons why you shouldn’t take action. 

That’s why you need to activate and hone your own inner bullshit detector.

So that when your mind comes up with thoughts like . . . 

It’s not the right time. I need X, Y, and Z before applying to work with her.

When my schedule frees up . . . 

Or my favorite — 

I’ll do it when I have more free time. 

I encourage you to question that. Is that thought the real, absolute, capital-T Truth? 

Or is it simply your mind doing its job and keeping you safe and the same?

Why Representation Matters

Last week I sent an email about why inclusion matters to me, and how MSB is doing compared to the rest of the traditional publishing industry. (Check it out here.)

In case you missed it, traditional book publishers have a big problem. 

Between 2019 and 2021, only 23.5% of authors, illustrators, and translators with book deals at Penguin Random House (the #1 publisher in the United States) identified as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color. 

Those numbers are disproportionate to the U.S. population as a whole, 60% of which identify as white and 40% as BIPOC. And that’s just racial and ethnic diversity. The report didn’t get into gender and sexual identities, ability or disability, or socioeconomic status. 

I feel strongly that these numbers need to change, for two reasons. 

First — your voice matters.  

Research overwhelmingly shows that when we have diversity in basically anything — whether it’s business or books or friendships — we all benefit. A recent article from Marketwatch showed that companies with diverse staff earn 19% higher revenue and are 70% more likely to capture new markets than organizations who do not actively recruit and support talent from diverse identities. From a purely business perspective, publishers are missing out by not offering book deals to a wide array of folks. 

Second — what’s available to read matters. 

In 1990, a professor named Rudine Sims Bishop published an article called “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” that explained how people of all ages see themselves (mirrors), understand others (windows) and can imagine themselves in worlds outside of their own (sliding glass doors) in books. 

To simplify her findings — a lot — mirrors help us understand ourselves, windows help us have empathy and understanding toward people who are not like us, and sliding glass doors encapsulate the magic of reading by bringing us into another person’s mind, world, and perspective.

The reason I do this work today is because I fell in love with reading and writing at an early age thanks to my hometown’s public library. Words empower and inspire me. I saw people and characters like me in the books I read as a child, as a teen, and as an adult. 

But that doesn’t happen for all children. In fact, according to the National Education Association, children in 2015 were almost five times more likely to encounter a talking truck or a dinosaur in the pages of a book than a Hispanic character. 

As entrepreneurs and readers, we need to care about what and who gets published because when more diverse voices are represented, the quality of what we read and what we learn improves, too. You are reading this email because you are an entrepreneur or an expert who wants to write a how-to book — and that’s awesome. My team and I are here to help you — and everyone else who shares your dream and ambition — get a book deal with a major publisher. 

Not only does a focus on equity level the playing field for all entrepreneurs and experts, but it improves what we have access to in our own lives as readers. Whether you head to the bookstore because you want to buy a vacation read or improve an area of your life, everyone needs more mirrors, windows, and sliding doors.

At MSB, Inclusion Is a Core Value

Last year, my assistant put together a slide that showed a photo of every entrepreneur and expert who had successfully landed a book deal with our help.  

And I immediately noticed something.

The photos were overwhelmingly female — and overwhelmingly white.

In fact, half of the people in the slide were white, blonde women (like me). 

This isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s the norm.

Between 2019 and 2021, 74.9% of the contributors at Penguin Random House —   including authors, illustrators, and translators — identified as white. That means only 25% were anything outside the “norm” that is white people dominating book publishing. 

When I was an editor, I saw firsthand how authors of color were ignored and marginalized by the people who made profit off their work. When I was an editor at Simon & Schuster, I had to fight for my authors of color to get anything outside of a stock photo on the cover of their books because it was assumed that the cover didn't matter as much for Black readers. (Say what?)

