Category: Media

How to get a literary agent for a self-published book

by Maria

how to get a traditional book deal if you've already self published

I hope you all had a chance to catch a few lessons from the Profitable Blogging Summit last week! I was following along from the beach in Punta Cana while working on new and experimental kinds of sun poisoning. (Seriously. My skin hates me right now. And yes, yes, I should know better. I have already given myself many demerits.)

I love answering questions at summits and conferences, but the difficult part is that I have to answer questions in 30-60 second spurts. And anyone who knows me knows that I do not excel at brevity. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything but a 6-part answer to a question.

But it’s not because I like to hear myself talk! (I actually very much think my voice sounds ridiculous when recorded.) It’s that publishing is very complex and has so many facets, exceptions, and tangents that there’s no way to provide an honest, hard-and-fast rule about anything.

So today I wanted to give you guys the long, 4-part answer to one of the questions Kirsten asked me: What does it take for a self-published author to get a traditional book deal?

When we chatted about this on camera, I grabbed my copy of The Joy of Less to illustrate a shining example of one author who successfully went from self-published to traditionally published.

The Joy of Less had sold 70,000 copies in just over 4 years by the time I took it on, so clearly Francine had created an incredibly successful and powerful book on her own. But she was ready to see her book in bookstores both nationwide and worldwide. And luckily, we were able to place the book with Chronicle, a wonderful publisher, as well as sell foreign rights in 17 countries.

And because I love ya, I’m going to be giving away 2 free copies of the book to 2 lucky readers today!

The joy of less francine jay book deal

The new edition is gorgeously redesigned, streamlined, and a great example of how a self-published book can live a whole new life with the help of a traditional publisher. I think you’ll love holding it, reading it, and sharing it with other clutterbugs in your life!

To enter to win a free copy of The Joy of Less, scroll down to the bottom of this post!

In the meantime, let me take a big breath and better explain how the self-pubbed to traditional-pubbed process works:

As we all know, the job of an agent or acquiring editor is to make an educated guess about how a book will perform in the marketplace. We all have our own hunches about how marketable a concept is, how well an author’s platform will translate into sales, and how much readers, reviewers, and the press will like the book.

That’s what our jobs come down to: making bets based on hunches. If we make good bets and take on good projects, we do well. If an editor signs a breakout author, she can start getting promoted up the ladder as she works on the author’s next (hopefully as successful!) books. If an agent signs a breakout author, she can negotiate an even better deal for the author’s second book, and then her third and fourth book after that. That’s the part that thrills us to our cores: building lasting careers for authors we admire.

But any agent and editor will also tell you that it’s nearly impossible to predict with total accuracy whether a book will do well in the marketplace. With one big exception: self-published books.

Because self-published books have already had their debut in the marketplace, editors and agents will know exactly what to expect, and they’ll have many more data points when they run their P&Ls.

This can be a great thing if you have a highly successful self-published book, because you’ll be able to show editors and agents that investing time and resources in you will be fairly low risk. But it can also make self-published books with middling sales look like an especially high risk.

So the very first thing I ask myself when assessing a self-published book is:

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Stage Two of Publishing a Book: Finding a Literary Agent and Writing a Knock-Your-Socks-Off Proposal

by Maria

How to publish a book

This month I’m running a series [update: Intro; Part 1; Part 3; Part 4] On how the publishing process works and how to successfully navigate each stage of the journey, with zero bewilderment and maximum fun.  And while the platform-building stage can often be lonely work done over many years, this next stage is where things really get fun, especially if you’re working with a Literary Agent who’s excited about your work.

If you’ve done the work of building a large and engaged platform, finding an agent and convincing them to offer you representation will be a piece of cake. As I talked about last week, every agent is focused on solely One Thing: signing the authors who will launch bestsellers. So if you can show an agent that you have the readership in place to launch a bestseller, you’ll likely have your pick of agents.

