Writing the Right Way: Book Publishing Wisdom with Meghan Stevenson

Summary

Coffee N°5 with Lara Schmoisman: Writing the Right Way – Book Publishing Wisdom with Meghan Stevenson

Released on April 29, 2025

In the latest episode of Coffee N°5, host Lara Schmoisman sits down with Meghan Stevenson, a seasoned book publishing strategist, to delve into the intricacies of the publishing world. The conversation offers valuable insights for aspiring authors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders looking to navigate the complex landscape of book publishing.

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Introduction

Lara Schmoisman opens the episode with a warm welcome to Meghan Stevenson, expressing her excitement to discuss the art of writing and publishing books. She reminisces about her love for reading and the joy of engaging with books, setting a relatable tone for listeners who dream of authoring their own works.

Lara Schmoisman [00:00]: "Who ever or who never ever dreamed of writing a book? A book. Avid reader. I love books."

Meghan Stevenson's Journey in Publishing

Meghan Stevenson shares her early passion for reading, highlighting her rapid reading pace during childhood, which often led to diminished comprehension. This love for books naturally transitioned into a career in publishing, where she spent eight years at major publishing houses—four years each at Penguin and Simon & Schuster—before venturing out on her own to better advocate for authors.

Meghan Stevenson [01:32]: "I worked for the big book publishers in tandem. I'm not trying to replace them at all."

Meghan discusses the challenges of working within large publishing houses, where advocating solely for authors can be limited by employer constraints. Her entrepreneurial spirit, inherited from her parents, propelled her to establish her own venture, enabling a more author-centric approach.

Exploring the Publishing Landscape

The core of the conversation centers around the three primary publishing models: self-publishing, hybrid publishing, and traditional publishing. Meghan provides a comprehensive breakdown of each, elucidating their unique advantages and drawbacks.

1. Self-Publishing

Self-publishing empowers authors with complete creative control, allowing them to manage every aspect of the book's production and marketing. However, Meghan cautions that this route demands significant effort in project management and financial investment, as authors must freelance professionals like cover designers and editors.

Meghan Stevenson [06:30]: "The worst people just throw up a word document that's full of typos and a terrible cover and call it a day."

She emphasizes the importance of marketing, noting that successful self-published authors invest heavily in promoting their books to reach their target audience.

2. Hybrid Publishing

Hybrid publishing combines elements of self-publishing and traditional publishing, often requiring authors to invest financially upfront. This model offers professional project management and higher-quality production but comes with substantial costs ranging from $25,000 to $100,000.

Meghan Stevenson [09:46]: "They are usually anywhere from $25,000 up. I've heard anything from $25k to $100k."

Despite the benefits, Meghan points out that hybrid-published books rarely make it to bestseller lists or major bookstores, as traditional publishers maintain control over distribution channels.

3. Traditional Publishing

Traditional publishing remains the gold standard for authors seeking widespread distribution and industry recognition. Meghan outlines the process, stressing the necessity of having a robust platform and engaging a literary agent to secure a book deal.

Meghan Stevenson [14:56]: "I only work in traditional publishing now... I still think traditional publishing is the best for the entrepreneurs and experts that I work with."

She explains that traditional publishers evaluate a book's potential based on the author's existing audience and marketability, making the platform a critical component for success.

The Role of Literary Agents

A pivotal aspect of traditional publishing is the involvement of literary agents. Meghan details how agents act as intermediaries between authors and publishers, advocating for their clients' best interests and negotiating favorable deals.

Meghan Stevenson [11:48]: "Traditional publishers do not accept what we call unsolicited submissions."

She outlines the criteria for selecting a literary agent, emphasizing the importance of passion, trust, and the agent's ability to handle both legal and financial matters effectively.

Meghan Stevenson's Services and Clientele

Focusing exclusively on traditional publishing, Meghan's firm aids entrepreneurs and experts with substantial platforms in securing book deals. Her clients typically boast large followings and established businesses, positioning them as attractive investments for traditional publishers.

Meghan Stevenson [12:56]: "I only work in traditional publishing now... because the entrepreneurs and experts I work with are at the top of their game."

She highlights her team's collaborative approach, working closely with authors and agents to develop compelling book proposals that resonate with publishers.

Advances and Platform Requirements

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around book advances—the upfront payments authors receive from publishers against future royalties. Meghan elucidates the mechanics of advances and their dependence on the author's platform.

Meghan Stevenson [19:07]: "It's called an advance because it's an advance on earnings."

