When I came out of grad school, writers had to bank on traditional publishing houses to choose them for a sense of worth and/or credibility. You could self-publish—it was called vanity publishing then—but that had all the panache of finding a spouse in the classified section of a newspaper. So not cool! Maybe, even a little pathetic.

But then the publishing industry basically imploded in 2008 thanks to the market crash. Amazon entered the fray a year later, and all bets were off. Publishing became the wild wild west.

Despite the numerous (and might I add respectable) publishing options available to folks who want their book out in the world, the old dream of the book deal is very much alive and well. 

Traditional publishing is still the brass ring many writers reach for.

If you have a similar dream, I’d like to share some facts about the industry you may not be familiar with only because you haven’t spent the last fifteen years operating in this world…some truths I found horrific the first time I smacked into them. These insights will also help me explain why writing a check to a hybrid publisher may be SO much cheaper than receiving one from a traditional house.

You still get to choose to head down this road with your book in hand—I help authors evaluate this option all the time—but do so with your eyes WIDE open.

Look, we’re all about polished writing at Summit Press Publishers. We’re interested in well-written powerful books that stand to change lives. But that’s NOT what the book industry is about on the whole.

Am I saying that traditional publishing houses aren’t interested in well-written books that stand to change lives? No, of course not.

What I am saying is that they require ever so much more.

For a big traditional publishing house to take an interest in you and your prescriptive non-fiction book, you’ll need at least two of three things. A big platform, a hot topic, and/or that extremely well-written book.

Let me expound. 

Does your well-written book cover a topic that’s taken the country by storm?

Think Michael Lewis, author of Premonition, who’d been researching the story of an epidemiologist in California who knew that a pandemic was about to hit…..JUST AS COVID breaks!

Do you have a well-written book AND a platform?

If you don’t know what that word means, that’s OK. But that’s also a sign that you don’t have one. So, let me explain.

Big houses want to be your friend if you have a massive following of people actively engaged with your content. Now, I’m not talking 16k followers on TikTok (insert social media channel of choice); I’m talking 100s of 1000s of die-hard rabid fans who comment on your posts at all hours of the day and night and share your stuff with everyone they know…

Or 100s of 1000s who currently hand you money for your related products or services. Meaning you have a list, run a successful online business, and know how to market and sell your wares…

Or you’ve got lots of important and/or famous friends who do, who guarantee that they will go to bat for you when the book hits the market and bring in tons of sales.

Publishing is a business. Traditional publishing houses sell books; that’s how they keep the lights on. That’s how they monetize. They want a near guarantee that anything you produce will sell and that you can sell it; otherwise, you represent too significant a risk.

You may think you’ve got 3 aces, but they see a pair of twos.

I can almost hear the psychic scream.

For God’s sake, it’s already done…. Can’t these people just read what I’ve written?!

No.

Let’s return to how traditional publishing houses make money: book sales.

A book proposal presents publishing houses with the necessary metrics to make a sound business decision. How many readers buy books on this topic? Within the last three or so years? Given the books currently on the market, why would anybody choose to purchase a book by you?? That sort of thing.

You won’t be able to tell how many books any one title has sold, but you can see its Amazon rating and the number of reviews. If a comparable title published in the last three years is #5 in the category in which your book would be housed and has 800ish 5-star ratings, you’re looking at a seller.

The traditional house is gambling on your book, particularly if you’re an unknown author. They need evidence that the book is likely to be a hit and that the house stands to win. Otherwise, some executive will have to lay off a bunch of poorly paid employees and give up the big annual bonus when the thing flops. And a significant portion of their acquisitions will flop, statistically speaking. It’s built into their business model.

Traditional houses are not in the dream business. (Neither is Hollywood, for that matter.) This is all about probability and profitability. Cold hard cash.

If that sounds easy enough…well…the first time I wrote a book proposal, I thought I would lose my mind. Unpleasant didn’t even begin to cover it.

