Episode 3 - The Basics: The Essential (and Secret) Strategy to Land a Book Deal

In this episode of Kind of a Big Book Deal, host Meghan Stevenson breaks down one of the most overlooked but essential parts of publishing—understanding your book’s category. If you’re an entrepreneur hoping to land a traditional book deal, knowing where your book fits is key to getting the right publisher, agent, and audience.

Meghan starts by debunking the myth of the "prescriptive memoir"—a book that tries to be both a personal story and a how-to guide. Spoiler: it doesn’t work. She explains the four main categories of nonfiction: lifestyle, reference, narrative, and prescriptive. If you're writing a book to solve a problem, chances are it falls under prescriptive nonfiction, which includes self-help, business, health, and personal development books.

Meghan also highlights why knowing your category helps you build the right publishing team, from editors to agents to marketing experts. She shares insider insights on how bookstores organize books, how publishers think about readers, and why choosing the right category from the start sets you up for success.

If you’re serious about writing a book that sells, this episode is a must-listen!

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(3:29) The importance of understanding book categories
(5:42) Why “prescriptive memoir” doesn’t work
(6:24) Fiction vs. nonfiction: A crucial distinction
(7:39) The four main types of nonfiction books
(11:05) What is prescriptive nonfiction?
(18:28) Why knowing your category helps you get a book deal
(22:18) Outro

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Have a great idea for a book but don't know where to start?MeghanStevenson.com/quiz


Traditional publishing expert Meghan Stevenson blasts open the gates of the “Big 5” – Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan – to share what every entrepreneur and expert needs to know about landing a book deal.

In episodes released every other Monday, Meghan shares wisdom and stories from 20+ years in publishing as well as interviews with authors, literary agents, and editors. She also answers questions from listeners like you.

Whether you are an experienced entrepreneur with an empire, or are just starting out – this podcast will help you understand what you need to do in order to turn your dream of being a bestselling author into real life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00
And it'll make you a successful author just really understanding category and how it impacts you and doing a little bit of homework to understand where you and your book fit in this broader publishing ecosphere, so that then you can just find out what rules of this broader game apply to you, because the rules that apply to a Christian author don't apply to a children's author, which doesn't apply to an author writing a book about sex, which doesn't apply to an author writing sci-fi. You know, it's all different.

Speaker 2: 0:30
Welcome to the Kind of a Big Book Deal podcast where entrepreneurs come to learn about traditional publishing. I'm your host, Meghan Stevenson. After working as an editor for two of the biggest traditional publishers, I started my own business helping entrepreneurs become authors. To date, my clients have earned over $5 million from publishers like Penguin, Random House, Simon Schuster and HarperCollins. In these podcast episodes, I blast open the well-kept gates to traditional publishing. I'll explain what every entrepreneur needs to know about landing a book deal without losing your mind. I'm going to share stories, answer your questions, interview the successful authors I've worked with and probably say platform more than a tech bro. So if you dream of landing on a bestseller list but have no idea how, this is the podcast for you, and I am so, so glad you're here.

Speaker 1: 1:24
Hey, there welcome to episode three of a 10-part crash course in traditional publishing that is intended to help entrepreneurs and experts who want a big traditional book deal for your big, important book idea. So I'm going to start this episode, like I always do, with a story from my 20-plus year career in book publishing. So a few months ago I got a referral from a fellow editor friend. She had a client who was looking to write a book proposal and thought that we could be a great fit. Then I saw two dreaded words in a sentence that always makes me shake my head, and those words were prescriptive memoir. Yeah, you're not writing a prescriptive memoir Like. There is no such thing, and neither is anybody else. No one in the world is writing a prescriptive memoir. That's because it doesn't exist. Now your book is either prescriptive, meaning how to, as in the prescription you get from a doctor, or it is a memoir, a historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources. And yes, I took that from the dictionary y'all. I am not afraid to go get a resource. So why this difference? Why this prescriptive memoir issue? Why it even happens at all, why this ish gets twisted right, is the result of a very short-lived fad within traditional book publishing. Okay, do we all remember that JNCO Jeans came back for a hot minute last year? Yeah, it's that short, right, it is like a very short-lived fad within traditional book publishing, where prescriptive memoirs were briefly, very briefly and, in my opinion, terribly a thing. So what you need to know about that incorrigible trend is that it's not happening anymore because it didn't work, and it did not work because of a little thing we call category, and that is the focus of this episode. So when we talk about category most of the time, what that means, if we're going to put it in a real life context, when I walk into a bookstore, when I peruse a website like bookshoporg or even amazon, right right, I'm typically looking for something.