As a woman who identifies as queer, I know what it’s like to have to constantly fight for inclusion because of who you are. In high school, I was sent home because my classmates threw things and spat at me after I had been asked out by a female friend for a date. In my adult life, I stood out in my career because I am from a middle-class, rural background and went to a state university. (And yes, that’s what passes for “diversity” at traditional publishers.) I may not have all the intersections of race, class, and sexuality that my clients and audience have, but I do understand exclusion. 

Inclusion is important to me and my work. It’s a core value in my company. And I’m proud to say that in 2021, the majority of our clients who got a book deal — 63% — did not identify like I do (as a white, cisgendered, queer woman). 

Shockingly, this number is triple the industry average. 

Whether you are treated differently because of your ethnicity, sexuality, background, gender identity, lifestyle, education, or what you are brave enough to stand up and say publicly — I want to champion your voices, get you paid and your words published.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting to Write a Book

A few weeks ago, I came home to find my husband on the patio with an iPad and an iced tea, ready to watch the Preakness Stakes. 

We like all sorts of sports. In “horse season” we usually watch the Triple Crown races (which also include the Kentucky Derby and last Saturday’s Belmont Stakes.) While watching the horses line up in the starting gate, I thought about all the effort that owners, trainers, jockeys — and the horses themselves — put into that day. It’s a lot of work just to get to the race. There are years leading up to the moment before the gun goes off. Sometimes generations.

And then of course, one horse pulls ahead and wins.

I think a lot about publishing, so my mind makes connections to it everywhere. 

Watching the Preakness, I thought about how many horses run these big races. Up to 20 horses run the Derby; nine horses are in the Preakness; and up to 12 horses compete in the Stakes. 

There’s not just one horse out there. 

The same can be said for books. There’s not just a single relationship book out there. Nor is there just one health book, one personal finance book, one inspirational book, or one guide to making work more productive and fun. 

So many authors I talk to worry that someone else is going to beat them to publishing or that somehow, their idea will get “stolen” when in reality, they are just one horse in a bigger race. (And whether you beat the others is up to a lot of factors.) 

The truth is, you will have competition. There will be another book like yours. The likelihood of someone else having the same idea as you is high, and gets higher every month you put off building an audience or creating intellectual property from your idea. Another reality is that there will be many entrepreneurs with businesses like yours, and results like yours.

But don’t let those fears stop you from getting to the race in the first place. 

Because there’s always the opportunity to win. 

In horse racing, there has been a Triple Crown winner only 13 times in history (most recently Justify in 2018). To me, a horse winning the Triple Crown is a lot like becoming the What to Expect When You’re Expecting in your niche. 

Once in a while, a confluence of magical forces comes together to make a remarkably successful horse — and a remarkably bestselling book. That may or may not happen to you and your book. I don’t think anyone in horse racing would guarantee a Triple Crown win talking about a pony and I can’t make similar guarantees about your success either. (You should run away from anyone who makes those kinds of promises in publishing, by the way.)

However, what I do know — for absolute sure — is that you need to show up to the starting gate to be in the race.

Get Used to Building Your Platform

Here’s an inconvenient truth. 

Your audience can always be bigger. 

In fact, everyone in the publishing industry — literary agents, publishers, and even me — always want your audience to BE bigger. To continuously grow.

The clients I work with range from brand-new entrepreneurs to Internet famous leaders with eight figure businesses (as well as rose farms, ranches, and vineyards). Even clients who have millions of views on YouTube and get recognized in foreign countries by fans . . . are expected to grow their audiences.

And it’s not because the whole publishing industry is a bunch of demandy-smurfs.

Instead, it’s because building and maintaining an audience of engaged fans is essential to keep your business thriving and new customers coming in. It’s also really good for consistently selling books. 

I encourage you — and every client I work with — to think of platform-building activities as a process and not as something you have to do in order to get what you really want. There are more reasons to build an author platform than just securing a literary agent and a book deal. By getting visible, creating content that attracts fans, and interacting with a growing following you’ll also be able to make better offers, gain more clients, and generate more revenue. I see that in my Author Platform Builders community and among our clients everyday. 