All these years later, I’ve learned to do the job well. I got good at proposal writing by working with innocents who’d made a first-stab attempt and hated the results. As in, not a single agent would bite. (More on that next.)

Cost to have a proposal written for/with you? Typically, between $15k-$25k.

Oh, and 6 months of your time.

 
That means 6 months on top of the time necessary to write the book itself, then run it through the agent query process, the proposal shopping, the big book deal, and production…. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Authors in a hurry don’t like this much.

Reread that penultimate sentence if you want a book out now or next quarter.

Unsolicited submissions have a negligable acceptance rate, meaning you have a much better chance of winning your state’s Powerball.

Enter the literary agent.

A literary agent is your interface with traditional publishing houses. They have relationships, insider knowledge, and a clear understanding of how this business runs. They’re schmoozing with the acquisition editors, reading the trade magazines, following the trends, and working all ends of the equation.

How do you find an agent, you ask? Before the advent of the Internet, you could find one by browsing through The Writer’s Market—an annual catalog that listed agent names, contact information, and specialties. (The Writers’ Market is also an online subscription site.) You can now dig up the same information on Google or in the acknowledgment section of competitive books.

Agents can also be tracked down at writers’ conferences, where they troll for new talent—writers with MFA’s, experienced authors, or that workshop participant everybody seems to be raving about. They’re also watching social media to see which posts are going viral. Who’s getting a lot of engagement.

Nowadays, they troll marketing and business conferences because that’s where the authors with huge platforms hang out. (Go back to #1) If you’ve got a real following, they’ll be sidling up to you; never fear.

They’re also conversing with their current authors, who will make introductions to noteworthy friends. (Connections and relationships really matter.)

Tracking down an agent isn’t the hard part; getting an agent to pay attention to you is the trick.

Even if you miss the chance to pitch in person and wow her with your knowledge of Jim Collins and James Clear or have no author friends who can pave the way, you can still grab an agent’s interest through the query process.

A query is a particular type of letter that tells an agent who you are, why you’re contacting her, what your book is about—in a paragraph or two—and why you think it would sell well in the current marketplace.

There are hundreds of books out there that can teach you how to write a proper query letter. Buy one, because it’s an art form. Plus, it’s always helpful to see examples of what to do and what not to do. (You’d be astounded how naive people can be!)

*So, let’s say the cost of researching agents and writing query letters is 4 months of your time.

If an agent likes what she sees in the query letter, she may ask for a sample of your manuscript and a synopsis. A synopsis is a more detailed summary of your book, including a description of the major themes agents use to pitch to a publishing house.

If the agent likes your synopsis, if she suddenly thinks of the perfect publisher or an editor who has bought that kind of book in the past or has mentioned wanting something along those lines, she will want to see your proposal. If you’re crazy lucky, she’ll contract with you to represent your book while you’re in the proposal-writing process.

(By the way, unless you want to piss off an agent, which makes no sense to me, don’t send her your whole manuscript until she asks. Ignoring this rule doesn’t make you tenacious, it’s the tell that you can’t follow instructions. Why would any reasonable person engage with that?)

*I help people write their synopsis all the time. It takes about a month to nail it down.

I should mention that your agent will take a 15% cut of your book deal. If a publishing house buys your book for $100k, your agent walks away with $15k. And they’re worth every penny, do not think for a moment that they’re not.

This leads me to …

Mostly, I see $7k, $3k, $12k somewhere in that neighborhood. In smaller boutique houses, I see $200, $400, and $0, with the retention of all sales profits or certain rights that will allow the house to monetize in some unique way.

In other words, forget about quitting your business and coasting on the proceeds. 

Most writers still cling to some version of that fantasy: get the book deal (after you’ve shed some blood writing the proposal), then develop the book with an assigned editor who will make everything you produce that much better. Back and forth you’ll go, like old pals, as you push through the necessary revisions as a unit. 

Except, that’s not how it works anymore.

