Kind Of A Big Book Deal

Episode 15 - How Entrepreneurs Sabotage Their Book Deal

• Meghan Stevenson

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What’s really holding you back from landing that big book deal? 

In this no-BS episode, Meghan pulls back the curtain on the most common mistakes aspiring authors make and how to avoid them. From hiding your ideas out of fear, to trying to do everything yourself, to staying stuck in analysis paralysis, Meghan calls it all out with hard-earned insight and humor. 

You’ll learn why educating yourself, building a real platform, and getting expert help are non-negotiables in today’s publishing landscape. Whether you're dreaming of a traditional publishing deal or just want to finally write that book, this episode is a must-listen wake-up call.

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(01:26) The harsh truths about traditional publishing
(02:26) Mistake #1: Going in blind
(03:51) Mistake #2: Hiding your idea from the world
(05:02) How to protect your intellectual property
(07:44) Mistake #3: Staying small = staying invisible
(10:21) Mistake #4: Doing everything yourself
(12:27) Buying back your time is smart business
(15:00) Leveraging help to land the book deal
(16:41) Rapid-fire recap of the 4 big mistakes
(20:38) 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:

I mean clients tell me over and over again they couldn't have gotten the same results, they couldn't have gotten the agent, they couldn't have gotten the deal, they couldn't have written a book without me and my team being there to help them leverage their time and their expertise, because we can't write it without you. So you're still an integral in the process. 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.

Speaker 1:

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. Back in the day, when I used to go to writers conferences, I would often tell my husband all right, babe, I'm off to kill some dreams and make people cry. And, to be honest, I wasn't kidding. If you're listening to this podcast, I'm going to just guess that publishing a book is a big dream for you and getting a big book deal is part of that dream, and I totally get that as a publishing professional. I want you to succeed. That's why I end every message in my business, from the weekly emails I send on publishing to this podcast, with here's to your success, because I want you to succeed. Right, that's my mission here, and in the past 20 years I've worked in books.

Speaker 1:

I've seen all sorts of ways that people avoid, they destroy and otherwise fuck up their book deals. There are all kinds of self-sabotage out in this world, and when it comes to books, there are about a million ways to do that as well, and I do not want that for you. So today I'm going to drop a bunch of cautionary tales for you all. So here are a few of the most common ways that I see people messing up their potential for a book deal. So the first thing is really big and you're already kind of here defeating it, which is not educating yourself first. So I see so many authors making easy and avoidable mistakes simply because they haven't taken the time to do their own research and soul searching. They haven't taken the time to do their own research and soul searching. So educating yourself on all your options, everything that is available to you as a entrepreneur, expert and future author, is smart and it's going to give you direction on what you want to do and indicate things to your intuition what's best for you.

Speaker 1:

In addition to this podcast, there are a ton, just a ton of resources for authors about book publishing and, especially with the rise of AI and experts like myself sharing what we know online. You've got little to no excuse anymore for not understanding how all of this works. Right, there are so many great sub stacks, great YouTube channels, wonderful resources on social media. Author beware, writer beware about scams. There's just a lot of information out there. There's several Reddit threads Reddit is like my favorite place on the Internet and so, yeah, there's just a lot of options out there, so you really have no excuse.

Speaker 1:

The second thing and you already hear that you're already getting educated, so maybe you're not falling into that trap, but anyway, the second thing I see is people hiding, and this is true about all sorts of people, not just experts and entrepreneurs, but I'm going to speak specifically to experts and entrepreneurs who want to publish a book. To experts and entrepreneurs who want to publish a book. A lot of times I see people hiding because you are deep down scared someone will steal your idea. A couple weeks ago, this happened in my business just a couple weeks ago. Right, a potential client asked me to sign a non-disclosure agreement or an NDA. I have absolutely no problem signing NDAs, because confidentiality and respecting intellectual property is basically what I do as a professional collaborator. I have clients that I'm working with right now that I can't talk about on this podcast or even with my friends, because we have confidentiality agreements in place. Right, we have confidentiality strictly in our contracts. Like, we have to go over the confidentiality clauses among my team to make sure they don't accidentally slip up. So you don't see every contract. We do, I do, but they don't, you know.

