ASLU 018: How To Get A Book Deal When Nobody Knows Who You Are
In Episode 18 of The And She Looked Up Creative Hour we talk to Lisa about how she managed to get a book deal with a major publisher when nobody knew who she was and when she had almost no social following (seriously… under 1000 Instagram and Facebook followers). Oh… and the book, On Boards, went on to become a national bestseller in the cooking and entertaining niche!
In the world of non-fiction, getting a book deal usually means that you’re either a well-known professional in your field (preferably one with name recognition), a celebrity, or an influencer/blogger with 100s of thousands of followers or monthly website page views.
Ideally, you bring a big audience of potential book buyers with you when you sign your book contract – a built in market to sell you book to. And make no mistake, you will be expected to do a big portion of the marketing of that book if you want to make it a best seller!
But what if you’re not well known and you don’t have a big audience to sell to… but you know you have a great idea or something unique to say that people will want to hear, if only you could get it in front of them.
If you think you have something interesting to say in the world of non-fiction but don’t think you have the clout to write a book and get it published, this episode might just change your mind!
Listen To the Episode
Here’s a direct link to Episode 18 - or you can listen via the players below:
Is Your Idea Book-Worthy?
Lisa’s book came out of doing something she really enjoyed that received a lot of positive feedback from family, friends and acquaintances who were exposed to her work. But it wasn’t until she started looking around in bookstores that she realized there was nobody (at the time) writing cookbooks or entertaining books around her concept of stylish, thoughtfully presented cheese and grazing boards. That was her first hint that she might have an idea and she started making notes.
You might think you have a great idea but have you bounced if off of other people? Have you done some research to see if there are other books out there that address your topic?
Be Strategic - Right From the Beginning
Before you ever propose your idea you need to start prepping and strategizing. One of the first things to think about is whether or not you want to publish traditionally or self-publish.
Publish Traditionally or Self-Publish?
When you publish your book with a traditional publisher, they’re going to help you with a lot of the pieces: book and cover design, editing, printing, distribution and marketing. They’ll also give you some money up front (known as an advance) to help you pay for some of the costs of writing your book: mostly your time but depending on your niche that could also be used to pay for special photography, recipe testing, a research assistant, etc. Advances can range from small to large and can depend on so many factors: your track record as an author (have you written a book before?), the projected sales of your book, etc.
When you publish with a traditional publisher you’ll be paid royalties: a percentage of the sale of each book. Traditional royalties are usually a very small percentage of the retail price of the book but this is in part due to the fact that the publishing company is taking on all of the risk and is doing a lot of the work to get that book from your final draft to store shelves.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE: your advance is just that: an advance on your future earnings from the sale of your book. That means you won’t see any royalties from your book until you have “paid back” your advance.
Self-publishing is just that: you publish the book yourself and are responsible for all of the production, design, editing, distribution and marketing. You also get to keep all of the profits and it can be much more lucrative that traditional publishing but, it’s also much more work!
There are also companies out there that are will help you do a kind of hybrid publishing where they’ll assist you with specific pieces of the process like printing, distribution and marketing but you still publish it without the help of a traditional publisher.
There’s merit to each method – it just depends on what you’re prepared to take on!
What Will You Need To Do To Convince a Publisher to Take You On?
Lisa decided that publishing traditionally was the best solution for her so the next question she asked herself is “why would a publisher say “no” to me” and she started to make a list of all the reasons a publisher might find to turn her down. Then she worked on finding rebuttals for all of them.
The Pitch Is Not All About You.
Lisa realized she needed to put together a sound business plan for her proposal and make her book proposal less about her and who she was and more about why this was going to be a win for the publisher. Her goal was to alleviate their fears and show them how this book would fill a gap in the market and… make them money. She wanted her proposal to check off all the boxes her potential publisher had on their list. And having a big social media following is only one checkbox on what might be a list of 10-15 checkboxes that any given publisher might have to worry about.
When you pitch, you want to lay things out so clearly and cover off any fears or potential problems that might arise in the publishing and sales process that the only answer a publisher is left with is YES!.
Research Publishers
Not all publishers are the same and even large publishers may have smaller niche “imprints” that publish certain types of books. Do your research and find out who your book could be a good fit for and who is not a good fit. Focus on imprints and publishers who will be a good fit for your idea.
Research Your Publishing Niche
Lisa spent a lot of time reading and researching books and articles on getting a cookbook published so she would know what to expect and where her weaknesses might be. This helped her identify the biggest roadblocks she might come up against when pitching her book idea.
