Kind Of A Big Book Deal

Episode 11: How To Get The Best Advice For Your Book

• Meghan Stevenson

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Ever wonder why some writers’ retreats and book conferences leave you feeling inspired but stuck? 

In this episode of Kind of a Big Book Deal, Meghan Stevenson gets real about why so much advice out there won’t actually help you land a traditional publishing deal—and what will. Megan shares three crucial lessons for getting the right help for your book journey: finding experts who truly specialize, being wary of vague promises from conferences and memberships, and doing real due diligence before investing time or money.

If you're an entrepreneur or expert dreaming of a big book deal, this episode is a must-listen to avoid wasting energy, money, and momentum.

Find the Avoid Hiring a Hack freebie here: https://meghanstevenson.kit.com/491a80fe49 

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(1:21) Why desperate advice-seeking can backfire
(2:49) Ski lift story: People crave real publishing help
(4:01) Lesson 1: Publishing experts specialize
(6:16) Lesson 2: Why writers’ conferences usually fail
(8:11) Scams, misinformation, and opportunists
(10:54) How to assess real vs vague promises
(13:41) Lesson 3: Check the expert’s receipts
(15:58) Risks of working with unqualified book coaches
(18:27) How to truly vet publishing help
(20:44) Final recap: Specialization, skepticism, receipts
(22:10) Real success stories are collaborative
(23:55) Outro


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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.

Speaker 1:

Even working with me. Right is what I'm being promised the outcome I want. 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 and 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:

I get asked about book publishing in all sorts of places, y'all. I've gotten asked at the grocery store. I've gotten asked in a hot tub on vacation. I've gotten asked by friends of friends, of friends. I've had college friends DM me after 20 years asking about their dad's military history and for the most part, I don't mind these questions. Right, it's kind of like I have a couple of friends who are nurses and, like you know, anything happens and I'm like I don't know what to do and the Google doctor isn't helping me. I will text them and be like, hey, can I ask a nurse question? And so that's really, you know, okay with me and I think that's great.

Speaker 1:

But when we get to this level so we are on episode 11 of this podcast I want to make sure you're listening, because what I've noticed is that a lot of authors are so desperate for information that they don't care that I don't work on the book that they're not working on. They just want any advice, and that's not serving you. So what brought this to mind and really reinforced it to me was last week, the week before I recorded this, and I know this is going to come out in like May, so like this is going to seem weird that I was skiing last weekend, but when I recorded this it was March. It was reasonable, still spring, but still skiable, and so I was skiing and you know, someone asked me what I did for a living, if I worked, which I love that question Do you work? Yes, but I would love to say no someday, anyway. So I was like, yes, I run my own business, I help people get published, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:

And this person that I was riding the lift with was writing short stories and I said, hey, I really can't help you, but if you go to the website, you might find this referral list, et cetera, et cetera, right. So it was super interesting to me because they kept talking to me. So we wrote two lists to the top and here we are standing at the top of this literal mountain, at the summit, 7,000 feet in the air, probably looking at Mount Rainier, and they're still asking me about the books I'm working on, how they can get published, all of that. So there's just such a need out there that I feel like we have to dedicate an entire episode to this how to get the best advice for your book right. And I'm going to talk about three lessons today that are going to help you do that, whether that's with me or not, because I don't know if you you missed it, but I'm pretty integrous. I take integrity really seriously, and so I'm not willing to help anybody that I can't help, right? I'm not here to like make an empire or make a million dollars in my business every year create. You know this giant company. I'm here to help authors so that they, in turn, can help readers, and that's what I'm here for. So today we're gonna talk about helping you, specifically helping you get the right help for your book.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so, as I said before, there are three lessons I want to impart in this particular episode. The lesson number one people in traditional book publishing specialize. So, as a woman, I'm not probably going to go to an ear, nose, throat doctor for advice about my lady parts. It ain't going to happen, right, and that is why I refuse to give any advice to my new friends up at the top of Vernier, right at the top of Crystal Mountain. I wasn't qualified to talk to them about short stories. I haven't worked on fiction since 2008. I've never published short fiction. I am not the right person. So here's a question related to this lesson Is the book you want to write the type of book this person works on or specializes in?

Speaker 1:

So when you go to hire somebody, is the book you want to write the type of book that this person works on or specializes in? Because what I can tell you 100% is that I get emails practically every week from people that aren't right to work with me, and I have tons of fucking qualifying language in my emails, in online, in the quiz. I don't know what is up with people not reading, especially y'all that want to be authors, but it's true. So that is so, so, so important Is the book you want to write, the type of book this person works on or specializes in. I say that because if you're writing another kind of book, you know for me that's. I don't work on fiction, I don't work on narrative non-fiction. I don't work on memoir, I don't work on children's.