Speaker 1: 3:45
I am there, you know, as a reader. I've got a book in mind. I want to read a personal story or maybe a novel, or perhaps buy a book to solve a problem. I'm coming in there sort of with an objective right, because, as we all know, like you, don't walk into Target without a plan. That's a bad idea. That is a great way to end up with like a crazy cart. I once ended up with a crazy cart that was like collapsing over itself. And I sent my friend a picture and I was like this is like me with disposable income. Like it should not happen anyway. Cause I didn't have a list, I went to the garden section. Sorry, not, sorry. Okay, let's go back to the bookstore.

Speaker 1: 4:21
So usually when someone goes into a bookstore store, so usually when someone goes into a bookstore, they are not looking to do all three of those things right. They're not looking to read a personal story, read a fictional novel and solve a problem. Most of the time. Now you might have an occasional reader who's going to go on a binge or the kind of person that goes to a bookstore once a year and buys a bunch of books, but ultimately what you're asking someone to do in terms of buying a prescriptive memoir is that they're doing all those things right. They want to know a personal story, they want to solve a problem and, for whatever reason, they want that to be directed in a narrative form where they don't actually have to-do lists or anything actionable to work on. Like it just seems like a lot to ask of a reader. And also, where in the store do you go find them right when you have a book that tells a story and also gives advice on a specific problem. I don't know where to find that in a bookstore, like where would that be shelved? Where would someone go look for it? Where does someone find it? Right, if I'm saying, hey, I, you know, I want to, well, you know, I wouldn't know where to look If you're thinking like, well, I really want, wouldn't know where to look, Meghan, like it's a personal story and it's solving a problem and it's written like a novel, like where am I going? So that is the problem with prescriptive memoirs, and that's why I really roll my eyes when someone tells me they're writing one, because usually they are not. Usually they are either writing a memoir that they expect people to learn from which I'm gonna also go into that in a separate episode, because that could be an episode all on its own. People need more help in that generally or it's a how-to book, which is a prescriptive book, right. So it's either one or the other. And usually when someone comes to me with a prescriptive memoir, I just know right off the bat they have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to category. So today, that's what the focus of this episode is where your book goes in the bookstore and that, within the industry, is what we call category.

Speaker 1: 6:22
All right, so the first question to ask yourself is, as an author, is do you write fiction or nonfiction? Now, if you're thinking this is a really fucking basic question, you would be right, but I can't believe I have to define these things. But I do, because so many times over the years I've seen that people do not know this. I have no idea how many lessons y'all missed in elementary school. But let me go back over it. All right, fiction is made up. I mean, that's the most easy definition, right? So it's novels, it's stories, it's children's books, it's books for young adults, primarily all fiction. Okay, so that's all there there. So I haven't worked on fiction since like 2008, and so I won't be talking about fiction here. There are so many other resources for you and I'm gonna put those in the show notes this week. So if you want to write fiction, go check out those show notes also.

Speaker 1: 7:16
Just know that everything in this podcast may or may not apply to you, because as I go on and on about this, you know we all niche down. So, like, my advice is specific to people that are writing prescriptive how-to nonfiction and want to get a traditional book deal. So niche of a niche, okay. So nonfiction. Nonfiction is true or based in truth, and I'm going to get into why that's based in truth here in a sec. So there are four broad categories within non-fiction lifestyle, reference, narrative and prescriptive.

Speaker 1: 7:47
So lifestyle books are slightly deceptive because this type of book usually isn't about your lifestyle, frankly. Instead, these are usually cookbooks, books about food, books about bevies, books about alcohol. Any book that could be construed as a coffee table book is technically a lifestyle book. So lifestyle books are usually printed in color. That's how you know it's a lifestyle book and they seem fancy. When I looked up this category in Publishers Marketplace, which is an industry insider website, they announce book deals, they share industry news. I saw a few books that show the. You know the cultural after skiing and home decorating and you know newlywed design. If it's a book, you could spend $45 on an acute shop on vacation where you also buy, you know, a beautiful dish towel. It is a lifestyle book. Okay, that's the great way to describe it. So reference books are the exact opposite.

Speaker 1: 8:45
In the age of the internet and the ability to find any amount of information, like anywhere and very quickly. These are disappearing super fast, but in general. So a great example of a reference book I saw on Publisher's Marketplace was a book titled the Laundry Book, which is you guessed it a book about how to do your laundry. Now do I want this? Yes, because it's from a fancy dry cleaner in New York City whose owners are drumroll. Please, laundry influencers. Now, I kind of want this because I fucking love laundry, but it's still a reference book like that is a reference book, right? I have a reference book called what is my plant trying to tell me? Great reference book for gardening, right? I routinely reference that when my plants are getting brown or like something's up with them that I'm not sure what's going on. Right, hence the Hence the name reference book. You refer to it for information. Okay.