Speaker 1:

So, as a future author and presumably an expert and an entrepreneur, what I want you to know is there are three really important things about your intellectual property that apply to you as an author, but also as an expert in entrepreneur. So number one is and this is true to the United States within the United States, everything that you create and you put out into the world is automatically covered by copyright. In the future, I'm going to do a whole show on this. Maybe I'll even get a lawyer to come in and talk to us about the difference. Number two as an entrepreneur, it is smart to trademark your name, the name of your business and anything proprietary like frameworks or program names. The easiest way to do this, in my experience, is by hiring an experienced trademark attorney. That's going to cost you money, but I believe, honestly, the best entrepreneurs support other small businesses and other entrepreneurs. So shopping small is always a good thing to do and always worth the money. And when it comes to trademark and things like that, the lawyer is well worth your time and your money. And still, even with all those protections right, with automatic copyright protection, with trademark protection, you know the minute you apply for a trademark you're covered, kind of thing. Patents are a different thing, but trademarks are bread and butter for sure. I trademarked my own name, right.

Speaker 1:

So, and still, even with every precaution, it's super, super likely that someone is going to steal something you create. Someone is going to steal something you create. Someone is going to rip off something you create. I mean, in the last year, I've had two separate clients either take people to court or send those nasty cease and desist letters asking a copy cat to like back down, and I'm no stranger to this myself. I recently had a client rip off what I taught her and use it in a 15 K retreat that's based on knowledge she gained from me, right, and this is the second time she's done it. Um, so it's kind of crazy that that happens, but it does, and it's not cool at all, but it does happen, and you can't let it stand in your way of your dreams, right, like you just can't. So at best, you know, in that situation you go all Taylor Swift and you focus on keeping your own street clean and at worst, you wear up, right. So that's what's going to happen, and probably you're going to do both at some point in your career as an entrepreneur and an entrepreneurial author.

Speaker 1:

But coming back around to the point of the episode, someone stealing your shit and managing your intellectual property in a smart and strategic way is only really a problem for those of you who are actually out there marketing yourselves and sharing what you know in a public way. Right, the rest of you are hiding, which creates our third problem. Okay, you insist on staying small and, really honestly, this is the bigger part of hiding that prevents you from getting a book deal, like when I talk about that. You know, when people are hiding because they're afraid someone's going to steal their idea, I get that. It's really, you know, scary to put your idea out there and see whether people like it. So I get that. But it's also like you got to put it out there because otherwise no one's going to know about it. You're not going to know if it's valid and god forbid. You run after a business and I've done this before run after a business or an idea that no one cares about. Right, got rather know sooner rather than later. So anyway, going back to this, hiding is a problem because when you hide you stay small, and I get a ton of pushback on this, on social media particularly.

Speaker 1:

But publishing is super, super simple. For those of us who want to write how-to books, for those of us who are entrepreneurs and experts, those of us who want to write self-help books, it's really simple no platform, no deal, no audience, no deal. No way to sell the book? No deal. No way to promote the book? No deal. I don't know how I can make it simpler than that, and if you want to know more about why that is, I could tell you. One word is capitalism. I could tell you in a second word it's corporations. But like to go deeper into that? You can check out episode six, episode 14, both of which cover why your platform is so important.

Speaker 1:

So, staying small is a big problem because we need you to step up and be bigger, and if the impact you want to make is a big impact, then, girl, get yourself on that Instagram. It seems really silly and it might even seem like Meghan. Why does social media matter when I'm trying to make this bigger impact with real people? Well, social media brings you to the people, doesn't it? I mean, come on, I think hiding staying small is such a weird spot to be in these. You're not ready to do your buddy right.