You can expect to write the book independently, with an occasional check-in from your assigned editor. That’s because most of them are working with multiple authors at a time, numerous projects, and there are only 24 hours in a day. Beyond a few cursory suggestions, you’re on your own, so if you require help, you must hire it.

It’s right there in the contract… the author will deliver a publish-ready manuscript by such-and-such date.

Unless you wrote the manuscript before the book proposal, you will need to hire a developmental editor (or book coach) to meet the looming deadline. Rare is the person who can deliver to standard in roughly 6 months without professional help. And these traditional execs take their deadlines very seriously. A glance at the contact will convince you of this.

Now, tight deadlines aside, if you think you’re going to get the best in the industry focused on your book, say a cover designer like Chip Kidd, who makes about $4M a year, well, you need to know that those big guns are reserved for the likes of David Sedaris and Michael Crichton. The instantly recognizable names that bring in millions.

But surely the publishing house will distribute your book to all the big box stores so Mom can see it in the window.

Not so fast. If you think going traditional guarantees that your book will be displayed in big retail chains, like Barnes and Nobel or Hudson News, I’ve got some bad news for you. Oh, the house will send the seasonal catalog–the one with your book description inside– to the purchasing agents, but that’s about it. Maybe Barnes and Nobel will order 50 copies companywide to start and wait to see if it sells. But there’s no one pushing them to go for more, to place a bet on you. And if you want your book on the table up front or highlighted in the latest release section, you must pay for that yourself. We’re talking thousands of dollars a month coming out of your pocket.

Will they get you into Target, Walmart, or other big chains that buy in bulk? That would take a salesperson to work that deal, and chances are good your book isn’t even on most reps’ radar.

You have become the latest publishing orphan, of which there are many. Your fair share of the marketing and promotion resources will be devoted to whichever darling promises the house profits.

This is WAY more common than you think. The tears I’ve seen shed!

OK, so where do I begin? Let’s head back to the glorious book tour.

Want to do a book tour? Well, then set it up yourself. Or hire someone to do this for you, namely a publicist. This means contacting the various bookstores in specific cities and filling those venues on a tight schedule with friends and family because neither the publishing house nor the bookstore will do that for you. Once that’s done, your next job is to get yourself and a box or two of books to those venues, then ship the remnants home or to the next stop. You know, the admin stuff we all enjoy.

Social media. Should I even go there?

Social media posting, which you’ll have to do yourself, or hire out, is all about sticking your mug out there and gabbing about all things writing and book. Not just once a week but incessantly. You’ll need to engage your audience daily and smile like you mean it because that’s how books are sold.

Will your house post about your book on their social media platforms?

Sure. But remember, you’re one of many, and they’ve already picked their darling for the season, which likely isn’t you.

Podcast tours are now a big thing. Will your house offer you a resource to set this up? Maybe, but the associated costs are coming out of your pocket.

Amazon ads, Google ads, Facebook ads? They’ll set it up, but you’ll be paying for it.

If this sounds unfair, let’s go back to the marketing section of your book proposal, in which you declared your willingness to follow an exact plan for selling thousands of books. This is why you got the book deal in the first place.

Do you want to talk about your book on Super Soul Sunday, the Drew Barrymore Show, or Good Morning America? Well, your publishing house may talk in passing about having connections with the producers, but the chances of coming through for you are minuscule at best. (Unless you’re Britney Spears. Hi, Britney; thanks for reading!@) 

For the rest of you mortals, you must learn how to pitch media outlets, both big and small, or hire a publicist to do that for you.

Publicists are responsible for arranging book tours and persuading media gatekeepers to feature the author—crucial elements in the success of any book that few authors can replicate on their own. Publicists, like agents, are in the relationship business. They know the players, what they’re looking for, how to talk to them, which makes them valuable.