Speaker 1:

The advice I'm going to give in this podcast and elsewhere is going to be unhelpful and may even be wildly inaccurate. That's why I suggest folks who are writing other types of books or who want to self-publish saying that again or who want to self-publish or have self-published or want to hybrid publish or have a hybrid publish, find resources that are relevant to you, rather than listening to me. I'm not going to give you the best advice for that, because I don't do that. Pretty simple, okay. Lesson number two writers conferences and retreats mostly don't work. I hate to bust your bubble here, but they just don't.

Speaker 1:

Over the past few years, I've seen a fucking explosion of people teaching how to get a book deal, and what I know for sure is that these writers conferences, these group programs, these retreats, these coaching all these things that promise to help you become a published author don't really work. I've been a part of them. I've seen them fail, people right, and I actually hosted my own back in 2021, even though I knew better like people were asking me for it, so I wanted to deliver what people were asking for. That's a great like business concept, but I felt icky about it because I knew that doesn't get people results. So the majority of what I see and I'm sure you see online too of book coaching, of authors using their experience to teach, of guides and courses and memberships teaching how to write book proposals though those aren't worth your time or your money, like at all, and that's because most of these retreats, most of these writers conferences, are ineffective at best.

Speaker 1:

Historically, what I have seen and I've been to a lot of writers conferences we go on the circuit as editors right is that authors get bombarded with information, leave with dazed and confused looks and experience this kind of weird placebo effect where they feel like they've done something by learning but in reality have changed absolutely nothing, right? Even when you look at like a writer's conference or one of those retreats where you get to talk to experts, like those pitches don't happen in real life. That's not how publishing works. So you're practicing for like nothing. It'd be like if LeBron James practiced throwing a foam football through a window instead of playing basketball. I don't know, it's a really weird analogy, but you get what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

So many these retreats, right, they see the opportunity. They see an opportunity to make money off authors. There's an entire site called author beware where, like, they did a whole article recently about like are creatives and authors more scammable? Are we more likely to get scammed? Um, and their general conclusion was no, but like, it's just a good. It's a good scam. It's a good opportunity for scam, whether that scam is intentional or not, right?

Speaker 1:

So those retreats to me often are a money grab or an opportunity. They, you know people come in. They see, oh hey, like my advisor got x amount of money, or like she runs this you know multi-six-figure business like I do, teaching people how to get their book deals. Like I could do that too. Right, like there's just that kind of very capitalist, opportunistic vibe there. Um, that means that you don't always get results.

Speaker 1:

So a lot of other of these you know retreats, programs, memberships etc are really well meaning but they're out of touch with current trends, they're out of touch with the publishers and what the publishers want, and just many regurgitate things that they learned from actual publishing experts. Right, you know, I had a client who I have had two clients who used the advice they learned from me and passed it off as their own. It's not a good feeling and it sucks. It just really sucks. But that is kind of what happens sometimes, right, it just is. So I've seen a lot of both bestselling authors and past clients put on events like that where they're hosting this retreat to get a big book deal or an author's retreat or become a published author and they don't know a lot about publishing outside of their own experience.

Speaker 1:

And that is problematic to me and my unpopular opinion is that traditional publishing shouldn't be something you try to learn in a weekend, right it. Nor should it be something you learn from one person's experience. Traditional publishing is so varied, it's almost like business. You want to take experience from lots of people. You want to get trusted advisors, you want someone who's been there before, and not just in their own experience, because one author's experience says nothing about the greater ecosphere that you, as an author, are existing in. Because, honestly, going back to our medical metaphor, I would not take advice from an OBGYN that only studied her own parts, like, would you? No fucking way, right? Okay, that said, I know that lots of people love these, right? Lots of authors that I've talked to want to go to these retreats.

Speaker 1:

If you do find yourself interested in a writer's conference, in a book retreat or some kind of membership that promises to give you access to a publisher or a literary agent or both, here's a great question for you to ask yourself about anything you're going to invest in, including these. You know, writers' conferences, writing retreats, even working with me, right, is what I'm being promised. The outcome I want Is what I'm being promised. The outcome I want, because a lot of times, the outcomes of these retreats and memberships are super vague. Like I checked out a bunch of sales pages for this because I wanted to make sure, I wanted to check myself before I wrecked myself a little bit and like I was like no, these are really vague, right, and I've used them myself at times. But because the promises can't be concrete, right.