Get used to building your audience and author platform. Because, in order to get a book deal and have a successful business, you’re never ever going to want to stop.

Not Feeling 100%? Read This.

Not every single day is easy — for me, for you, for anyone really. 

That’s especially true when you’re trying to make a difference and showing up for something you care about. The entrepreneurs and experts I get to work with go through many challenging moments. 

Whether it’s a launch that fails, a moment where you’re really not sure whether you’ll make payroll that month, or just a crappy hater landing in your email on a morning when you didn’t get enough sleep, this journey can be hard.

Recently, I experienced a string of tough days. It felt like every client had an emergency. I hadn’t been sleeping well. My husband was going through a transition at work. Even our dog was sick. 

I was tired, emotionally spent, burnt out on work and desperately needed a pick-me-up. 

I decided to watch Dear . . . on Apple TV+.

I chose to start with the episode on Lin-Manuel Miranda. I love Lin-Manuel because, for a brief time, we both lived in the Heights (Washington Heights, in Manhattan). I feel like he’s a kindred spirit and I love his music. 

When I watched the episode, well — I lost my shit. I came unprepared for the tears and the sheer amount of Kleenex I needed. 

If you’re driven to do the work you do — and write a book — because you want to make an impact, this series is a must. I would even say that it’s as good, if not slightly better, for inspiration than Ted Lasso. 

But — because you’re reading this email and probably not looking for TV recommendations right now — I want to share a few quotes that I’ve taken from the amazing leaders profiled from the series that I think apply to what we’re all doing out here on these Internet streets. (Enjoy.)

“When I’m afraid of something, I make it my best friend. Doing that always leads to something better.” —Jane Fonda

“There is no one way. There is no right or wrong path.” –Misty Copeland

“You’re one of a kind, and that’s something to be proud of.” —Big Bird

“Every individual has some role to play in this life, and every individual makes a difference every day. We have a choice as to what kind of difference we are going to make.” —Jane Goodall

“If every single one of us focused on something we want to see changed, the ripple effect of that could change the world.”—Aly Raisman

So You Want to Write a Book . . .

I have a few questions for you.

• Are you writing how-to (prescriptive) nonfiction?
  If your answer is no, then I can’t help you.
  

• Do you have a business that is related to your book and will promote it?
  If your answer is no, then I can’t help you.
  

• Is what you’re writing about proven to work and get results for people?
  If your answer is no, I suggest that you focus on that.
  

• Have you proven that people are interested in what you have to say?
  If your answer is no, I suggest that you start sharing your message — publicly.
  

• Do you have an audience?
  If your answer is no, building an email list and social media following should be your top priority.

These are the questions that my team and I ask when people apply to work with us. 

It might seem harsh, but I’m trying to help you. Here’s why I ask these questions.

• If you’re writing another kind of book — fiction, narrative nonfiction, memoir, children’s — the advice I give may be unhelpful, even wildly inaccurate. That’s why I suggest folks who are writing other books — or who want to self-publish — unsubscribe. It’s not for me, but rather for you.

• It’s incredibly hard to build an audience just to promote a book. I don’t recommend building an entire brand around a book, which is why I work with entrepreneurs and experts for whom a book is just one piece of a greater business and brand puzzle.

• Results matter the most — to your business and your book. If the method you’re promoting only works for you, the publisher has no reason to believe it will work for anyone else.

• If no one is interested in what you have to say . . . your book is unlikely to sell. 

• Books don’t sell themselves — which is why publishers require authors to have an audience (aka an author platform) — to help them promote and sell a book. 

Hopefully this has done its job — and helped you understand what will make you successful in your goal of getting a traditional book deal. 

You (Probably) Need To Hire Help to Publish a Book

A lot of people ask me: 

When’s the right time to hire someone like you to help with my book proposal? 

Or if they know a little bit about me, the work I do, and the publishing industry:

When should I start building my platform?

My answer — to both questions — is typically: now.  Or if I’m feeling snarky . . .  yesterday.

