Stop Trying to Get a Book Deal

You’re a writer, so I think it’s probably pretty safe to say that you love words.

You love books. You love stories and ideas.

But when it comes time to jump into the publishing process, it might take you by surprise when you suddenly notice that all the love has evaporated out of thin air.

Picture this: You’ve finally signed that contract you’ve been dreaming about for years, and you’ve sent your full manuscript over to your editor. It’s time to celebrate, right?

So why do you suddenly feel like you’re living through a bad dream that finds you wandering down a hallway full of doors that all lead to nowhere, where you’re constantly asking people for help who either outright ignore you or answer you in riddles, where you have the desperate sense there’s something you’re supposed to be doing but you can’t for the life of you remember what it is? 

Yay, you got a book deal! But…

Now you’re just being shuttled from one benchmark to the next with little attention being paid to your humanity or to the fact that this passion project of yours is so near and dear to your heart. You spent ALL this time perfecting and crafting your message, yet now everything is numbers and deadlines and social media strategy metrics, and, yikes, dollar signs galore. 

You’re trying to get a sense of who all the members of your so-called team are, yet you’re not even sure what most of these people are doing for or with you. Who’s the project editor? Who’s the copyeditor? How are they different? When do you talk to the designer about your cover? Are you even allowed to talk to the designer about your cover?

So yeah.

The last thing you want is for your creative outlet to feel like it’s become just another job, just another bunch of tick marks on a to-do list.

Sadly, for many authors, that’s the reality they encounter even after they land that book deal that they were assuming would be the answer to their prayers.

What’s going on here?

Well, when it comes to the traditional publishing business, the reality is baked right into the name: it’s a business. And it very much operates like one. (As Anne Trubek of Belt Publishing once wrote in her indispensable industry-related newsletter: “Publishing is many things but it is always also a business.”)

While that’s a good thing in theory – it assures you that there’s systems in place to get your manuscript from Point A to Point B and then ultimately into your readers’ hands – too often it can also mean that the people you encounter during the process have become so focused on the minutiae of their own task lists that they’ve forgotten there’s a very human author on the other side of the Word doc they’re looking at.

Kinda like the surgeon who starts to focus on the body part they specialize in rather than considering the human being that the limb or spleen is part of.

Of course this doesn’t mean that publishing professionals are inherently uncaring or checked out – quite the opposite, in fact.

Here comes the trade publishing real talk

Publishing is a notoriously low-paying industry – particularly for women and non-binary folks, for the neurodivergent and disabled, and for Black, Brown, and AAPI people of all genders. But when people really, really love books, it can feel like a valid trade-off to work for (significantly) less money than their peers of the same age and level of education in other white-collar professions. This is true among editors, designers, marketing people, and publicists.

But, as the costs of printing and distribution continue to rise at the corporate level, and as book sales continue to broadly trend down (except for the precious few break-out hits of the season, which are often penned by people who are already famous anyway), the number-crunchers will inevitably be looking for ways to improve the company’s bottom line. So you know what that means. Everybody else’s workloads get correspondingly heavier.

So now the editors, designers, marketing people, and publicists who were already being underpaid to start with are required to do an insane amount of extra work that realistically should have been shared with another colleague (if not several other colleagues).

Which is all to say that they’re not giving you or your project short shrift intentionally. They’re just staring down the barrel of an ever-lengthening list of priorities with no extra time or compensation given to complete the list with. 

So when your quick “Just checking in!” email goes unanswered for several weeks (or, perhaps worse, is eventually responded to from an iPhone after midnight on a Sunday), it’s not because your contact doesn’t care about your book. It’s just that they’re overloaded with lots of other book-and-author assignments they care deeply about as well, which are all competing for finite amounts of time and attention.

Bummer for everybody.

Self-publishing to the rescue?

OK, so, let’s say you want to avoid working with a trade publisher for precisely this reason. You’re attempting to side-step this problem entirely. You’re planning to self-publish, to assume all the financial risks because at least that’s gonna give you full control over your project, right? Well . . . maybe.

In assuming all that control, now you’re also going to have to build your publishing team from scratch. You’re now on the hook for finding your own editor(s), designer(s), and marketing and publicity people and for keeping them all on time, on task, and on budget.

And if you decide to sign up to work with a packager or hybrid publishing partner, you could unfortunately end up in the same boat as the person who’s publishing traditionally, where your team is unresponsive to (or even obstructive of) your goals, wishes, and plans. 

That could be because they too are overloaded – particularly if it’s a small team at a boutique firm – or, worst-case scenario, it could also be that they’re gonna take all your money without doing jack shit for your book.

(I wish this weren’t true! But, sadly, I’ve heard this exact horror story directly from too many self-published authors out there.)

Often a company can have a splashy website, can offer an attractive price tag, or can dazzle you with a list of promises about all the wonderful things they can do for you and your book project. 

But how will you ever know if they’re going to follow through? Have you consulted with another author who’s actually worked with that company? Have you seen verifiable reviews from real authors with real books available on the market?

The potential pitfalls can feel truly overwhelming. And if you’re just getting started with the publishing process for the first time ever, there’s aspects of the workflow that you might not even realize you don’t know yet.

This isn’t meant to make you paranoid or fearful. Far from it. It’s just to help you recognize what you might be up against when it comes time to publish that manuscript that’s been sitting on your hard drive for way too long.

Where’s the love?

Yes, as a first-time author, you’re ultimately looking for someone who understands all the technical details that go into publishing a book. But wouldn’t it be nice if that person also happened to be, y’know, nice as well? If that person actually had the time to explain the ins and outs of the process to you while also being able to connect you with other reputable vendors who will actually deliver on their promises?

Book lover, that’s, like, my whole deal. I adore words and books just as much as you do, and I’m here with nearly 25 years of experience in traditional trade publishing to help you finally get your manuscript over the finish line.

Check out my Screen to Shelf program, where I’ll not only edit your manuscript but will also take the time to Zoom with you to demystify the self-publishing process from start to finish. Plus, you’ll get access to my exclusive list of design, typesetting, illustration, and marketing professionals, all of whom I know and trust to get the job done.

Let’s bring some love back into your book project together.