Speaker 1: 9:47
So moving on to the bigger and perhaps more common categories narrative. So narrative nonfiction is story based. That's why it's based in truth. Right, and you guessed it, it is narrative. So this includes memoirs. This includes stories about your life or the lives of others. All within that category. It kind of reads like a novel. Then it's narrative Anthologies, biographies, books about history and pop culture. Even books about social issues tend to fall into the broad category of narrative nonfiction. I also include politics, current affairs, science, technology, sports and true crime within the broader narrative nonfiction category. Although that's my choice, it's not always the choice, right? So, just to be clear, I don't work on lifestyle books. I don't work on reference books. I don't work on narrative nonfiction, right? So that's the last you'll hear me talk about any of those categories. So if you want to write those kind of books, right, especially memoir check out the show notes. I'm going to give you more resources that will help you. There's plenty of people that do specialize in those categories, right? So now we move on to what I do work on. Yay, we get to talk about that Prescriptive nonfiction.

Speaker 1: 11:05
This is self-help. These are self how-to books, right? Prescriptive nonfiction is called prescriptive because these books offer a solution or a prescription for what the reader's problem is. So once I worked with an author for two years before she got what I meant by prescriptive, which is like kind of funny. Maybe I mumbled, I don't know. But either way, if you want to write a book to solve a reader's problem, chances are you're writing prescriptive nonfiction. That's just the end, and that is so.

Speaker 1: 11:42
Let's talk about the categories that fall under this category, under prescription, nonfiction. So advice, relationship, self-help that could really be anything right Most of the time. That means you know, books about love, books about dating, books about romantic relationships, books about marriage, books about dating, books about romantic relationships, books about marriage, books about friendship and family, especially those books about dysfunctional parents that are so hot right now on book talk. That's in that category. Personal development. So every therapist you've ever seen on instagram is in the advice how-to, miscellaneous category.

Speaker 1: 12:18
Next, the next subcategory is body, mind and spirits. A lot of people call this WU or WUWU because publishing hasn't really updated their terms since the 90s. So this would include books on meditation, spirituality, oracle decks, which technically aren't books, but sometimes publishers do publish oracle decks so I'm going to throw them in. Often books on death are in mind, body, spirit and anything that involves a medium, a psychic, a ghost, a paranormal all mind, body, spirit. So the next big subcategory is business. This includes books on leadership, entrepreneurship, business growth, business strategy, motivational books Sometimes they're here if they're related to careers and, of course, the dreaded business parable. So that would be like who moved my cheese right? Often personal finance is shelved here. Amazon puts business and money together, but often small bookstores will separate those two and I think that's probably smarter. I don't think of personal finance as a business book, but that's just me. Economics also falls into business. I don't know why, because economics is separate, but maybe it's just because it's the closest.

Speaker 1: 13:27
Another big subtitle is diet. We still publish those. I know it seems kind of crazy, right in the world of like body positivity and those M big that we're still doing diet books, but we still do do them. They're usually a little more specific than they used to be back in the day, but there's definitely still diet books out there. So the next category is health and medicine. So, depending on the book, sometimes this overlaps heavily with diet, but it could also be a more narrative book about trends in medicine or developments, right. So books on sex also end up in the health section or in the relationship section, depending on where their focus is. So like a book like Come as you Are might end up in health, whereas a book on like you know, like Sex Talks by Vanessa and Sandra Morin would end up in the advice and how to section. So how to?

Speaker 1: 14:19
This subcategory always felt really redundant to me. You already have prescriptive nonfiction. You already have advice, how to, but essentially the how to category is a catch all category, in case your book doesn't fit anywhere else. Parenting is a subcategory within prescriptive nonfiction, so that could be parenting all the way from, like, pregnancy and conception books all the way to books dealing with, like, the samus generation of adult children, um, so that always is there. Um, so parenting is another subcategory.

Speaker 1: 14:54
Religion and spirituality if it's about spirituality, um is religious or it's faith based, so it's like christian right In any way, without being Wu, so that's a big one without being you know about sort of spiritual beliefs in terms of like crystals and Reiki, healers and like energy and all of that Like. If it's more based in traditional religion, so you know Judeo-Christian, arabic, any of those traditions, it's going to end up in religion and spirituality. More often than not, these are books that are intended for the Christian market, and that's an entirely different market. It's its own industry. They even have their own bookstores. They have their own standards. I don't work on Christian books either because they are so different from conventional, like trade books that we talk about right. That says, in your local bookstore you might find religion books in the mind, body, spirit section, or vice versa, depending again on the store.

Speaker 1: 15:52
Okay, so now that we did a little breakdown of categories, I can talk about what my team and I specifically work on, because that's really helpful for you all going forward. Right, I'm gonna take a breath just to remind you that, if you're enjoying this podcast and I specifically work on because that's really helpful for you all going forward, right, I'm going to take a breath just to remind you that if you're enjoying this podcast, like and subscribe it's good karma. And there's just so much more I can tell you about book publishing. We are barely scratching the surface with this 10 starter episode. Right, I'm just doing this so that I can level set and we can have better conversations about how you're going to get your book deal. Can like, level set and we can have better conversations about how you're going to get your book deal. So let's talk about me and my team for a sec.

