Episode 4 - The Basics: Three Ps Every Author Needs to Get a Book Deal

Welcome to Kind of a Big Book Deal with host Meghan Stevenson! If you’ve ever dreamed of landing a book deal but felt lost in the process, this episode is for you. Meghan, a former editor at top publishing houses, shares her hard-earned insights on what it takes to turn your book idea into a reality.

In this episode, Meghan introduces her Three P’s framework—Potential, Platform, and Proposal—the key elements every author needs to secure a traditional publishing deal. She explains why your book idea must be fresh and marketable, how to build an audience that publishers can’t ignore, and why your book proposal is the ultimate sales pitch. Meghan also emphasizes the importance of thought leadership and proof of past sales success when positioning yourself for a deal.

This episode is just the beginning—over the next three episodes, Meghan will detail each P, giving you the knowledge you need to take your book from idea to published success.

Find the 3Ps freebie here: https://meghanstevenson.kit.com/50230df9e1

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(1:32) The struggle to understand frameworks
(3:00) Introducing the Three P’s: Potential, Platform, and Proposal
(5:45) Defining each P and why they matter
(7:14) The three conditions for a strong book idea
(9:54) Why market size and reader demand matter
(12:24) What makes a strong author platform? Direct audience, reach, and conversion
(14:58) The elements of a winning book proposal

Follow Meghan:

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• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanstevenson/
• TikTok: @meghan.stevenson.books
• Website: https://www.meghanstevenson.com/

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

It's magic y'all, and this framework works. Every time I work it it's awesome and I'm so happy to be here. 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 save 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: 1:00

So back when I was a master's student at Pace University in New York City, getting my master's of science in publishing, I took a class called content management systems and it was hilarious because the first week, my friend Lauren and I realized that the professor could not define a content management system without using the word content management or system and it kind of like blew our minds Like we had so much fun with that. I was like little assholey, 24 year olds, and when I got introduced to the word framework I kind of thought the same thing, because for a very long time I didn't really understand frameworks, like I just did not get them. I saw my client, rachel Rogers, teach it and in her because I'm a client of hers, she's a client of mine, and so I saw her teach her frameworks and teach how to use a framework in a business, and I really honestly did not wrap my mind around how it was really going to work. I kind of understood it functionally, like how it was really going to work. I kind of understood it functionally like how it would work for someone else, but for me and our business, because it's so we're so in the weeds with our clients on creating these books and even the book proposals, that it kind of didn't make sense to me Like why would I make a framework and share it if I'm sharing like kind of what I'm doing on the inside right?

Speaker 1: 2:27

So frameworks always sort of puzzled me in that way, and part of that was that it was kind of like a content management system, like no one could explain it without using the fucking words Like, oh, a framework is a framework for. And it's like, well, that's not helpful, right, like I still don't understand this framework for. And it's like, well, that's not helpful, right, like I still don't understand this. Um, I even hired someone once to come speak to my platform building membership, which I no longer have. We'll have an episode on that someday um, but I could, and she even used framework to define frameworks, so I could never quite make heads or tails of it. Every framework I came up with kind of felt like it was missing something you know, or I felt like it was kind of fluffy or like not really real or not super helpful to explain how you get a book deal and how you know all of you who are listening to this, who want to get a book deal, who want to understand the publishing industry, how that's going to help you do that. Like every framework I made never really felt quite right until I came up with what I'm going to share with you today and that is what I call the three P's. So this is my framework violent intellectual property. So, for reference, a link to the visual version of what I'm going to describe is in today's show notes, but please know this is my framework, it is I'm trademarking it and it's definitely protected. So, fyi, I've had people rip it off before and I'm just going to put it out there for everyone to hear on this freaking podcast that y'all don't take this and copy it, because otherwise I will get a lawyer on you, okay.

Speaker 1: 3:58

So before we begin, I'm going to go back to Rachel Rogers, because I want to give her credit, because this is how I first learned how to do. This was from her company, hello7. And I'm going to present this in a similar way to how she presents her frameworks. And I'm not obviously copying what she's doing, but I just think it's really important as a creator and as creators and online entrepreneurs. We're all in on these streets, we're all using the same sort of marketing methods and we're all using very similar things. But when I learned something from somebody, whether I'm iterating on it or not, I think it's super important to give credit where credit is due. So thank you, rachel, for teaching me about frameworks, and I finally fucking figured it out. It only took me like five years, okay. So thanks also to my team, who has tolerated like a hundred fucking versions of this, and also my husband, because I would just like be excited but also be challenged and he would just be like I'm so sick of fucking hearing about publishing frameworks.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Okay, so let's walk through this diagram. At the center of any framework is our goal, and for us that is a book deal. So there are three really big components to get there, and these are what I call the three Ps. So I'll be sharing more about each of these three steps in upcoming episodes. We're going to break down each of the three Ps in an episode all onto itself, but for our purposes today, we're just going to talk about the framework overall.