Trying to get a book deal is a little like trying to build a million dollar investment portfolio. You have to start small and take consistent action to achieve the end result you want. 

So, if you:

• Have a good idea but no idea what to do with it

• Are not a publishing professional

• Are busy and successful

• Have an idea that is tied to your business

• Are trying to grow your audience and reach

• Are like me and feel allergic to most DIY projects

• Dream of writing multiple books

• Love the idea of talking about your literary agent, your editor and how you need to visit them in New York (because that really does happen)

• Want to see your name and “Penguin Random House” on the same page

• Want to make a big impact with your work

Then I encourage you to hire the help you need to make it happen.

How Long Would You Wait to Publish a Book?

I was recently approached by a colleague who had a client that wanted to write a book. 

I asked to set up a call and my next available time was two weeks away.

The colleague responded and said that date was too far out for her client, who needed to make the decision sooner.

Y’all — that is a red flag because publishing, or at least publishing well, is a long game. 

In my opinion, there are certain things in life that you want to do well — not fast.

Like — 

Building a business. 

Choosing a life partner. 

Establishing an engaged audience.

And writing a book.

But so often, I see entrepreneurs and experts try to rush the process of getting a traditional book deal, or even to make decisions around their book’s publication. 

It’s as if what you’re writing will disappear into thin air if you don’t meet the deadline that you’ve created . . .  out of thin air.

The next time you think, I have to get this book out or else — just remember:

Writing the music and lyrics for Hamilton took Lin-Manuel Miranda seven years. 

Seven years! When I heard that, my first thought was his poor wife.

Can you imagine hearing the same songs over and over and over again while your husband workshopped them, likely in a small Manhattan apartment? 

Kudos to Vanessa Nadal, because I don’t know if I could do that.

Anyway — my point is that good things take time. 

Yes, it took Lin-Manuel Miranda seven years to write Hamilton . . . but in its first production at the Public Theatre, the show generated $30,000,000 in revenue. Wikipedia doesn’t even list how much he’s generated as a result now. 

So — hang in there. Take your time. 

Publishing has been around for centuries and around here, we’re creating books that last.

Trust me, you can wait for it.

When To Give Up Your Dream of Being a Published Author

I’m going to share a personal story that applies to something I see a lot in my business.

My best friend from high school never went to college. 

And not because she couldn’t get in. She applied and was accepted to the university I went to. There was only one hurdle: she needed an updated transcript from the guidance office.

She never did it. 

Advocating for ourselves is scary as fuck. 

Doing something different than everyone else around us is hard, because as human beings we are biologically wired to prioritize belonging. 

I don’t know why my friend never went to the guidance office. I don’t know if she felt insecure about moving to a new place, or worried about being able to get the money for tuition and books. Perhaps she was experiencing an “upper limit problem” (as defined in The Big Leap) where we feel afraid to leave people behind. To this day, I don’t know if my former bestie regrets her decision, or is happy with how her life turned out. 

What I do know is that sometimes, it can be the right decision to not leap. 

To stop progressing forward on our dreams or what other people think we should do (even if that’s your best friend). Sometimes, we SHOULD quit. 

Over the last decade, a handful of the clients I’ve worked with made the right decision to give up on their dreams of becoming a published author. A couple faced unexpected medical issues or family emergencies. Others didn’t see any momentum while building their author platform. And many, when educated on the process, simply decided that writing, promoting, and selling a book wasn’t for them. And that’s OK. 

But what’s not OK is giving up on your dream because you don’t see instant results. 

Or because other people doubt you and question what you’re doing. 

Or because you’re turning excuses into reasons to quit (I see this a lot).

Because the truth is, no one will care more about your dream than you do. 

And when we think we’re doing “everything” there’s usually something we haven’t thought about or been open to. Perhaps that’s hiring household help to free up a few hours every week, or outsourcing some of your content creation. Maybe it’s making your goals just a little less ambitious so that you can score some easy wins. Or allowing yourself to have the time and support you need to create your dreams in a sustainable way. 