If you’re searching for an agent, try researching different agencies on websites like Writer’s Digest and Publisher’s Marketplace. Look for agents and agencies who have a track record of selling to well-respected publishing houses and who have other authors on their client list whom you admire. If you can get a referral from someone else who’s worked with an agent, even better—most of our clients come from referrals from existing authors, and I personally always pull those queries to the top of my pile.

One thing that’s too often overlooked by authors who are eager to land representation is whether an agent is a personality match for them. Remember, this is a relationship that will last at least two years if you land a book deal, and hopefully much longer if you publish other books. So you want to work with an agent you actually like! It sounds obvious, but ask yourself if you admire your agent, if they treat you and others respectfully, and if you trust them to put your goals above their own. Your agent should be in service to you, not anyone else.

Once you’ve found that agent who gets you and your work, you’ll be able to get started on your book proposal. You may already have a concept in mind, or you and your agent may brainstorm a concept together, but the proposal is really where the magic happens. A great book proposal is part-resume, part-business-plan, part-preview-of-the-book. But a knock-your-socks-off proposal is all of those things, PLUS it captures an editor’s imagination and makes their pulse quicken. This may be weird, but think of editors as cats. They’re hard to impress, but if you figure out what’s catnip to them, they’ll be all over it.

When I was an editor I had to sift through dozens of proposals a month from literary agents, and the ones that I pursued were always the ones that left me with a feeling of delight, possibility, and infectious enthusiasm. With how competitive the book market is these days, you need an editor to be all-in when he or she takes your proposal to the acquisitions team or Publisher, because this excitement and passion for a book will spread throughout an imprint, and ultimately, throughout the publishing process. So make sure your book is pure catnip to editors—make sure it’s that one title that makes people light up when they talk about it.

The 4 Questions You Should Be Able to Answer at This Stage:

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Read, Eat, Drink: The First Chapter of Harper Lee’s GO SET A WATCHMAN! Plus a Cherry Wine Sangria Recipe

by Maria

How to get published

Read:

The First Chapter of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee Releases Today [!!!] (The Wall Street Journal): IT IS HERE. The day has come. The world’s first look at Harper Lee’s long-lost manuscript was published at 12 am today, exclusively by The Wall Street Journal in the US and The Guardian in the UK. You’ll have to wait until Tuesday to read the full book, but what’s a greater gift to yourself on a sunny summer Friday than sinking into a comfy chair with this first chapter? I plan on reading first the straightforward version on the WSJ, then enjoying the gorgeous interactive version The Guardian created. Here’s hoping everyone has some time today or this weekend to savor this historic literary event!

How Publishers Make Decisions About What to Publish: The Book P&L (Jane Friedman): This is a must-read for aspiring authors. The P&L is the key calculation used at publishers to make acquisitions decisions. I remember when I was an editor and bringing proposals to Pub Board, we’d always hit a certain point where the conversation shifted from what-is-the-book-and-who-is-the-author to talking numbers. That’s when sales managers and marketing managers start estimating how many copies they think the book will sell, and therefore how much they can offer as an advance. That’s why I’m always nagging my authors to put every single relevant thing they’ve done into their proposals–it’s usually the only document brought into Pub Board meetings, and so it’s the only voice the author and agent have at the table. So make sure your proposal is knocking their socks off, Charlie-Brown-strikeout style. (And lucky you, this month I’m running a new series on What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Book, and next week’s post is about writing a proposal! Hooray. Here’s where you can catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.)

21 Content Marketing Predictions for the 2nd Half of 2015 (Joe Lazauskas for Contently): If you’re a writer or blogger, guess what: You are in content marketing. Congratulations, and welcome to your inauguration. Yes, books are the ultimate piece of content marketing, since before anyone even thought to call them that. And if we’re going to gussy things up by slapping some corporate-lingo over things that have been happening for millenia, then let’s really have some fun with it. This prediction for content marketing in 2015 made me burst out laughing: “More and more brands will hire full-time editors. They’ll call them something absurd though, like ‘global audience strategists.'” I just hope we get to call Literary Agents something hilarious too, like Content Development Czars. (Feel free to start calling me this until the end of time.)