She explains that publishers assess an author's audience size to estimate potential book sales, influencing the size of the advance offered. Meghan provides a formula to illustrate this relationship, stressing that a sizable platform is essential for securing substantial advances.

Success Rates and Guarantees

Addressing concerns about success, Meghan shares impressive statistics from her firm, boasting a 90% success rate in securing book deals and a 100% success rate in obtaining literary representation for their clients.

Meghan Stevenson [27:07]: "Last year, 90% of our clients got book deals. There was one author who did not. And 100% of them got agents."

However, she clarifies that while high success rates are achievable, they are contingent upon authors making sound decisions and maintaining their platforms.

Timeframes and Strategic Planning

When asked about realistic timelines for writing and publishing a book, Meghan suggests a three-year period as standard within the traditional model, potentially extending to five or seven years if audience growth is required.

Meghan Stevenson [31:43]: "It's usually three years. And I would add an extra five to seven years onto that if you need to grow your audience."

She advises authors to utilize this time for developing their platforms and refining their content, ensuring that their books meet the high standards expected by traditional publishers.

Common Pitfalls and Best Practices

Meghan warns against the common mistake of rushing to publish without adequately establishing a platform or ensuring the book's quality. She advocates for focusing on audience needs and investing in consistent, value-driven content creation over seeking immediate publication.

Meghan Stevenson [29:51]: "The number one thing I see is people rushing to publish."

She encourages potential authors to prioritize understanding and serving their audience, which ultimately leads to more successful and impactful books.

Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, Lara and Meghan emphasize the importance of patience, strategy, and audience engagement in the book publishing journey. Meghan reassures listeners that while the process is rigorous, a well-crafted approach can lead to significant rewards.

Lara Schmoisman [34:23]: "Thank you for having coffee with me and for sharing all this information... I feel ready to write a book."

Meghan invites aspiring authors to take her firm's quiz to assess their readiness for traditional publishing and offers a referral list for those pursuing alternative publishing routes.

Meghan Stevenson [35:13]: "There's always... recommended resources at the quiz when you 'fail out' of it."

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Key Takeaways

• Understanding Publishing Models: Authors must carefully consider whether self-publishing, hybrid publishing, or traditional publishing aligns with their goals and resources.

• Building a Strong Platform: A substantial and engaged audience is crucial for securing book deals and advances from traditional publishers.

• The Importance of Literary Agents: Agents play a vital role in navigating the publishing landscape, advocating for authors, and facilitating book deals.

• Strategic Planning and Patience: Writing and publishing a book is a lengthy process that requires strategic planning, especially within the traditional publishing framework.

• Avoiding Common Mistakes: Rushing to publish without a solid platform or neglecting audience engagement can hinder an author's publishing success.

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For those inspired to embark on their own publishing journey, Meghan Stevenson's expertise offers a roadmap to transforming business ambitions into tangible, published works. To learn more or to assess your readiness for traditional publishing, visit Meghan Stevenson's Website and take the recommended quiz available in the episode notes.

Transcript

[Lara Schmoizman]

Foreign. This is Coffee Number Five. I'm your host, Lara Schmoizman. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Coffee Number Five. My coffee is ready and warm for a change. I mean, who ever or who never ever dreamed of writing a book? A book. Avid reader. I love books. I mean, if you told me, if I had a day and I can do nothing, what would it do? I will read books. I'm walking with a dog, and I listen to audiobooks. I started really early on my kids even earlier. But I think it's so special to be able to read a book. And like I always say, the book is always better than the movie because your imagination, you make things in the context that is meaningful to you and that appeals to you. I mean, you make all the set design, you make all the characters, however your imagination wants to make them, and that makes really special. But I was eager for a long time to talk to someone in the book industry, and finally we found someone that we thought it would be worth your time and this time that you're taking to listen to this broadcast. So welcome Megan Stevenson. Thank you so much for joining us today.

[Megan Stevenson]

Thank you for having me, Lara. It's a delight.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So, Megan, were you in love, a book lover when you were a child? How did you start it?

[Megan Stevenson]

I definitely was a book lover. So I was the kid that maxed out her library card and then convinced her mom to, like, get more books for me because I'm a very fast reader. And something that's funny, but makes sense in retrospect is that I had terrible reader comprehension. So I would rip through, you know, 13 books in a week. But if you asked me the plot of any of those books, I would not remember it. And still to this day, I'll miss details and be like, oh, I skipped ahead. I wanted to know the ending. You know, my grandmother actually read that way as well.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I. I was. I would say I'm the same way. I just read really, really fast. And somehow I learned how to skip scan. Yeah. So I can purposely scan some parts.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yeah, definitely. And, like, as someone who writes books now, I can tell you that sometimes there's filler, you know, or that we're slowing things down, just like a teacher would, because everyone's kind of rate of information gathering is different.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So you were at Penguin for a long time?