Speaker 1: 5:23

So the first P is potential, and this is your book idea, right? Does your book idea have potential? The next P is your platform, so this is your audience and all the ways that you can market, promote and sell your future book. That is your author platform. You should be pretty familiar with that term and then proposal, which is ultimately a business plan for a book. So those are the three P's. Got it? Potential, platform proposal Okay, but wait, there's more. I love saying that. It reminds me of like being a kid and watching those like dorky local auto dealer commercials. But wait, there's more.

Speaker 1: 6:01

In order to turn potential into a platform, you've got to have thought leadership. Also, to turn potential into a proposal, you've got to have unique intellectual property, which also helps with that thought leadership. Obviously, you're not like just leading thoughts that everybody else has right, and all of that helps with sales, not necessarily of your book, but everything else you offer, so your coaching, your courses, even your free content, if you write a really popular newsletter or have a really popular podcast, or maybe you are the one person who's still making a blog work, if you are amazing. But all of that is what turns a platform into a proposal. So, like I said, we're going to go into each of those way deeper in upcoming episodes. We're really just flying high today.

Speaker 1: 6:53

So for now, think of those three Ps. Right, really focus on potential platform proposal. So potential is your book idea, platform is your audience and how you're going to promote the book and sell it, and proposal is what agents and publishers need to give you a book deal. It is like the function, right, it is the ask. So now we can take another step. So outside of each of the three Ps are the three necessary conditions that need to be met in order for you to have a viable project for a future book deal.

Speaker 1: 7:25

So I'm going to warn you and say that these might not make sense right away, and that's all right. Again, we're going to dive deeper in the next few episodes. So don't worry, you're going to learn. I just want to make sure I'm not overwhelming you with information. There is so, so much to learn when it comes to book publishing. I mean, all you have to do is ask my husband. He knows more about it, but he still knows nothing.

Speaker 1: 7:58

So let's dig in. How do you know if your book idea has potential? How do you know if you have a chance in hell at getting a book deal? Well, there's three components to that potential right. Number one the idea. Is it a book at all? Right, is it fresh? Is it new? Is it unique? And normally people meet this. Not always, but they. Normally people meet this.

Speaker 1: 8:18

The second thing is market. Is the audience big enough? Are they book buyers? So this is often where people start to fail right, if you're writing something super duper, niche, you could have a valid book idea on your hands. But it's not valid for traditional publishing because it doesn't have a big enough audience. And are those people book buyers? Right? A lot of times people come to me with great ideas for books that could be better apps Great idea. Those people aren't book buyers, they're app downloaders or they're subscription people. Right, they're not necessarily readers. And then the last point is comps, meaning comparative and competitive titles. Have books like yours worked, meaning that they've sold both to publishers and to readers? Have they been commercially viable? Okay, so those are my top three again, again for potential. I'm going to recap because I think it's useful.

Speaker 1: 9:11

So, how do you know your book has potential? Well, first, is it a book? I remember I had a client or potential client approached me about a book that would I don't want to blow his spot up here, so I'm going to try to be nice about it and also like, use a different sport and kind of a different thing. It would be the equivalent of raising up those plastic shields at a hockey game. He was like, oh, those hockey shields should be like I don't know, six times taller. And I was like that's a great idea, it's not bad. Like I agree, like people shouldn't be like concussed from a puck Right, and God knows they like throw sticks sometimes, but like, that's not a book. No one's going to read a 300 page book about why we should raise, like the hockey, plastic dividers, right? It's just not a book. Most often it's not as wild as that, it's more like, oh, that should be a magazine article or oh, that should be an essay or that should be an op-ed is often the case, right? So is it fresh, new and unique? You know, a couple of months ago I had somebody like talk to me about a sober curious trend and while it's a super valid book idea, there's already so many many books out there. She's behind the curve in a lot of ways, right. So she's gonna have to come up with a fresh take on the sober curious movement, because if she was just doing a sober curious book, that market has already been relatively saturated and topped out.