So. If you need clarity on whether you have a shot at a traditional book deal --

Or want a book team at the ready to cheerlead you on days you doubt --

And to feel like you’re not alone in fantasizing about your spot on the bestseller list - 

Then you should sign up to chat with my team of publishing insiders who can support you in making the right decision. 

Don’t let your dreams die because you were afraid to ask for help. 

The Hardest Thing You Will Do As An Author

The hardest and most challenging thing you will do as an entrepreneur and author isn’t writing your book. 

Instead, it’s going all in on your dreams. 

When you go all in, you have to:

Stop hedging.

Stop hiding.

Stop pretzeling (my word for people pleasing).

Stop being a consumer in the world of online entrepreneurship (where you buy help and attend all the classes and calls, but don’t take consistent action and therefore don’t get consistent results).

Stop putting other people’s needs, desires, and preferences first. 

Stop thinking that the doubts you have mean anything outside of the very real factual truth that you’re a human and this is what human brains do. (I have doubts too — and when I doubt myself, I think “doubts are normal but so is success.”)

Stop wondering when you’ll succeed and reach your goal, and instead put time and effort into the small steps that you can take to move toward that eventual success.

When someone tells me that they’re going to go all in, I feel really excited for them. 

I know from personal experience how scary but also how important that declaration is, especially when you say it to someone else. You’re saying I believe in me. 

And when you believe in yourself  — like, truly believe in yourself and the very real possibility that your dreams can come true — anything is possible. 

Especially when you get the right help.

Why Self-Publishing a Book Doesn’t Work (For Me)

At the beginning of 2022, I decided to stop working with any author who had previously been self-published. There are two reasons why.

The first reason is practical. Many people don’t know how much work it takes to market, promote, and sell a book. Most of the authors that were coming to us with previously published books had low sales numbers and wanted to overcome that history with a traditional deal. 

But here’s the catch — publishers and publishing experts (like me) can guess at what a book’s sales history has been based on data like the book’s ranking on Amazon, the number of reviews (as well as the number of stars) the book has received, and even by what the cover looks like. On average, I would say that it takes me about 10 seconds of looking at a book on Amazon to guess whether it’s been self-published — and how the author approached the publication of that book. And that’s before I even take the extra step of looking up actual sales numbers in Bookscan, a database I have access to. 

And — since Amazon is the #1 distributor of books in the United States, a poor sales history with a book available on Amazon is incredibly tough to overcome. It used to be that you could easily remove a book from the Internet . . . but that’s not so true anymore. Agents, publishers, and even independent experts in the industry like me have caught on to the fact that once you have a book that sells poorly — other books are likely to sell poorly too. That’s why most authors can’t overcome a bad sales history, self-published or otherwise.

The second reason my team and I don’t work with self-published authors anymore is because of a problematic mindset — the idea that a book will somehow promote, market, and sell itself . . . and somehow promote your business as well. I’m not sure where this idea got started or why it proliferates but it makes the work my team and I do incredibly difficult. Frankly, I’m in the business of making dreams come true, not arguing reality. 

Books are incredibly useful tools — for teaching, inspiring, and yes marketing too — but it’s important to remember that a book is only a calling card for what’s most important: you.

The 3 Ps Every Entrepreneurial Author Needs to Get a Book Publishing Deal

I’m really excited to share this tidbit of publishing know-how with you today, because when I came up with it I felt like the most brilliant writer ever. (#humblebrag).

But seriously — it distills what you need to get a book deal into three simple words. 

I call it the 3Ps of Publishing.

P #1 — POTENTIAL. 

You need a great idea with the potential to sell at least 10,000 books.

P #2 — PLATFORM.

You need an audience that you can sell the book to — or, in publishing industry speak, an author platform.

P # 3 — PROPOSAL.

Nonfiction books deals are made in a unique way — with a book proposal.

So that’s it — my 3Ps.

The Book Publishing Process: Why Publishers Won't Market Your Book For You

A publisher is not a non-profit. It’s a business. 