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes, I was at Penguin for four years. And at Simon & Schuster for four years.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yes. And then you decided to go on your own.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes.

[Lara Schmoizman]

What do you think that you could do different or what niche you thought you can serve different at these big book companies or publishers.

[Megan Stevenson]

So it's funny, I actually work with the big book publishers in tandem. I'm not trying to replace them at all. What I realized was that as an editor I had limited ability to advocate for my authors because I worked for the publishing house. Like, like that was my employer. And just like any employer that you work for, you are working for them, right? You're not really working for the author. And so I wanted to work for the author. And my parents are entrepreneurs. They've been entrepreneurs since I was very little. They just sold their company a couple years ago. But like I just, I knew that other people did this and so it wasn't this big scary hairy thing for me. It was just like, oh yeah, my dad and my mom do this, so it must be pretty easy. It's kind of what I thought naively.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And what's it though?

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes and no. So actually it's so funny, I. This morning I had a conversation. I volunteer with an organization that helps people get back on their feet after homelessness. And often people are in recovery and they have, you know, criminal records and all things like that. And I was talking about how entrepreneurship is so interesting in that you can bootstrap it and you can kind of be half in job, you know, quote unquote, and then also be creating a business. And that's really what I did, you know, I had a part time job at Penguin because I wasn't making enough money as an editor and so I had a part time retail job after that. And so I worked at the Container Store nights and I kept doing that as I was creating my business because I needed to pay rent and do things, you know. And so that was the way I sort of eased my way into it. And then I had a lot of connections and so I was able to get booked like, like almost immediately. So.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So I have a question for you because I'm talking to people and I want to you to help me to clarify this because today there are different routes of going and doing a book. You can do a book of self publish, you can have a literary agent, you can have a publishing house. Can you help us break it down and explain to us all the different ways of writing a books that are available and let's Please not count ChatGPT to write the book for you.

[Megan Stevenson]

Y yes, let's not count that AI is a useful tool we use.

[Lara Schmoizman]

It is, it's very, very useful. We use AI, it doesn't replace you.

[Megan Stevenson]

We use AI to do research A lot of the times like my author will, you know, be like, oh, there's a study about, I'm writing a book about men's sexual health, right? So there was a study hilariously about the size of dildo that a woman would choose. And they did this legitimate scientific study. And my client was like, oh yeah, that study about the dildos. And I was like, well, now I have to go find this. And where it used to be really hard to go find that. I have to go to Google Scholar, I'd get a really weird search history. Now I put that into my AI tool and it kicks me back, oh, here's the study. And I was like, great, now I have my citation.

[Lara Schmoizman]

It really expedite things, that's for sure.

[Megan Stevenson]

So it's really helpful. But like, okay, so there are three, the way I teach things. There are three primary ways to publish a book. There's self publishing, which is exactly what it sounds like, right. You as the author are the publisher. And often people will use things like kdp, which is Kindle Direct publishing. They'll go through Amazon, they'll go through different self publishing companies to publish their book, but they ultimately are project managing the whole thing. Right. They have, you know, they, the best self published authors freelance everything. So they'll freelance out cover designer, they'll freelance out a copy editor, they'll freelance out a developmental letter at every stage. They'll have a professional in it as a freelancer helping them. The worst people just throw up a word document that's full of typos and a terrible cover and call it a day. Right. So there's all.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And that's painful, and that's so painful that somewhere comes from the marketing side.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yeah, it's not very well thought out, you know, and a lot of self publishing, that's where the, that's where the kind of, the authors get frustrated is in that marketing piece because they don't expect to have to market. There's a lot of magical thinking around how people buy and find books. And so that's really important to acknowledge.

[Lara Schmoizman]

A question for you. Can you be successful doing self publishing?

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes, but there's a lot of work involved and it's a lot of people see it as a shortcut and so they're not putting all the product development in that you would in the other pass. Like people aren't slowing their role to do the product development. Does that make sense?

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yes. Also there are, they are. I mean we have this Internet world and we have platforms like LinkedIn that a lot of people that I been asked so many times for connections say, hey, can we help you to. To write the book? We guarantee you these. And that comes with a price tag. Do the guarantees exist? A, to be in a bookseller list, bestsellers list, or can they guarantee that?