Speaker 1:

I stayed small for a very long time. I was a small entrepreneur making less than six figures a year until 2019. I have this podcast idea in 2022 and here I am in 2025, finally having launched it. I need to get ready for that shit. It doesn't happen overnight. But you got to be willing to go bigger, right? If you want kind of a big book deal, you can't be small. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1:

So let's jump back into a similar issue. That will sabotage your book deal, and that's for those of you on here who insist on doing it yourself or you're waiting and waiting and waiting to take action or hire help. So this is a problem for practical reasons. I often say that I've never seen an author written book proposal that I didn't want to tear to shreds, and I say that not as it kind of was a joke, but also because it's true. But what I've also seen is entrepreneurs and experts who waste time and energy trying to do everything themselves when they would be better off getting leverage by hiring someone else, right?

Speaker 1:

So here's a great example a client of ours recently hired my team to help write a proposal. Right, because she knew that she was out of her area of expertise and she knew we could do it better. Right, she knew that she didn't know how to write a book proposal, would waste time and money doing on our own and that we knew all these agents that she wanted to. You know have work was in her book. Right, we have, you know, a bunch of agents in our back pocket. We have a bunch of publishers in our back pocket. We were her best way to success. So all along she was saying I'm going to write my own book, I'm gonna write my own book, I'm gonna write my own book.

Speaker 1:

When she got her deal, she realized pretty damn quickly, within like weeks, that writing a book was also out of her area of expertise. And what she realized is that only she could be the face of her business right. Only she could do the Instagram reels. Only she could do the face of her business right. Only she could do the Instagram reels. Only she could do the quarterly planning. Only she could manage her team. Only she could be on stage at the live events she does. Only she could work with her clients that were paying to be in her presence at a mastermind. But we, my team and I I, we could help her write the book right. We could do that piece for her. We could write her book for her. She could literally buy back her time by hiring us. So I learned this first from my client, farnish terabi, and then later a client I worked with named rachel rogers. But basically, like buying back, your time is buying leverage, and leverage is where it's at when you are growing as an entrepreneur. So here's a great example from my own life.

Speaker 1:

Right, I have an amazing cleaner for my home right now. Her name is Jordan Shout out to Jordan from Seattle GEC. She does a fantastic job. She cleans my entire house when she comes and she spends about four hours doing that, right, so she's here when I'm working and I have her here on Mondays, so like she can make a bit much noise and I'm just talking to my team and doing content stuff, so it's not like disruptive to me at all. She works for a company that makes a point of paying people a fair wage rather than hiring independent contractors, which I really love that. I also want to receive a fair wage myself, right, so I pay her about $500 every single time she comes. She comes every other week and that includes the company fee, but then also, of course, a tip and a gratuity on top. Now, that might seem hollow expensive to you, because expensive is relative, right, but considering my hourly rate right now, which is $300 an hour, I'm making money every time Jordan steps in my house and does her work. Not only is she better at cleaning than I am like by far, the math is so easy. When she's here, I work for four hours, which if I was billing hourly and I don't always but when I do hourly work, it's $300 an hour. That means $1,200 is getting paid to me is getting paid to me. I'm paying Jordan 500. That means I'm netting out $700 every single time and I have a clean house and I get all this work done, right, it's amazing. So that means paying Jordan is well worth the cost, right? So let's apply that back to you.

Speaker 1:

As an entrepreneur who wants a traditional book deal, what you want to think about is how the advance from your future publishing deal can and will cover the cost of hiring help. Okay, so while you do have to wait right, every investment you make in your life and business should have a return, but it might be a sketchy return until you prove it out. And while you do have to wait and take a chance because no one honestly can really guarantee that you're ever going to get a book deal and if someone does, please run away hiring help is going to give you the best shot at landing that deal and getting that return on your investment, like, honestly, which isn't just money right, it is also your time. This is something my client, scarlett Cochran, taught me. Money is a renewable resource. You could always go get it more of it. Even though people don't act that way, you can always go get more money. Right, money is renewable. It comes back into your bank account every week or every two weeks or every month, or however much you get, however often you get paid, time is gone, right, I am recording this. On a Tuesday is 305. I'm not going to have this Tuesday in April at 305. Again, never, that's it. That's all right and that can feel really anxiety producing.

