I recently signed a six figure book deal with Simon 038 Schuster for my book Building a Second Brain
As a first time author and in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in a generation this is a spectacular outcome It took a year of hard work a team of editors and
In the beginning is a message
You have something to say A message that wants to get out of you That needs to get out of you or else it will keep you up every night and drive you crazy
Publishing a book is like running for political office
There are a lot of people out there who you want to take a certain action at a certain time and place in the future With political campaigning that action is to vote With book campaigning it is to buy your book
Your proposal is like a business plan for your book. It needs to justify why your book is worth not just years of your time and effort, but the time and effort of dozens of professionals around the country (and maybe even around the world) who will be needed to get your book on shelves….
You should think of the people you re working with at each stage of the publishing process as your publishing team
Each one contributes something different and has different interests but what you all have in common is the desire to see your book through to publication and on to the greatest possible
After you ve written your proposal and sent it to publishers the future of your book is in their hands
If you ve done your job effectively you will receive an offer or hopefully offers to purchase the rights to your book
Almost all offers come in one of three ways
Once you ve accepted an offer for the publishing rights to your book it s time to draw up and sign a binding contract
Many of these contract details have standard provisions but you can always ask about and negotiate for them The more you understand about the implications and subtleties of these
After all this work and finally signing a deal it s time to do the thing you ve been asking for and write the book
Leave plenty of time to do this more than you think you need And then add additional time for unexpected rewrites reviewer feedback finding photos and illustrations securing
Everything you ve done up to this point has been preparation for this singular moment the launch of your book
An incredible amount of time energy money and attention has been invested by many different people The foundation has been laid for sales of your book to reach thousands or tens of thousands
Join 125,000 people receiving my best ideas on productivity & knowledge management every Tuesday.
I’ll send you my Top 10 All-Time Articles right away as a thank you.
SPEAKING INQUIRIES