[Megan Stevenson]

And no. So, okay, so this is a great question. And let's stay on the three methods and I'll get to bestseller.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Okay. I'm rushing this. I have so many questions.

[Megan Stevenson]

It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. And if you really wanted to work out about bestseller lists, I have a whole episode of my podcast, kind of a big book deal on bestseller list.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Where I go, okay.

[Megan Stevenson]

On all these different things, including like the things that a lot of entrepreneurs get promising them, big deals and bestseller lists and all that. So I could do an entire episode on scams, and I probably will. Um, so self publishing. Right. The pros of that are that you have entire creative freedom as an entrepreneur, as the author. Yes. The con is that it's the wild, wild west. You know, who you hire. My vary. Your outcomes might vary. There's a lot of shady self publishing companies out there. You really have to do your homework on that. There's a site called Author Beware that's great for scams. So spotting scams in that world.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And also, I'm gonna give it my two cents here. That doesn't mean. I mean, it's a lot of work for you, but then you're also gonna have to put a lot of work afterwards in your marketing to put your book out there. And it's gonna cost you money. It doesn't. It's not for free. Marketing costs money, guys. And also, you're gonna have to put yourself out there as an author. You cannot write a book and be an author and not putting yourself out there.

[Megan Stevenson]

Agreed. Yes. A hundred percent, everybody.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And you're gonna have to do lunch parties. You're gon.

[Megan Stevenson]

Are.

[Lara Schmoizman]

There is a lot involved in launching a book.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes, exactly. And that is true for any avenue of publishing you take. So there's this idea that like, oh, if I traditional publish, they'll do everything for me. That is not true at all. So going back to the three methods, we have self publishing, we have hybrid publishing, which is basically self publishing, but a pay to play model. There are several hybrid publishers that are super reputable. So Forbes has a hybrid publishing army.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Oh, that's. I. I heard about those. But those also. They're having a nice price tag.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes, they are usually anywhere from 25, 000 up. I've heard anything from 25k to 100k on those and it really depends. But what you're getting there is professional project management. So you're getting a professional quality book, you're getting a real editor, you're getting a real copy editor, you're getting a real book designer, your real cover.

[Lara Schmoizman]

But working with freelancers, can you get the same quality work us?

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes. But you have to project manage the whole thing. And so that's a pain in the ass.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I live for that. That's a producer. Me, the project manager in this. Very hard for me to let other people do it. So I think that depends of your, your type A like me.

[Megan Stevenson]

It depends on how much creative control you really want. I mean people that really, really want 100% of the creative control are going to go self publishing because they can't imagine like allowing anybody to do anything. Then we have. So hybrid publishing is, is the pro on that is the quality. Most hybrid books to the average person would not look any different than a traditional publishing book. They might even look better. The con obviously is the cost. And I didn't talk about distribution when I talked about self publishing. But it's important in that self and hybrid publishing books don't usually end up on the New York Times bestseller list. They don't usually end up in bookstores that are independent. So not the chains. They don't usually end up, you know, at airports unless you're like massive, like Colleen Hoover level bestsellers. They just don't. And it's because the traditional publishing owns the distribution. So traditional publishing is what we call the big five. There are smaller publishers, but the big five as it stands right now are Penguin, Random House, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, Hachette Libre and Macmillan. And so those are the five big publishers. And then there's some smaller ones. Wiley, Ben Bella.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Hold on, I'm where a literally, literally literary agent comes in here. Do you need an agent?

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes. Yeah. Traditional publishers do not accept what we call unsolicited submissions. Which means like no one's asked you to send your book idea to an editor. They don't like that because they get a ton, as you might expect. There's so many people.

[Lara Schmoizman]

If you're self published or hybrid publish, you don't need an agent, only want to. You need an agent if you want to go into the publishers.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes. You need a literary agent if you want to go to traditional publishers. That's just how book deals are made. My team and I work with literary agents all the time. Right. Because half of our clients are agented, meaning that they have literary agents already. And the agents are coming to us to help develop their book proposals, which is how nonfiction, how to books sell in traditional publishing. And then, you know, half of our clients are unagented and we're going to help them find literary agents as part of the job we do. It's a, it's a professional courtesy we offer.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Very nice. And so where you come in, which one of these three models you come in?