When you bring a book proposal to a publisher and try to get a deal, you’re making a business proposition. You are saying, hey want to get into business with me? 

And if your business sucks, then the answer is likely to be no. 

That might seem harsh, but most people have no clue about the volume of people with a great book idea who want to be published. There’s a lot of you and therefore, a lot of competition. Since last April, over 150 people have applied to work with me. I only handle a tiny sliver of the overall publishing market, but turn away lots of people (85% of those who apply). 

One reason I turn down people is because of their visibility and audience, or lack thereof. I talk to self-published authors a few times a month who come into our call already discouraged because their book didn’t magically sell. This problem is almost always directly related to that author not having an audience of their own. 

Marketing a book without an audience like having a business with no paying clients or customers. Without an established market and audience prior to publication, your book is sunk. Publishers know that. Unfortunately, most have had LOTS of experience with books that didn’t sell. The majority of books, including those that are self-published, sell less than 5,000 copies even when the author has an established platform and audience. 

The reason for this is simple: there are a lot of books available to read. 

(As well as a ton of other options for people to choose from when they’ve got a problem to solve or want to be entertained.) 

Traditional book publishers don’t have the time, resources or frankly the responsibility to figure out who will be interested in or benefit from your book. Nor do they have the capability to build an audience for you. That applies to agents, too. 

I’m gonna say it again: traditional publishers publish books for profit. 

Sometimes that includes coming up with the idea and the audience. 

Most of the time it doesn’t.

Every time a publisher offers a book deal to an author, they’re placing a bet. Their approach is to make a broad variety of calculated bets, hoping that some find their audience and become bestsellers.

What you can do — and what is entirely within your control as an author — is to learn the rules of the game and make your bet as sure as possible. So, you might ask — how do you make your bet as sure as possible? 

By being visible. 

By knowing your audience inside and out.

By understanding that publishing is a business proposition — and that you are going to set both yourself and the publisher up to profit by doing everything you can to make your book (and likely your business too) a success.

How Much Does it Cost to Publish a Book?

I’ve worked in traditional book publishing for nearly 20 years, and a statement I hear all the time is that “books don’t make you any money.”

So: this can be true, especially if and when you choose to self-publish because the money to produce the book is paid upfront by the author. In that model, you only make money when and if you earn those costs back. So — let’s say you paid $10,000 to self-publish and your book is $10. You would need to sell 1,000 books to make any money.

In traditional publishing, the math works the same way except that the publisher pays you an advance on earnings — basically money that the publisher expects to recoup after the book is published and sold. Let’s use the same math as before — you got paid a $10,000 advance (for what it’s worth, my clients earn at least 10x that) and your book is $10. You would have to sell 1,000 copies again before making any money — but instead of getting 100% of the profits, you’d likely get a small percentage — 15% or less — as a royalty from the publisher. 

That might seem unfair, but in traditional publishing, the publisher is taking the risk of loss — whereas in self-publishing you are. But let’s talk about where the money really is because it’s not in the sale of the book. 

I tell my clients that their advance from the publisher is nice and all, but the real money is in their author platform. Even before you have a book, the amount of money you’ll earn as an entrepreneur who is building their audience is way bigger than if you chose to stay small and remain a best kept-secret. I see this constantly in Author Platform Builders, where entrepreneurs are showing up and starting to share the advice and wisdom that will eventually exist in their book.

In my own business, I saw both an increase in followers, email subscribers, and the number of clients I served — and a substantial increase in revenue (nearly 300%) when I concentrated on building my platform. For my clients who have significant audiences already, a bestselling book not only increases their following but also their bottom line because the book acts as a selling tool for higher cost services, products, and programs. 

So while those entrepreneurial authors who chose traditional publishing may receive a small royalty check a few times a year, they’re also making substantially more in revenue month over month — because, as I said before, the real money isn’t in book sales but rather in the visibility and audience growth that a book can create for you. More visibility equals more profits — and not just from your book deal.