It’s important to know the rules when you’re trying to break into a new industry. It doesn’t mean you can’t break the rules but knowing the rules in advance will help you know the objections you’ll be up against!
Don’t Be Afraid To Focus on NOT Being an Expert.
One of the biggest roadblocks Lisa came up against was not having a big social following or being a culinary expert. But she turned that into a positive by convincing her potential publishers that that’s what would make her relatable. If she could make a cheese board, anyone could make a cheese board. Not only that but because she figured it out, she could teach others with no special skills how to do it too. Her book would be usable – for anyone.
What Is A Book Proposal and What Should Go In It?
A book proposal is short document you put together for an agent or a publisher to convince them that the book should be written and published. It explains all the pieces of the book:
the idea
the target audience
sample chapters
a sample table of contents
a short author bio
notes on the author’s platform and audience
information to help put together a marketing plan
a schedule to deliver all of the pieces.
Lisa’s book proposal was 20 pages which would usually be considered a large proposal.
After doing her research, Lisa recognized that a book proposal really wasn’t that different from a business plan. With a background in business banking, she decided that’s how she would focus her proposal. She made the target market and audience and the promotion plan the core components.
How Do You Research Your Target Market?
You have a this great idea and in your gut you know it’s a sure fire hit. But how do you find the supporting information – the facts – to back up your gut instinct to a publisher who needs to know if this book will make money?
Lisa started by reverse engineering. She knew she had a great idea for a book and that people would buy it. But who exactly would buy it? She knew her best friend would buy it. But who is her best friend? This led her to creating avatars for her potential readers and including them in her proposal
Creating Customer Avatars
A customer avatar is a fictional person who represents your target customer. You might have more than one avatar – in fact you probably will! Just like a character in a book, you need to flesh them out beyond gender and age. Here are just a few things you might want to consider about your customer avatar.
What do they do for a living? What’s their average income?
Do they have children? Are they single or in a relationship?
Where do they live?
What does their house look like?
What kind of magazines do they like?
Where do they get their information and news from?
What kind of books do they read? (do they even read books??)
Where do they spend their disposable income?
Do they travel regularly?
What are their biggest struggles or challenges?
What’s important to them?
What kind of values do they have?
What are their general interests and recreational activities?
How much free time do they have?
When you’re selling a book, you’re competing for everyone’s discretionary income. You need to convince them to spend their $25 on your book as opposed to eating out this weekend or going to a movie, or buying a cute top or new kitchen tool. You’re also competing against all the other books out there! This is why it’s really important that you know as much as you can about the person who might be interested in your book because you’re going to have to market to them and convince them to give up that $25.
Lisa gives examples of her avatars for On Boards in the at 30:17 in the podcast so you can get a sense of who they were.
Having avatars brings so much clarity to you and your publisher. It makes all the writing and marketing decisions so much easier when you know exactly who you’re talking to. Providing your publisher with avatars tells them exactly who is going to buy the book – you’re essentially connecting all the dots for them in your proposal!
Including a Competition Analysis in Your Proposal
As much as we all want to think we’re going to the write the best book in the world that will blow all other books out of the water, the reality is there’s always going to be competition. Lisa decided to address this head on by including a Competition Analysis in her proposal.
First, she identified all the existing books in her category that might compete with hers and then identified why people might buy that book or why they might buy hers. She showed the sales rankings and any other data she could find on those books and then identified how a publisher could position her book differently.
This is work your publisher is going to do before they offer you a contract but by doing it for them, you make it, once again, crystal clear to them how this book can be positioned and marketed. You’re making it easier for them to say yes. And you’re showing that you understand what you’re up against before you even write this book.
By doing this, it can actually show you before even pitching your book whether or not this is an idea you should pursue. It will be very obvious if the market is saturated and whether or not your book can stand out. And when you don’t have a big following, you need to find a way to stand out. If your market does prove to be saturated, you need to rethink your idea and find a way to put a twist on it to make it unique!
Lisa could see that her book was niche. It wasn’t a general cookbook. It was filling a gap in the market at that time and she knew it could be positioned and marketed to succeed even if she didn’t have a big audience. This is really important. You do not want to go into your first meeting with a possible publisher and not know that a book just like yours was published 18 months ago and is now sitting on the bargain shelves of your local bookstore.
How Will This Book Be Marketed?
While you do want to provide a Competition Analysis in your book proposal, you can’t analyze books that haven’t been published yet. You probably won’t even know they’re being written – which is exactly what happened to Lisa. Just a few months before her book was due to be released another book in her niche was published. But Lisa was still able to have a best seller and part of the reason for that is her marketing proposal.