[Megan Stevenson]

I only work in traditional publishing now, so that changed. I narrowed my focus in 2020. I have worked in the past with self publishing authors and I have worked in the past with hybrid publishers. Out of those three different avenues, I still think traditional publishing is the best for the entrepreneurs and experts that I work with, because the entrepreneurs and experts I work with are at the top of their game. They have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of followers. They have six, seven, eight figure businesses. They don't play small in anything they do. And that's the level that, you know, traditional publishers are very interested. And that's the level where they want and can afford someone like me, a collaborator, a ghost writer that can come in and like take that off of their plate. And in a lot of ways, it's a VIP experience. We're offering, you know, people, our clients, you know, get to talk to me and my fellow collaborators once a week. We're interviewing them and it's really easy.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Let's do a step by step. I come and say, megan, I want to have write the book.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yep.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Would you accept anyone to work with? Let's start with that. Who is the client that you will accept to work with?

[Megan Stevenson]

So we have a quiz on our website. I invite you to take it what it does. First, I'm going to just tell you the behind the scenes of the quiz and the quiz design. The first thing it does is ask you about the kind of book you're writing, because that really matters. Like I would say the two biggest decisions that you get to make as an authority are what kind of book am I writing? And what kind, how do I want it to be published? Okay, so what kind of book am I writing? You would not believe the amount of people that don't know the difference between fiction and nonfiction. And just to clarify for everyone listening, fiction is made up. Nonfiction is not. Pretty simple.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Very simple.

[Megan Stevenson]

Apparently a lot of people miss that part in school. So we're just level setting. So I only work on nonfiction. And then to go even further, I only work on what we call prescriptive nonfiction, which means how to and self help. So that's the only thing I work on. So we work. That's a lot of different categories, lots of different types of books. But primarily it falls into business, money, sex, health, wellness, psychology, general life improvement, personal growth, business growth, all those kinds of things. And then every category in there, right? So we could have a business book that's for corporate leaders. So we could have a business book that's for entrepreneurs. We could have a business book about business finance. We could have a business book about, you know, product based businesses. There's a bunch of different kinds.

[Lara Schmoizman]

How do you differentiate? There are so many books already out there and there's so many that they are in the same subjects. So how if working with traditional publishers, I mean, then you need to get these agents to pitch the book. So where you guys get to work with the agent too and to help an agent. And then the agents say, well, this I can pitch this, I cannot pitch that.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yeah. So essentially when we write a proposal with an unagent and client, and this is happening right now, where my team went out and we do spear phishing, we go looking for authors sometimes we don't get all our clients that way, but we do. You know, it's good marketing, good sales technique to go spear phishing. You go out on the Internet, you try to find good clients. And we did this and we found this amazing medium that we both, all of us loved. And we've been working with her on a proposal for probably four to five months. We finished that book proposal with her and as a courtesy, we sent it to I think six agents and she got four literary agent meetings. Now these agents think they can sell this book because agents work on commission. So they're never going to sign up a client that they don't think they can sell. That's like their worst nightmare. That's their worst outcome. That'd be like a publicist who has a PR client and doesn't get a single placement. It just is a bad outcome. So what they, you know, are looking for are clients that they know they can sell the book to a traditional publisher and that that book will be commercially successful because agents get paid on commission. So they get paid 15% of what an author earns over the lifetime of the book. And you could see how that would be amazing if you were like, you know, Rachel Rogers agent, or you know, Glennon Doyle's agent or Brene Brown's agent certainly. Right. But like, if you're Selling a bunch of. If you as an agent represent a bunch of books that don't sell, you're making $0 and oftentimes you would actually be losing money. And so they have to make really calculated decisions about who to represent.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So you start working with an agent and you work with. So how you start working with. Because you just mentioned something really important. People, they don't know what they want to write about. But then it's also my backgr is in screenwriting. So I know the structure of screenwriting, but writing a book is a completely different structure. So it's something that you see as often that people say I want to write a book but they don't know where to start. Where. When do you decide? Do you always use a ghostwriter or use something you recommend or you don't recommend?

[Megan Stevenson]

It's really variable. So once we get sort of. I'm going to go back to the quiz because I realize, finish my thought there. But once we understand. Okay, the category is. Right, Right. We're working with entrepreneurs, experts who want to write a how to book. Right. We're, we're in that niche. The next conversation we get to have, it's about platform, meaning the audience. Because if you don't have a big audience, a traditional publisher is not going to be interested either. Because financially they are looking at your book like a product. And in a lot of ways they're looking at your book like a VC would look at a company like the sharks would look at it in Shark tank. They're looking to 10x their money. Right. They're looking to invest six figures in you Most of the time. Most of my clients get six figure advances. So like you just say that one.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Was my next question about the advance, what an advance means. That means it doesn't mean that you're getting paid. It means that you're going to, they're going to have to recap that money. Right.