Speaker 1: 16:28
So my team and I work with entrepreneurs and subject matter experts who want to reach thousands of people right, thousands of readers with their work. So the books my team and I have helped to publish in the past few years have been about personal finance, diet and health, parenting, business leadership, sexual health, gender transition, personal growth, as well as diversity and inclusion. And if you're writing on those topics, you're in the right place, because we're going to tell you all about those books and how to get those books published. Yay for you, right? So let's jump back and understand why category is so important. So the first thing is that it helps to target your audience, because publishers don't know how to reach everybody, and no book should really be for everybody. That's going to be a future episode, by the way, on why your book is not for everybody.

Speaker 1: 17:27
So, because category helps target the audience, it also directs you, as the author, to the right editorial help, right? So if you're writing for scripted non-fiction, come to me. If you're writing memoir, I'm probably not the right person for you. Right. And finding that right editorial help can help you get the right literary agents as well, right, because we all work together. So, for me, I specialize and I make a point of getting to know the literary agents in my field that work on the same kind of books.

Speaker 1: 17:57
I do, right, um? And then, in turn, those literary agents also get to know the editors that work on these books. So now we have like a little community of helpers for authors in terms of getting your traditional book deal Right. So I might see a new client and say, oh my gosh, this would be great for X agent and Y editor and that's happened Right. And then maybe I'll introduce you to X agent and then X agent I'll say, hey, y editor was looking for this and that makes their job easier. And, wham bam, there's your book deal right.

Speaker 1: 18:28
So that's really really important to know the genre, because then you'll be able to winnow down number one, who can help you, and number two, like who you're going to approach when you do approach agents and editors, because it is way more likely for you to get a book deal when you approach the people that can actually help you and are interested in your book and eventually help you also to land with a team who understands how to make your book work, understands the potential audience, understands the competition and the market landscape, understands sort of standards within the category right, just sort of gets within the category right, just sort of gets what the audience expects from a self-help book or from a romance book or from a biography Right. So that's really, really hopeful. It helps to have that knowledge from someone like me, from an agent, from an editor, of what has worked commercially, what hasn't worked commercially, what hasn't worked commercially. You know what marketing and sales techniques are working in the market right now and what you don't need to bother with right. So it can really just help the final outcome of your book and, honestly, the whole journey, by having the right team, and that will set you up for success. Because you will end up with a team whether that's collaborators like us, an agent, a literary agent, an editor, a publishing team, a publishing house, a publishing sales force that knows who wants books like this right, who knows which stores to sell your book into, who knows which people at barnes, noble or at amazon or a bookshop or you know any of the stores to that like this kind of book. Um, it helps all those booksellers at the stores themselves, the people that work at bookstores, to shelve and categorize your book correctly, right, and that all in turn to shelve and categorize your book correctly, right, and that all in turn helps readers find your book. It sounds really convoluted and it is a very long path, but understanding your category is going to help you most often at the beginning of your career, which is really when you're listening to this podcast, right, and then all along the way, and it'll make you a successful author just really understanding category and how it impacts you and doing a little bit of homework to understand where you and your book fit in this broader publishing ecosphere, so that then you can just find out what rules of this broader game apply to you, because the rules that apply to a Christian author don't apply to a children's author, which doesn't apply to an author writing a book about sex, which doesn't apply to a Christian author, don't apply to a children's author, which doesn't apply to an author writing a book about sex, which doesn't apply to an author writing sci-fi. You know it's all different.

Speaker 1: 21:10
So we want to know our category, right, and we definitely, definitely fucking need to know the difference between fiction and nonfiction. All right, can we just, can we just all agree on that? Okay, I'm done with my rant now. Please don't come at me with like, I'm writing creative non-fiction. There's no such thing. That's like an english course, that's not like real, okay, anyway. So this is lesson three of you know your one-on-one curriculum of traditional publishing for entrepreneurial authors, right? I'm going to say that again because this podcast is made for experts and entrepreneurs who want a traditional book deal, right, um? And who are going to write, you know, a prescriptive non-fiction, how to self-help book in all those categories I mentioned. So if you missed any uh of the previous episodes, go back and listen, because I know you're going to want them for the next episode, because that's where I'm going to introduce my proprietary framework that's going to walk you step by step through how you can get a book deal and, until then, cheers to your success.

Speaker 2: 22:20
Thanks for tuning into the Kind of Big Book Deal podcast. Want to see where you're at on your book journey. Check out my free quiz at meghanstephenson.com forward slash quiz. That's M-E-G-H-A-N-S-T-E-V-E-N-S-O-Ncom forward slash quiz. See you next time.