Book marketing is very different than it was 20 years ago. Gone are the days of multiple city, all expense paid book tours courtesy of your publisher. You will be expected to play a major role in marketing your book. The publication of your book is really just the half way point of writing a book!
So how are you going to market this book? Especially when you’re a “nano” influencer like Lisa?
Lisa knew she had to come up with a plan long before the book came out:
Alternate Distribution Channels
Lisa decided to focus on less obvious places where her book could be sold outside of the usual Indigo, Barnes and Noble and Costco type stores - like home goods stores, grocery stores and kitchen shops.
Start to notice all the places books are being sold outside of Amazon and the big chain bookstores and starting making a list. You’ll be surprised at how often books pop up in unexpected locations:
Kitchen shops
Hardware stores
Drugstores
Gift shops
Independent cafes and restaurants
Home décor stores
Clothing stores
Airports
Ferries and cruise ships
Liquor stores
Grocery stores
Lisa knew her book was very giftable so she chose to focus on smaller shops that focus on a carefully curated inventory of items that people might buy as a small splurge for themselves or as a small gift.
One thing to remember with small shops is that the owners usually know their customers very well and highly curate what they sell in their shops. They’ve built up a relationship with their customers that’s built on trust. If they tell their customers that this new book is a must have, their customers will buy it!
You may be very surprised how many copies those smaller retails can sell – in some cases it might be more than the big stores!
Be Open to Doing Book Signings, Public Speaking and Demos
Lisa made herself available to do book signings and demos in any small shops that were interested in having her – especially kitchen shops and places that hosted cooking classes.
She also made sure she was available to do television interviews and demos for local and national shows.
You can also investigate hosting workshops or speaking at conferences where your topic would be a good fit. Many authors will do this for free if they are able to have a table where they can sell and sign their books.
Embrace Your Nano-Influencer Status
People with a social media following of less than 10K are often referred to as nano-influencers and they’re not to be underestimated. If you’re one of them you probably already know that in many cases you have a much closer relationship with the people who follow you than those with 10x the number of followers.
Nano-influencers can be curators in their own right and can be responsible for a lot of sales because their followers tend to feel very connected to them and those kind of closer relationships can be very powerful when it comes to “influence”.
Get Your Book Out to Influencers
If you don’t have a big social media following, consider gifting your book to influencers who do in the hopes that they might feature it to their audience. Choose influencers who are the right fit for your book. Lisa chose food and lifestyle influencers, both of which were a good fit for a book about food and entertaining.
Start Creating Content For Other Publications
If you don’t already have a website or a blog, you should start one… create places for people to find you both before and after they read your book. Find ways to give them more that also demonstrate you have some authority on your subject matter.
But don’t forget to look to other publications that can lend a “stamp of approval” to your talents and your content by having you write or create content for them.
Lisa had a website and social media channels but she also started writing for other publications, including one that Melissa runs. She pitched a column called On Board in 20 that featured family meals that were ready in 20 minutes and served family style on a serving board. The column ran regularly for several years and was even featured in the book blurb on Amazon.
Writing about your niche in other publications can give you a level of authority both pre-publication and post publication when people start to look for other places they can find you.
Use That Content To Fill the Silence While You’re Busy Writing
There will be a period of time where you go dark while you actually write the book and it can be easy for people to forget about you when that happens. Which is why it’s so important to have a plan to stay visible when you’re actually really busy.
Pre-write content for your blog that can be scheduled and dripped out over the months while you’re busy writing. Do the same for other third party platforms that you write for. By writing her On Board in 20 column for Food Bloggers of Canada, Lisa still had regular content going out and it was FBC who was doing the promotion for her while she was busy writing.
Find ways you can repurpose content on your own channels and for third party channels while you’re busy getting your work done.
Lisa’s Best Tips For Getting a Publisher To Say Yes
Have an idea that’s unique to their offerings
Have an idea that evokes an emotional response
Be professional
Be open to feedback – a lot of feedback
Be willing to let the experts do their job. Focus on your writing and let the editors, designers and marketers do their job.
Pick your battles. Know that some decisions that you don’t like will be made because it’s in the best interest of the book’s sales. Be flexible on as many things as you can.
Meet your deadlines – this is critical
Put the time in up front to get your propsoal right before you put it in front of a publisher.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
- On Boards by Lisa Bolton
- Will Write For Food by Dianne Jacob
- On Board In 20 - Food Bloggers of Canada
- Episode 3 of the And She Looked Up Creative Hour: Melissa Interviews Lisa
- To get your free Customer Avatar worksheet that was mentioned in the episode scroll back up and fill out the form in the Customer Avatar section of the show notes!
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