Speaker 1: 10:38

Speaking of market, is the audience big enough? Are they book buyers, right? So there is a thought that men don't buy books. That's not actually the case. I've looked up statistics on this and we're going to talk about it more. But men don't buy as many books, right? So when we're thinking about, like, maybe it's a straight romance written for men, that's not going to be as big of a market as if it was a straight romance for women, right? So we want to make sure we have a big enough market, and usually that means like millions of people, because not everybody in your target market is going to buy. So if your target demographic is like 10 million people, then we can expect that we might actually be able to get, you know, a decent sale, sell through even with a 1% margin, right. And but if it's only like 1 million or 500,000, then the numbers start to go down and down and publishers aren't interested when they don't think they can sell that many books.

Speaker 1: 11:37

And then comps meaning comparative and competitive titles. So have books like yours worked? Have they sold? Right? If publishers have invested a lot of money into outdoorsy memoirs by fat women, for instance, and they haven't sold, then a publisher is not likely to buy another outdoorsy memoir about fat women, at least not right away. And so we want to look at our comps and we want to make sure also that we're not comping to celebrities or stars like you are not Brene Brown, you are not Glennon Doyle, you are not Adam Grant, and so why put yourself in comparison with those people when we can usually find someone that's more apt and more accurate, who has sold well but not exceedingly well. We'll talk about comps a little more, but that's general.

Speaker 1: 12:24

So let's back up to the three pieces. We talked about Potential. Now we're going to go into platform. Let's talk about three things. You need to have an author platform. The first thing is direct audience. How many people can you market your book to Completely on your own, with absolutely no help? Who can you directly reach out to? And this is why celebrities get book deals right it's because you know they have a direct audience. They have fans. I bought Miranda Lambert's cookbook. Have I read that book? No, have I made any recipes out of it? One, and I wasn't that impressed, probably because I didn't get the right cut of brisket, but I'm a fan. I bought it right. So that's what it is when we talk about direct audience.

Speaker 1: 13:04

So the second thing is reach. If you ask everyone you knew to promote your book or you know, to schedule you to speak or show up, you know, on a show or be featured in media or podcasts, how many people would you be able to reach right? How many people would that be If you took all your friends in entrepreneurship and online ship and influencers and experts, how many people do they collectively reach? And usually we're looking for the millions here, right, if, in? If a good benchmark in a direct audience is 100k, I'm looking for a million in reach easily. Um, and some of our other people, I, some of our we currently have a list of like who has the biggest platform among our clients, and I think someone is at like 50 or 70 million in terms of reach. So just let that land for you, okay.

Speaker 1: 13:58

Number three conversion. Do you have evidence that people bought similar things from you before, preferably at a much higher price point? So a lot of times for our clients who are coaches, we benchmark. We say, hey, this book is going to be $30 and their coaching program at minimum is $500 or $6,000. It's one of my clients right At the time she started at 6K and it's like most of her people can't afford 6K. Most of the people in her audience can't afford 6K, but people are buying it from her and so the people who can't afford it are buying from her. So she has proof that she's converted. A couple of our other clients do low cost digital products and they're selling gangbusters. You know they're selling. You know three, four, $5 million worth of sales. That means like people are buying their stuff and that matters to a publisher because they want assurances, and not only can you sell this stuff, but people are going to buy it.

Speaker 1: 14:59

And last proposal so let's go into that. Right, let's talk about the three things there. This is simple, but it is also what takes my team six months or more to do for our clients. So it's that classic. Yes, this is simple content. It's usually chapter summaries and a sample chapter. The second is a plan for marketing and sales, basically how you're going to sell the book and why you're a good bet. And three is a sales pitch.

Speaker 1: 15:37

And just so you know, I'm never, ever, ever going to do a podcast episode about how you should write a proposal, because that's what I do with my clients. Also, for what it's worth, I've never seen an author written proposal that I didn't want to tear to shreds. I think it's worth any author's time who wants a traditional book deal to hire me or someone like me. It's a document you have to do once. You really have to get it right. It's like American Idol, except you're not showing up. You have to nail that audition in a fucking PDF. It is incredibly difficult and I'm exceptionally good at it, so just let me do it Seriously. Just let us do it. Also, I've got to pay my bills too. So if I was going to tell you how I do everything, that doesn't really make sense, because this podcast is free. So take what you're going to get and enjoy it. I hope you really enjoy it and if you have questions, let me know.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Okay, so over the next three episodes I'm going to be distilling the fuck out of this framework. You are going to want to subscribe after these first four episodes so that you don't miss a beat. But to recap, we're going to go very quickly. The three Ps are potential. Is your book a book Platform? What's your audience? What are you bringing to the publisher? Right and last, is proposal Like this magical document that goes to an agent and goes to a publisher without you even being there and convinces them to give you hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's magic y'all, and this framework works. Every time I work it. It's awesome and I'm so happy to be here. So until next time, cheers to your success. 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.