Speaker 1:

Like a lot of what I found was like'll learn how to become a best-selling author or you'll get vip access to someone's literary agent or editor right, and maybe you're promised to be considered by a publisher. Like, maybe, or like you'll end up with a proposal from someone you've never met before. Like, before you go to this thing, it just seems very sketchy versus results that are clear, understandable, obvious. Like a real deliverable, right. Like when you have potential, when you have platform and check my episode on the 3P framework if you have no idea what I'm talking about like, it's really obvious my team and I'll help you write a book proposal. We'll introduce you to a literary agent. We have a 90% success rate in 2024 at landing our clients book deals with major publishers right.

Speaker 1:

I just signed a new client two weeks ago because she came to the call. I'd never met this person before she came to the call and I had sussed out hey, this book idea has potential, you have an author platform, let's do this thing, you know, and that contract was done and dusted within a week. Right, and we're ready to go do that work. So that is the promise that I make potential clients and I mean every fucking word of that Right, and you know we have to back up. You have to have the potential, you have to have the platform. Again, integrity, right.

Speaker 1:

Making sure that the person you are paying to do this really important work for you of, like making your book saleable to a traditional publisher like you want that to be real. You want that to be not smoke and mirrors or somebody's like side income. You want it to be their primary job. That is the best outcome. So, lesson three do your due diligence on who you learn from right. This is sort of the flip side to lesson number one. So there's a lot of advice out there about writing and publishing. This is sort of the flip side to lesson number one. So there's a lot of advice out there about writing and publishing, and not all of it's going to pertain to you.

Speaker 1:

So many writers, editors and book coaches focus on craft, which is great, right. It isn't really a factor, though, if you are listening to this podcast, because you're my ideal client and you're an entrepreneur or an expert who wants to write a how-to book, like craft isn't really that necessary for us. Like we don't. We don't work on plot or theme or any of those things you would have talked about when you're like distilling a classical literature text right. We're way more commercial than that. There are certain you know conventions that go into self-help and how-to books that you know my team and I are really proficient at. But for the most part, like you don't need to be like a great writer in the sense of like a literature focus or a literature lens there, right, like just, it's just not necessary. Like platform's just as important as the writing, if not more more, when it comes to self-help books and traditional publishers. To that end, you also need to know that book coaching is a lot like any other type of coaching, meaning it is not regulated and that quality varies a lot.

Speaker 1:

Now, I love coaches. I have worked with a few in my career in my life. Some have changed my life. Worked with a few in my career in my life. Some have changed my life, some have been shitty, just being real. So anyone can decide to become a book coach. Anyone can decide to become a literary agent. Anyone can call themselves an expert in publishing, which makes it super important to check people's receipts.

Speaker 1:

So I had a friend recently reach out to me because she's a coach and she had gotten a few clients asking her about her book. She had self-published a book and she decided to add an income stream to her business by becoming a freelance editor. Right, she has absolutely no experience in books outside of self-publishing her own. And while her offering services to people based on that isn't wrong and it's not unethical in itself because you know her coaching clients were coming to her, they knew she had only worked on her book right, she wasn't claiming to be anything that she wasn't. It was super important for her to be honest with her clients about where she's coming from, right, so that's super important too.

Speaker 1:

Your results may vary based on who you hire. I've had clients come to me or potential clients come to me having hired someone before, and I'm not willing to like step on another editorial colleague's toes. It's just not my style. But if they hired somebody who was focused on the writing or didn't really know how to put together a proposal, now they're already invested in something and I have to like fix it, which isn't the best for anyone, right? So, from what I've seen, most book coaches and there are always exceptions don't have any experience working with international publishing, which matters so much when you want to get a book deal. There are other me's out there that I maybe I'll have them on the pod someday but there are other me's out there that have different styles of working, different aesthetics, different personalities. Like, if I'm too brash for you, there's definitely somebody that's more calm and quote unquote professional, right, but, like, honestly, like it is really important that you check. You know their receipts, who they worked with, what is the style of the book they work on, what's the level of publisher they work with, right, I have a friend in San Francisco.

Speaker 1:

She was a fabulous editor, but she mostly stays with small publishers. She doesn't go to the big five very often. Um, that's partly because of who she works with and partly because that's just her zone, which is great, right, and I refer people to her and she refers people to me. I mean, I think you just really need to look at that. So a lot of book coaches might be able to help you shape a manuscript, especially right, cause a lot of them focus on craft, a lot of them focus on writing and some may even be able to put together a proposal for you, but a lot of them get stuck there. They don't know literary agents, they certainly don't know editors at the houses. And what I see a lot is these coaches send their clients to me right With a proposal. They've already invested, usually thousands of dollars, in that.

