How (Not) To Get A Book Deal
Writers who want to publish their first book must ask themselves one question: do I have a book that is ready for the marketplace?
Dear Reader,
I first shared a post with this title about three years ago, but since we recently reached the end of another NaNoWriMo, I thought it might be worth sharing an edited version again.
I first wrote this in the wake of a mini-publishing scandal: a young writer had just admitted to extensive plagiarism in her soon-to-be-published first novel. This stemmed, in part, or so she said, from finding herself with a book contract at a major publishing house, and the ticking clock of an impending deadline, without really understanding how the industry worked.
I originally wrote this for the unpublished author in general; those who were starting to wonder just how their work-in-progress might turn into an actual published book one day, and hoping that this might help to explain the process.
To give fair warning: it is geared mostly towards those publishing in America. I know it applies to other countries as well, though not all. In France, for example, where things are a bit different, talking about your “literary agent” at a party of French writers can cause you to come across as a bit of a diva—or so I’ve been told.
Even so, I hope this can be of use to some of you!
Book contracts do not come to those who work the hardest or are the most deserving. At least, not necessarily. It isn’t fair, and isn’t meant to be. Intense effort is required, but that’s not always enough. It is merely a question of whether or not what you bring to the table can solve a particular problem for an agent or an editor: they need a book, a certain kind of book, at a certain time, to inspire and/or to sell.
When I say inspire, I don’t mean that the content need be inspirational. Rather, it must inspire an editor to work with you, even if they don’t expect your book to become a massive bestseller. Most books do not. As I’ve written before, most books do not become massive bestsellers, and nobody knows that better than agents and editors.
A book is but one flower in an editor’s bouquet of new releases. Is your book that book? Does it have an audience? Does it fit their particular bouquet at that particular time? That is the question. This is a business, not a rewards system to validate the yearnings of creative souls.
I should also add that the title of this post is a bit of a misnomer. As far as I’m aware, outside of publishing announcements, the term “book deal” is mostly used for celebrities and the non-celebrity victims of intense press scrutiny. The rest of us get book contracts—not that there is any real difference between the two, other than the amount. The publishing industry still uses the word “deal” however when announcing the sale of manuscripts or proposals in the press, with a coded language that hints at dollar amounts: book X was sold to publisher Y via agent Z in “a nice deal” ($1-$48K) or “a very nice deal” ($50K to $99K) or even “a major deal” ($500K or more), with various iterations of “good” and “significant” in between.
But I digress.
A book contract is not owed to you because you are talented, have the right friends, got an MFA, went to an Ivy League school, or even because you work hard. To get a contract with a publisher, and to publish a book, you must first write a book (or a nonfiction proposal for one) that an editor thinks will sell—at least for what it is.
Plenty of published books are passion projects on the part of the editor as much as the writer. You don’t need to write a beach-read thriller that will sell in airport kiosks to get published, but an agent, and then an editor, must be able to envision the audience for your book, even if it is a small one. They must connect with the material enough to want to be the one who helps bring your book to them.
Many of the would-be authors I have encountered, in life or on social media, who loudly bemoan the fact that they are not yet published, have had a few things in common: for starters, they often cite an arbitrary age-related deadline. They want to become a published author by the time they turn forty, or thirty, or even twenty-five. They say that they will feel like a failure if they can’t manage to do this, or that they already feel this way.
This is not an ideal creative environment in which to write a book. Maybe they do have a particular book that they are working on or querying, and maybe not, but either way, the focus of the complaint isn’t usually on the work of writing, or on the success or failure of a particular body of work they were passionate about, but rather on wanting or failing to achieve the identity of “being an author.”
This is not writing. This is fantasy. And sure, there’s a time and a place for that. We all do it. But these writers who are frustrated with the fact that they have not yet published a book should ask themselves one question: do I have a book that is ready for the marketplace?
For fiction or memoir, that usually means a strong, completed draft of a manuscript. For nonfiction, it’s a solid, detailed proposal with at least two to three chapters of polished sample material attached. Too often, the answer to this question, of whether or not one has a book that is ready for the marketplace, is no.
