How To Get a Non-Fiction Book Deal
“We wouldn’t give the best author in the world a book deal if they didn’t have a platform”.
These are the words of an executive from a top ten publishing house. He told me this whilst I was courting publishers for my first ‘real’ book, Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Earn Your Freedom and Do Work That Matters. I say ‘real’ because I had self-published two books previously and several e-books… but the credibility and opportunities presented by a legitimate book deal aren’t just in another ballpark when compared with self-publishing, they’re on another planet.
The 50% Rule
A successful book isn’t much different to a successful product; product development and marketing must move in lockstep with each other, or as author Gabriel Weinberg put it, “spend 50% of your time on product and 50% on traction”. If you have a great book but lackluster marketing to back it up, then it‘s unlikely to sell, and if you have an epic marketing campaign but a lackluster book, then word will spread and your book will probably…