[Megan Stevenson]

A little bit. Okay, so let's go into advances because this is, this is good. So this gets us, this gets us into platform. You can see how this is all interlocked. Talking like it's a big puzzle. Like you asked one question and now I'm unwrangling a huge ball of yarn. So like. Yeah, so advances. Great question. It's called an advance because it's an advance on earnings. That's actually the technical term for it. So when a publisher offers you a book deal, it's more of a license from a business perspective. Like the contract is a license. Of your copyrighted work, which is the book. So how it works, let's say that Penguin Random house offered you $150,000 advance their cost to produce the book. That's like to keep the lights on, to pay your editor to print the book, to make the COVID All these things is also 150k. That's just a guesstimate. So now they're in the red on their P and L for your book at 300k. Right. So if your book sells for $30, just to make the math easy, they need to sell 10,001 copies of that book before they make a dime of profit. And they want to make way more profit than that. So they want to sell 20, 30,000 copies of a book, but that is directly then related to your audience. So like if we say I did a estimate one time, I'll have to do some more estimates as more books come out. But I did an estimate on one of my more prolific clients who's an online entrepreneur. When her book came out in the first year, 5% of her audience bought it. So that can work if your audience is then 20 times the size of that publishing ask. So if the publisher expects to sell, let's just say 30,000 copies, you have to have an audience that's at least 600,000 people if only 5% of your audience is going to buy it.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Okay, I keep having questions here. Yes. So when you're talking about your audience, it's the audience that you already own or the audience that is a prospective target audience.

[Megan Stevenson]

It is the audience you already are directly speaking to, Just kind of a combination. So what publishers are looking for? And this gets into the quiz because the quiz asks these questions as well. How many followers do you have? Because what we want to know, and that's not exact, because there's always people outside of that, the corporate consultants. Right. We have corporate consultant clients who just got a mid six figure advance and they have 5,000 combined. It's two gentlemen.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I just see the quiz, by the way, and they told me, congratulations, you're ready to write the book.

[Megan Stevenson]

Okay, well that's awesome. But yeah, the 5,000 followers, you know, on LinkedIn, that's not the whole story about their platform. Right. They have big contracts, they're willing to buy like 20,000 books. That's a huge offer. That follower count though, does give us an idea of, hey, how many people can this person really reach? So when agents or editors are looking at a proposal, the first thing they're going to do is Google you and they're going to be looking for those public facing numbers, whether that's Instagram followers, LinkedIn followers, TikTok followers, that you do a lot of speaking, that you've got a really great speaking reel, that you've got like, if you are a corporate consultant, that you've got like kind of household name clients, things like that, they're going to be looking at that because they, if they're going to offer you, you know, 150k as an advance and they're going to invest that amount of money, they want to make sure their investment pays off.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And that 150k, what is to be used for or to write the book? To make the book.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yeah.

[Lara Schmoizman]

What that includes, it varies author by.

[Megan Stevenson]

Author, but it traditionally it has been to allow the author time away from like their 9 to 5. That has become less of a thing for the entrepreneurs and experts I work with. They usually leverage it to pay me and recoup their cost of proposal. So that's like strategically how you would use it is that you outline it.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Can you use it for marketing, can you use it for promotion, can you use it for pr?

[Megan Stevenson]

Yeah, there's no limit. I mean you could go spend it on Vegas if you want to. People probably won't be happy with you, but you can do it. They don't have any, like I, they don't have any restrictions on what you'd use it for. Now if you don't deliver a manuscript that's acceptable to them now, they can sue you for it. But like that's so rare that it doesn't happen very often. Most of the time authors are way more prudent than that. But yeah, so that's in general like it's supposed to be invested for the book, whether most often that means paying for help, whether that's a copy editor, an extra like coach in your business, a marketing person or a PR person or ads or you know, whatever that is. It's an injection of capital into your business that in theory should go right back out to promote this new product that you have coming up.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Okay, so I interrupt you before you were, you still were explaining us something about how the working with the publisher works.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes. So the publisher is going to look at your platform. Right. I have what I call my 3P framework and its potential, which means a book idea that can actually work as a book platform, which is the size of your audience. And that's just a, that's an easy calculation. It seems really harsh to be like, oh, it's just the Numbers, but it is a lot of the times the numbers, because again, capitalist society, capitalist organizations, corporations, like they're going to look at the numbers. And so the numbers are super important. So platform is huge. And that's what most people lack. Most people don't lack the ability to write the book or the ability to write a proposal or the, you know, the idea. Most people lack the audience and the proof of concept that comes with building such a large audience.