If you don’t know how publishing works, in most instances this is how:
A writer has a book that is ready for the marketplace, either in full draft (fiction, memoir) or proposal (nonfiction) form.
They send a query letter to a well-researched list of agents.
If interested, an agent will ask to see a full manuscript or proposal.
The agent offers representation.
The writer signs with the agent.
The writer and agent work together to prepare the book or proposal for submission.
The agent sends the book or proposal to a curated list of editors (this is called being “out on submission”).
An editor (hopefully) makes an offer.
The writer signs with the editor’s publisher.
Once the book is finished, approved, edited, etc., it is published.
Et voilà !
Some important things to remember: Do not pretend to have written a book if you have not. Do not imply that a full manuscript or proposal exists if it does not. Do not lie to yourself, thinking that you can complete one in a few weeks, when and if an agent actually does ask to see it, because you can’t. Even if you think you can…you cannot. Most of all, do not send your agent or editor (or anyone for that matter) a manuscript containing plagiarized passages that you “plan to fix later,” as happened with this misguided young writer back in 2022.
Some independent publishers or book series will accept unagented submissions, like Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series1, but make sure that this is the case before you contact an editor or publisher directly! There will usually be a particular submissions process to follow.
Sometimes, an agent will seek out and sign with a writer who does not yet have a book that is ready for the marketplace, or that can be made ready with their help within a year. Why? They might do this because they find this writer promising based solely on their articles, essays, or stories that have been published, by virtue of talent shown elsewhere, or their persona and/or platform on social media or a newsletter site like Substack.
Personally, I don’t think this is the best set-up. Although I’m sure you can find writers for whom it has worked out just fine, too often I’ve seen aspiring authors sign with an agent before having a completed manuscript or proposal, and then struggle massively to come up with and/or complete one under the immense weight of terror and self-induced pressure. Some writers might work perfectly well under these conditions, but others flounder or even drown. The work suffers; it doesn’t get done. The agent moves on, and the poor writer is left feeling even worse off than they were before, because now they not only do not have an agent, but have lost one.
Do deserving or even brilliant books get overlooked by publishers? Of course. This happens all the time. There are many famous examples, perhaps none more notable than the bazillion-dollar Harry Potter series-turned-global-franchise, rejected by at least twelve publishers before finally being snatched up by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.
However, it is dangerous to assume that the only reason your own work hasn’t found a publisher is because agents and editors are idiots and you’ve penned an unrecognized masterpiece. Most of the time—not all, but most—the work isn’t ready. The concept is good, but the writing doesn’t sing. Or the sentences are great but the story isn’t working yet. Or perhaps the whole thing is uneven, or the observations are trite, or the timing is simply wrong for this particular topic. Maybe the author has simply been unlucky. They’ve queried the wrong agents, or the agent has failed to pick the right editors, or the editor has recently bought another book on the same topic, even though yours is superior…or, or, or, or, or…
As I said at the beginning, it’s not fair. All you can do is write the book that you want to write, that you need to exist. Exert the brute force necessary to write the book of your dreams. Write the book that you wish existed, but which does not. It is hardest to go wrong with that.
If you write a book or nonfiction book proposal, and don’t find any takers—at least not yet—then put it away gently for now, and start over. Let this one sleep peacefully for a while. When you’re ready, write another one. Second only to a truly great human editor is time. If at first you don’t succeed, give it a little space. Then revisit, see if it needs any changes, and try again. Writing a beautiful book that you care deeply about will unfortunately not guarantee that you’ll get published, or that, once published, you’ll achieve financial and critical success, but it is, however, a pretty good place to start.
Some authors who write books for this series have agents and their contracts were agented, as was the case with mine, while others do not.
Good advice, kindly written.
Summer, Thank you for this excellent tutorial and all the pragmatism and wisdom in it. 🙏
“All you can do is write the book that you want to write, that you need to exist. Exert the brute force necessary to write the book of your dreams. Write the book that you wish existed, but which does not. It is hardest to go wrong with that.”