Publicists, however, offer NO GUARANTEES and are expensive. We’re talking $7,000/month or so. They’ll look for TV opportunities—starting local, working their way up the food chain to the fantasy placements—and print spots, from your local paper to the New York Times book review or Reese Witherspoon’s book club. They’ll pitch, promote, prep you on talking points, and then set you free to perform.

By the way, getting your face on the local news or lifestyle show buys you momentary glory, but it doesn’t tend to sell books.

Again, because it’s easy to gloss over this, the publishing house will only pay for this if it’s stated explicitly in your contract. (Get an agent!!!)

Because you need to cover your advance by meeting the projected numbers, or, if you don’t, pay back a portion of that advance to cover the shortfall.

(This is where an agent is invaluable because this kind of stuff gets written into book deals every day of the week. A good agent can ensure you don’t have to relinquish money if the book fails. But if you don’t know what you’re looking at, you can get royally screwed.)

I shall expound.

For the sake of this exercise, let’s say you hit the jackpot and get yourself a $100k book deal. That means you will have to sell a set # of books to make back the publishing house investment. These numbers are established during the contracting phase with the help of your agent, but I’m going to spitball it here. Your hardback book will sell for $27. The raw cost of producing said book runs about $10. Leaving a profit—which must cover salaries, so it’s not really all profit–$17. This means you will need to sell 6000 books, plus or minus.

The average book sells about 1000 copies.

If you think selling 6000 books sounds easy, know that the average book sells about 1000 copies. To sell more, you need to market like it’s your job because it is. (See why they pay such close attention to the marketing section of your proposal? No joke!)

Now, if you intend your book to serve as the gateway into your world of products and services, this means that you must put those primary sources of income on the back burner in favor of marketing your book, which will not yield you money (beyond the advance) for quite some time.

Instead of marketing your $3000 membership, for instance, you’re driving your followers to that book. Buy the book, buy the book, buy the book. This will go on for the preorder phase, which is roughly 6 months, all through the initial release, which is another couple of months, and well into the subsequent year.

If you manage to hit your number and avoid writing the publishing house a check for some differential, you’re still losing money.

During that year-long period, when you’d typically be running campaigns to sell your products or programs, how much money do you stand to lose by not doing so?

$100k, $200k, $1M?  If the publishing house offered you that kind of book deal, it’s somewhere in there.

If you receive a negotiated advance of $100k, you must earn that much in book sales, or pay them back.

You’ll hear authors complain about never seeing a dime after their advance check. But what you don’t hear them mention, probably because it’s embarrassing, is the fact that they had to pony up the difference when the book flopped.

If the contract lets you off this hook, mostly because they’ve identified other rights-related income sources, you will suffer the consequence of being blackballed in the industry.

No other traditional house will touch you again because you represent a loss.

This means the publishing house owns the copyright. They own the book content, the images, the graphs, all potential revenue streams and subleasing licensing arrangements, the potential to publish for other and different readers through digital means….I mean, the laws on this run deep. (See why you need an agent?)

A house can purchase the IP in May and decide for whatever reason to kill publication without explanation in June.

They can promote your book in the marketplace, or not.

They can pull it off the shelf, or not.

They can create an electronic or audible version, or not.

They can create merchandise related to the book, or not, just don’t go thinking you can.

If you decide to translate your book into Spanish because you’ve grown that audience, unless the contract explicitly states otherwise, you can’t because they own the foreign rights.

This document will give you a sense of just how far-reaching IP restrictions can go.

That’s why they want to see that you’re a team player, that you take your commitment to them as seriously as you would marital vows, more so. That you’re not out there cheating on them by promoting other stuff, even though the creditors are pounding at your back door.

They will not sit down with you and plan out how to use your book to your advantage, how to grow your list of subscribers or customers with it, and how to place yourself in front of people who will buy your book and your other products and services. Because that stuff might compete with what they’re interested in: selling books, and books only. 

Money, money, money. Time, time, time. These are one and the same for established business owners who have come to recognize time as a premium and outsource accordingly. But I’ll pull them apart.