[Lara Schmoizman]

You were saying that you don't work with everyone. So who is someone that you will never work with and who is someone that he said I will work with because I can help them do this, this and this?

[Megan Stevenson]

Yep. So I won't ever work with someone who's self published before unless they have substantial amounts of sales because traditional publishers don't. There's this weird rumor in the and it's gone away less in the last couple years because I think it's just not true anymore. But there's this weird idea that publishers would swoop in and like save a self published book that hadn't sold well. And it's just not true. So I don't work with self published authors, I don't work with Morris. We get a lot of people who want to write memoirs. I don't do that. I don't do any fiction, I don't do any children's, I don't do any ya. I don't do any fantasy, I don't do any thrillers, I don't do any mysteries, I don't do any what we call hard nonfiction. So that's like more narrative history, military history, true crime, I don't do any of that. So I only work with how to people and then I only work with people who have substantial platforms because otherwise you're paying me thousands of dollars to make you a very expensive Google document. And that's never going to get an agent, never going to sell. And that's the worst outcome we could have.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Do you give any guarantees that they're going to get an agent?

[Megan Stevenson]

No, I can't control that. It's someone else I could do. It's in my best interest to get everyone an agent. I don't like to have unhappy clients. But like a lot of times, like the reason that our clients don't get agents or don't get deals is because of decisions the client makes. You know, we had a client who had an amazing author platform. He was the CEO of a major nonprofit, like something everybody listening to this podcast would know. And he asked me, he's like, hey, I want to leave this job. Should I do it now or should I do it, you know, after the book is acquired and out? I said, we'll certainly do it after the book's acquired and out, because otherwise you don't have a platform. And lo and behold, he went and quit. And then he was like, what are we gonna do about my book? And I was like, nothing, because you don't have a platform now. And every reference in this proposal is back to that organization, which now you burn that bridge. So we can do literally nothing with this. And apologize to your wife for me is literally what I said. Because I was like, I told you not to do it. And then he went and not did it anyway. Yeah.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So what percentage of the people that you work with, they get published?

[Megan Stevenson]

So, great question. Last year, 90% of our clients got book deals. There was one author who did not. And 100% of them got agents. So even that author that didn't get a deal, he had offers of representation from two different agencies.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So I see an agent.

[Megan Stevenson]

Great question. They have to be passionate and interested in the book. That should be like the obvious. They won't even take them eating most of the time if they're not interested. And then the next thing is that you want to be able. This person's going to act on your legal and financial behalf. So they're almost like a power of attorney in that way. And then you also want to be able to talk to them about problems and like hurdles and like mindset things like, you know, imposter syndrome, things like that. So they, you kind of have to have trust in them that they can handle your legal and financial matters while also wanting to have a drink with them. It's kind of like hiring a good litigator or a good contracts attorney.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yeah. That you need to get that gut feeling. But so we hear in movies, in books about that. We got multiple book deal. What are those do exist?

[Megan Stevenson]

They do exist. They are not very common in prescriptive non fictions. They're not very common in. In how to books mostly because like a lot of books in that space, the authors only really have one book in them. They don't really have multiple books. Like a lot of people come to me and they're like, I have this one book idea and it's going to be a series like Chicken Soup for the Soul or you know, these are their books. And I'm always like, you're basically showing up on someone's doorstep in that situation on a first Date asking to have six kids. No one's interested in that. Everyone's gonna be like, slow the roll. Right. So it's really important to make the first book as good as you can get. And then the multiple book deals do happen in fiction a ton. They happen very often in fiction. They do not happen that often in nonfiction. And it's because of this idea of like the majority of business authors, self help authors, they have like one primary book and then any book after that sells less and less and less. There's exceptions to that. But like in general, most people have like one solid book and we want your focus to be on that. One solid book. Yeah.

[Lara Schmoizman]

One success and then you'll see what you do.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yeah. It's like, it's like the new brand new entrepreneur who launches like six things. I know it's not the best strategy.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yeah. I always say when in marketing wise I say you don't have then a brand that you have a collection of products.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yes.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Which is very different. Okay, before we go, I have like that question. What is a no, no for someone who's trying to be an author for.

[Megan Stevenson]

First time, like an absolutely don't do this.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yes or many, many things. What are the things that you will say? Never do this or These are the worst things that I seen of, of people making these choices.