Speaker 1:

But in terms of this I mean existential basically. But in terms of this I mean existential basically, but in terms of this conversation, bringing it back in, I mean clients tell me over and over again they couldn't have gotten the same results, they couldn't have gotten the agent, they couldn't have gotten the deal, they couldn't have written a book without me and my team being there to help them leverage their time and their expertise, because we can't write it without you. See, you're still integral in the process, right, we can't write it without you showing up with that, you telling us what you want it to be, and we're just here to guide you. And in that way, hiring us is the same as hiring that trademark lawyer or that person I'm on Facebook ads, or that person who understands how to integrate APIs of different platforms. God, I don't understand any of that. So I hire for all those things, and so should you. So do it yourself in this realm at your own peril. So let's rewind this one back, right, the whole episode back, because I have covered a lot of mistakes for you to avoid, and you likely need a recap because I certainly do.

Speaker 1:

Number one don't go in blind. Get educated on all aspects of publishing first. The information is out there and it's not just limited to this podcast. You can listen to other podcasts. I won't be mad, I promise. Ai isn't awesome for everything, right, it's obviously really trained on people's copyrighted material, but it is amazing at research. That's what me and my team use it for. So use it for that. Check what it tells you. So make sure you're not it's not hallucinating, right? But like, use it for research. Put in your type of book and see if there's podcasts about it, if there's Reddit threads about it if there's a Substack writer about it. Get really good at understanding what is available to you in traditional publishing so you are learning from the right people, as I talked about in a previous episode, and you're actually taking the right steps for where you're at, because I see a lot of people doing the wrong steps at the wrong time.

Speaker 1:

Second, don't sacrifice your dreams out of fear that someone's going to steal your shit, because someone will steal your shit, no matter what right. So instead, take pride that your shit is good enough to steal and good enough for someone else to monetize that. When I started thinking about that because I had a client, dr Erica Jordan Thomas, who went on Instagram and was like yo and this is, I'm inspired by her for sure she said yo, when someone steals your shit, yes, give them a cease and desist. Yes, talk to your lawyer about it, but more often than not, celebrate yourself because your shit's good enough to steal and I just love that. So often than not, celebrate yourself because your shit's good enough to steal and I just love that, so I'm using it. That's my advice. I'm going to give it to you and I'm going to double down on that and say your shit is good enough to steal and monetize it, all right.

Speaker 1:

Third, don't stay small, or really don't stay small and then get mad that publishers don't want to give a book deal to someone with zero audience and zero ability to sell books. That's not you, it's not personal, that is capitalism and the needs of a corporation to make money. It's not fucking personal. Don't make publishing personal, right? I'm telling you the rules of the game. Don't waste time arguing about the rules of the game or feeling sad about the rules of the game. Go fucking play the game, all right.

Speaker 1:

Next four don't insist on doing it all yourself or waste time trying. In my experience, this only leads to frustration and a loss of time and money, which is actually why people try to do it themselves in the first place. They want to save time and money, and then they don't. There are so many great editors, freelancers, professional book clubbers like me I'm not the only one out here in these streets. Hire somebody right, preferably somebody with good receipts.

Speaker 1:

Talked about this in a previous episode as well how to hire help. Check that shit out, listen to it, get the freebie in the show notes for that episode and do your due diligence on anybody you hire Super important, okay. So now that I've told you everything you could be doing wrong, I want to give you an opportunity to do something that's absolutely 100% going to benefit you, yay, and move you towards your book deal. So I know, because you're listening to this, I know you have a great idea for a book, but maybe you don't know what to do next. You're listening to this podcast and you're thinking Meghan, you're throwing a ton of shit at me. You're telling me everything. I know I'm doing things wrong, but I want to do things right.

Speaker 1:

Well, find out what to do next by taking my free quiz. When you answer eight simple questions, I will be able to share my best resources to help you move towards your goals, whether that's working with me and my team or not, because no matter what I say, I do mean it when I say cheers to your motherfucking success. See y'all in two weeks. 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 meghanstevensoncom 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.