3 Common Author Platform Mistakes, Plus How to Fix Them (Maria Ribas for Writer’s Digest): Oh well, lookee here, an article by yours truly. To quote myself, which yes, is an odd thing to do: “Platform-building is not about getting up on your soapbox and asking people to buy your book. It’s actually not about promoting your work at all. The true purpose of a platform is to create a community of like-minded readers—to find the people who like dystopian YA, or historical romances, or the paleo diet just as much as you, and then finding ways to help them. It’s about serving, not selling.”

Eat & Drink:

Cherry Wine Sangria

Cherry wine sangria recipe

Over to Jarrett for some refreshment:

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Read, Eat, Drink: How Should Authors Tell Fans About Their Book?, Plus a Fourth of July Menu

by Maria

How to get published

Read:

5 Real Reasons Agents Are So Darn Picky (Carly Watters): Agents are known for being “no” people. No, no, no, we say to query after query after query. But the funny thing is that we want to be “yes” people. But it needs to be a big enthusiastic “YES!” or no “yes” at all. As Carly Watters explains: “We’re picky because we have to be. We wouldn’t be able to stay in business unless we were choosy about everything we signed up.” Reason #1 on her list is especially important: We’re picky because every single person in the value chain–from the agent to the editor to the marketer to the bookstore buyer to the media producer to, ultimately, the reader–is also extremely picky.

5 Reasons Publishers LOVE Bloggers: Why Blogging Might Be Your Fastest Way to Secure a Book Deal (Chad R. Allen, Editorial Director for Baker Publishing Group, at MichaelHyatt.com): A big “amen!” to every single one of these reasons. As Allen writes: “Anyone who is serious about getting published should consider blogging. It’s a great way to build an audience, field-test ideas, cultivate social credibility, learn the publishing process, and hone your writing skills.”

When Reporters Write Books, Does The Times Win, Too? (Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor for The New York Times):  Well, here’s an interesting one. The case at hand is David Brooks’s new bestseller The Road to Character and his use of outbound links in his column. The links lead to his book’s website, where he invites readers to participate in further discussion and, if they’d like, to purchase his book. Apparently, some readers of the Times are “appalled” by this. Is his column relevant to the topic of his book? Yes. Would his book further an interested reader’s understanding of the topic? Yes. Did he mention his book in a conversational, unpushy way? Yes. It’s hard to see how this is harming readers rather than helping them find ways to learn more about the topic.

It’s interesting because this is a completely acceptable (and encouraged!) practice in nearly every single other media outlet–after all, David Brooks’s platform as an author is the column itself, and his book is an opportunity for his column readership to engage with him in a deeper, longer format (making them more likely to increase their devotion to reading his column and subscribing to the paper). Yet, the Times called foul. As the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal says, “It’s tricky. Books are inherently a commercial enterprise.” (And what are newspapers? Both books and newspapers are commercial enterprises, but they are also in service to the public discourse. And you cannot serve the public well by ignoring a new, important contribution to a topic.)

Eat & Drink:

Is it possible that the Fourth of July is becoming our country’s second most important food holiday? We can all agree that Thanksgiving is THE holiday for thinking of nothing but what we’ll cook, how much we’ll eat, in what order, and with how many extra helpings, but I think the Fourth of July is racing hot for the #2 spot. I determine this ranking by counting how many days I’ve spent daydreaming about the food.

And now it’s been about 4 days of visions of perfectly charred brauts, sauced up ribs, and juicy tomatoes dancing in my head.  I think it’s safe to say my brain is more food matter than grey matter at this point.

Jarrett and I are off to the Leelanau Peninsula in northern Michigan for a long weekend, and we’ll be blissfully in the hands of superior cooks (and I’ll be blissfully facedown in a bowl of black bean salsa that I’ve been dreaming about for two years).

But if anyone else is still scrambling for menu ideas…

How about RIBS? Done 13 different ways on Bon Appétit.

Ribs recipe bon appetit

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