Getting a book deal

What it really takes to land a book deal

I wrote a book proposal in one night.

My husband Matt was out with a friend, and I thought, “I’ve always wanted to write a book. Tonight would be the ideal time to bang out a proposal.”

So I stayed up until 2 am in January 2020 researching my ideal publishing houses, Googling how to write a proposal, and writing said proposal.

This is the type of story that makes me wonder how we didn’t catch my ADHD sooner.

My thought process at the time was that I knew I wanted to write a book at some point, but I had too much else going on to dedicate my prime weekday, daytime hours to the task.

I’d write it Saturday night. Edit it on Sunday. Send it to the publishing houses on Monday morning. I didn’t even bother with querying agents.

If it was meant to be, it would be.

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It was meant to be. Just not in the way that I thought.

My Saturday night fever dream of a proposal was not, in fact, what publishers were looking for: quelle surprise.

But seven months later, I got an email from an editor.

She’d bought one of Inner Workout’s digital workbooks and loved the messaging.

Would I be interested in publishing with them?

Would I?!

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While this isn’t the typical path of querying an agent who then pitches your work to publishing houses, it’s also not entirely uncommon.

My friend Amelia’s self-published book ended up being traditionally published because an editor found Amelia on Kickstarter and reached out to her.

Because I had Amelia as a book “big sister”, I took the conversation with the editor, AND I started reaching out to agents.

Having an interested editor and publisher meant that I might be more appealing to agents. I was realistic about the fact that I was a small fish without a particularly large platform, so I wanted to take advantage of this moment while I had it.

I met with the editor. As we sketched out a few high level book ideas, I also spoke with agents.

Outside of one introduction, I found agents by searching. On Google. On Twitter. By doing deep dives into who represented my favorite authors.

In the spirit of showing the process, here’s some of what I said when I reached out:

I had four or five conversations with various agents and ultimately decided on a newer agent at a well established literary agency. She’d spent most of her career as an editor of books like the ones I hoped to write. We both were interested in a longer term partnership and saw potential for me to have an actual writing career.

After signing with my agent, I started writing my book proposal. The book proposal is the first step in the process for most authors, but, as you’ve already seen, my process was topsy-turvy.

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My agent was kind enough to share a proposal from one of her clients as a guidepost for mine. Between that example and the knowledge that the publisher wanted me to write a book for them, the proposal felt a lot like an open book test.

My agent recommended a few edits and formatting changes. We sent it over to the editor, who shopped it around internally. I made another round of edits. Then, finally, I had an offer on the book!

I summed up the process in a few sentences, but I need you to know that this was a months-long journey. The publishing industry isn’t known for its speed.

Once I’d received the offer, my agent got to work on negotiation. I can’t recommend having an agent highly enough, even if a publisher reaches out to you directly. My agent suggested changes to the contract that I wouldn’t have known to consider. I got a better deal because of her savvy.

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So what does it really take to land a book deal? A good dose of luck, honestly.

I think you can increase your luckiness by putting meaningful work into the world today. Start developing your point of view now.

Amelia and I both had editors reach out because we’d been in the habit of sharing our work. In fact, another editor from a different publisher tapped my shoulder after my Kickstarter campaign for the Instead deck.

Start creating in ways that interest you. Make sure you’re enjoying the process. You never know where it will lead you.

I decided to host this newsletter because of its commenting functionality. Please don’t be a stranger! What resonated? What was confusing? What would you like for me to expand on in a future Process Report? Let me know in the comments. I’m all ears.