[Megan Stevenson]

The number one thing I see is people rushing to publish. So you know, on our quiz we have and, and when I used to do sales calls, I used to have a membership that helped people grow their audience. What I would see over and over again is people trying to write a book at the beginning of their entrepreneurship career or before they had really proven out their methodology. A lot of times people use a book and expect the book to do everything for them in terms of sales and marketing and content creation. And that's just not gonna happen. The investment that people take to read a book, buy and find, read and buy a book, find, buy and read a book. That's really the, the use case there. Right. Find.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And what do you, you want a book that you other people will recommend that I said I want. You have to read this book.

[Megan Stevenson]

It's just such a big investment of the consumer. So what I think is like, you know, a lot of times I see people who want to write a book instead of writing a marketing email. And I'm like, write that marketing email right there. Social media post. Because that's going to help you like really figure out what your audience needs. Because a lot of people when they come find someone like Me are like, me, me, me. I want this book. It's really important to me. And I don't hear anything about the reader or their audience. And the more successful people I have, they're all about their audience. Yes. Would they like to, you know, achieve a childhood dream? Heck yeah. Everybody does, right? But like, are they really there? Are they really putting the work in day after day, whether it's the book, whether it's a chorus, whether it's one on one coaching, whether it's whatever. Because they want to serve their audience 100%. And that is the difference between a successful author and a not so successful one.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I. I knew that. I told you that I cannot. This will be the last question, but I have one more.

[Megan Stevenson]

Yeah.

[Lara Schmoizman]

What is a time frame realistic of taking you from doing your research, writing a book, publish it? What is realistic within the traditional model?

[Megan Stevenson]

It's usually three years. And I would add an extra five to seven years onto that if you need to grow your audience. And the reason I say that is because I've had clients that are very, very successful that meet me in year three, in year five, in year 10, in year 15. And so it really just depends on how much iteration you need in that, like baby entrepreneur stage. I spent a long time in baby entrepreneur stage. You know, I had a business from E12 to 2020 with zero marketing. Right. I was like hiding baby entrepreneur. Right. And then I was like, oh, let me put my big girl pants on and do some marketing and do some advertising and, you know, blow up my business. And that was awesome. But like, I think a lot of people spend time in that baby entrepreneur space. And I don't say a baby in a bad way. I think it's a great space to be in until you figure out what you feel comfortable with stepping up and stepping out with. And that like incubation period gives you so much information about your audience and who you want to serve and how you want to serve them. That's instrumental when you get kind of into the grown up leagues of like book deals and stuff, because that way you're really centered on who you are and who you're not. And that becomes really important when you get into like the publishing arenas.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yeah. Well, in Spanish we have a saying that says that everyone in life should plant a tree, have a baby and write a book.

[Megan Stevenson]

I love that.

[Lara Schmoizman]

But after talking to you, for you, my dear listeners, know that writing a book, it will take a lot longer than having a kid or even to plant a tree.

[Megan Stevenson]

It's true. Yeah. But it'll take. I mean, I think it's so interesting. Like. But I do as a gardener, I'm not a parent, but as a gardener and as a person who works on books all the time, I don't see that time as a bad thing. It's almost, it's cool. It almost stretches out time longer and kind of like my friends who have had babies say it's like by the time the book comes out, I've completely forgotten all the, the nightmares that came with that book.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Absolutely. And that's the only way I believe that you do it again or you want to do it again.

[Megan Stevenson]

100. 100. That's exactly like that's kind of the thing too. And I encourage people to just, just like relax and like it's almost one of those. I don't know if you're a believer in this, but I'm a big believer in divine timing. And so like the things that are meant to happen are going to happen for you in their own timing. And so you can't force them and you certainly can't force this big low behemoth that is traditional publishing because they, they'll just move on without you. You know, that's just kind of how they do it.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Absolutely. Megan, thank you so much. This was very likely. Oh my God, my English today is terrible. And thank you for having coffee with me and for sharing all this information and to you out there. I feel ready to write a book. You know where to find Megan and we'll put more notes of her information and the quiz on the, on the. In the chapter notes and you can contact her directly.

[Megan Stevenson]

Awesome. Yeah. And also like if you're not a good fit, the quiz is worth take anyway because I have a referral list. We try to be helpful to all the authors that are reaching out to us. So there's always you are writing fiction or memoir or these other categories that I don't personally work on. There are recommended resources at the quiz when you like quote unquote, fail out of it and well.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And to guys. To you guys. I will see you next week with more coffee. Number five. Find everything you need at larashmoisman.com or in the episode notes right below. Don't forget to subscribe. Was so good to have you here today. See you next time. Catch you on the flip side. Ciao, ciao.