Speaker 1:

I'm not going to touch Right, because a lot of times these people don't have the platform, their proposal, sort of half baked, they're already really attached to it. And I'm not like an agent introducer. That's not what I do, that's not how I make money. So it's just, you kind of get stuck at this like weird in between place where, like you have a proposal and is it good, sure, but then you have to go through all the querying stuff again and like it just feels like I don't know, kind of like a weird half step to me. So I don't want that for you either. Basically, it's long and short of that.

Speaker 1:

So instead, as I mentioned before, look for results. When you are ready to hire someone or even learn from someone you know, like, like you're doing right now, check those receipts. Ask yourself does this expert help people like me achieve what I want? So when our clients look at me, they look at it and they say, hey, I'm an entrepreneur, her clients are entrepreneurs. Hey, I'm an expert, her clients are experts. You know, even down to like identity stuff, I'm a woman of color, her clients are women of color. Right, look at that. I want a six figure book deal they get six figure book deals. I want a agent they got agents. I want X, y or Z. She's delivering X, y or Z, because that is really what is going to get you to your goal.

Speaker 1:

So you know, this is the kind of a big book deal podcast, which means, if you're listening to this, I am guessing you want to be a traditionally published author and you know, get kind of a big book deal or maybe just a big book deal itself. You know either that or you are my friend Kelly. So, hi, kelly, but really industry insiders like myself, we'll know what literary agents are looking for, whether your idea has, you know, merit and legs and can sell. They will know kind of what publishers want to see, what's trendy right now are publishers looking for, what are publishers not interested in? And you know, you're looking for those receipts. You're looking for that proof that the expert is really the expert. Right, I'm not shy and saying that I have receipts for days. My team has receipts. There are testimonials on our website.

Speaker 1:

You can go buy the books we've worked on. Maybe you've seen an author of ours on the Today Show or your socials, right? A good editor, a good collaborator, a good ghostwriter, a good book coach or any other kind of author helper. I'm just going to loop us all in together as author helpers. You see, out there, we'll, you know, try to help you, even if it's by saying I'm not the right person, just like you. Even if it's by saying I'm not the right person, just like an ENT would if you told them that you were having like issues with your private parts, right? Um? So, to recap, here are the three things you need to remember when getting advice on your book.

Speaker 1:

Number one people in traditional publishing specialize, so make sure the expert you're learning from is your expert. I'm going to pause here and say if you are writing fiction, there are podcasts for that. If you are writing memoir, there are podcasts for that. If you are writing true crime, there are podcasts for that. If you're writing children, I bet there are podcasts for that. This is probably not going to be the most helpful for you. Just saying Number two writers conferences, retreats, books on how to write a book proposal. Things like that usually don't create results, because most people need more help than that, which may probably be you as well. Number three, do your due diligence and make sure whoever you're learning from has receipts, preferably for days, like me and my team.

Speaker 1:

And lastly, in my experience, success is collaborative, meaning that I'm not a genie, right? I don't just like deliver results or create them out of you know whatever. Ether I've got around me right, and neither is any other book coach, publishing expert, publisher, publicist, you know, bestselling, author, et cetera, whatever. Instead, what happens is that we work together to create amazing results. So here's just a little snippet of how that could work right.

Speaker 1:

I have a client right now who recently got the book deal of her dreams with Hay House. She didn't do that on her own right. Instead, it was a combined result. It was a co-collaboration of her creating an amazing business, of her showing up to calls with me so we can develop her book idea, of my team doing the research and legwork behind the scenes to craft the book proposal, of me introducing her to a few literary agent friends, then the literary agent she chose, sending it to an editor who is interested and now we're working on the book Highly collaborative, highly co-created. So if you are an entrepreneur or an expert who wants an outcome like that, you are in the right place.

Speaker 1:

Keep listening. That wraps up my advice, at least, on how to hire help. I'm going to put in the show notes opt-in. I had a little free guide on how to avoid hiring a hack. It is basically a sassier version of what you've already heard, but it's helpful and I hope that you know it is of value to you. So y'all.

Speaker 1:

I also want to say that I am so excited because in the next episode I'm going to feature our very first question from you, our devoted listeners. So, becky, if you are out there, I have an answer to your question, and probably everybody else's, about how the money works in traditional publishing. So stay tuned for that. Subscribe, leave a review. It's great. Karma Helps me feel better about putting this out in the world and having thousands of people listen to it, but not knowing what you think of it. And I will see you in two weeks and until then, as always, 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 meganstephensoncom forward slash quiz. That's M-E-G-H-A-N-S-T-E-V-E-N-S-O-N dot com forward slash quiz. See you next time.