Episode 27 - How to Hire a Book Coach

What if the guidance you’re trusting for your book dream is actually slowing you down? In this episode, Meghan pulls back the curtain on the publishing world, and the people profiting from it, to help you avoid the traps so many first-time authors fall into. After 20+ years in traditional publishing, she’s seen how crowded the “get published” space has become, and how much of it is built on shaky advice, recycled teachings, and experts with no real experience.

Megan breaks down the two filters every author must use before hiring anyone:
(1) What is the actual deliverable? Many workshops sell inspiration, not outcomes.
(2) What are their real results? Because a great proposal means nothing if the expert can’t help you build the platform needed to sell books.

She shares stories from her own business evolution, hard-won insights from working with major publishers, and the real numbers behind her team’s success, like an 88% proposal-to-book-deal rate and dozens of six-figure deals.

This episode is your roadmap for choosing the right support, protecting your time and money, and putting your book in the hands of people who know exactly how to bring it to life.

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(0:33) Why so many publishing programs fall short
(1:23) The truth about scammers, grifters, and bad advice
(2:44) The #1 filter: Always check the deliverable
(3:35) Why writing the book too early leads to disappointment
(4:05) The #2 filter: Who are you learning from?
(5:30) Why Meghan avoids workshops + her integrity stance
(7:10) Meghan breaks down her three clear deliverables
(8:20) Real receipts: Meghan’s shocking success stats
(9:00) Helping authors avoid wasted time, money, and stress
(9:25) Outro

Follow Meghan:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megstevenson
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megstevenson
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanstevenson/
• TikTok: @meghan.stevenson.books
• Website: https://www.meghanstevenson.com/
• Leave Meghan a voicemail: https://sayhi.chat/KOBBD

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 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

Welcome And Megan’s Background

Speaker 0:00

So when some entrepreneurs realize that, they see an opportunity to make a lot of money sharing what they've learned, getting their own book deal, writing their own book, publishing themselves. And in the past few years, I've had at least two clients host their own get published workshops using what I taught them as part of our work together, right? You know, I don't love that for many, many reasons, but mostly because I want you, authors, to have the best information possible. 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 Harper Collins. 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. Alright, y'all. Today we are gonna talk about one of my favorite topics: scammers and grifters. Okay, so that's a bit of an overstatement, but honestly, there are a lot of people teaching publishing who don't know anything, like anything about the industry. And as someone who has worked in traditional publishing for over 20 years, I have a serious opinion, and I mean that with a capital O. O opinion about most group programs, retreats, writers' workshops, writers' conferences, courses, and coaching that promises to help you become a published author. Most of it sucks, some of it is straight up disingenuous, and a lot are well-meaning but completely out of touch. And the majority, in my opinion, aren't specialized to experts and entrepreneurs like yourselves. So the advice given is actually completely irrelevant to what you're trying to do. I could spend this whole episode ranting and bitching, but that's not really helpful, and that's not what you're here for. So instead, what I want to give you is two aspects to consider when hiring help for your book or attending anything that promises to help you get a book deal. And that includes working with me and my team. So the first thing to do is to check the outcome, and this is honestly the most important thing you can do. In preparation for this episode, I looked at a handful of writers' retreats and workshops. Most promised editorial feedback, most promised a chance to meet with literary agents and editors and publishing professionals, but at most, there wasn't really a deliverable per se. When you attend one of these retreats, you don't get a finished book proposal or a manuscript. Instead, you get introductions and information. Alternatively, some workshops and programs focus on writing the book or maybe a book proposal, but that can be a dead end too. Here's why. When folks jump to proposal or write the whole book without considering whether their book idea has potential or even if they have the platform to get a deal, most end up disappointed. I learned this the hard way in my own business. Before I created my 3P framework, I would often focus on creating great editorial content for clients. But if those same clients didn't have an author platform or the potential to sell thousands of copies, even the best written proposal would get rejected by agents and publishers. Which brings me to my next point. The second thing for you as an author to look out for is who you'll be learning from. Often the experts in charge are authors themselves whose results are limited to their own work, or they're entrepreneurs who are trying to sell you something else. And often it's both. I'd like to take a sidestep at the moment to Tangent Town, my favorite place, and hopefully yours. There's a lot of money to be made in books, namely in helping authors to get published or to learn about the publishing industry. When I first started running ads, the number of leads that we generated was the most my ad agency had ever seen. Ever. Like ever, ever. And that's not because I'm super awesome, although I am pretty great. Instead, that's because of how many people want to write a book. It was sheer volume, right? So when some entrepreneurs realize that, they see an opportunity to make a lot of money sharing what they've learned, you know, getting their own book deal, writing their own book, publishing themselves. And in the past few years, I've had at least two clients host their own get published workshops using what I taught them as part of our work together, right? You know, I don't love that for many, many reasons, but mostly because I want you, authors, to have the best information possible. And that's honestly why I started this podcast. So you can get honest advice from an actual expert. And to be clear, I'm not really selling anything off this podcast, right? Yes, I have my services for proposals, yes, I have my services for minuscripts, but I don't do events, I don't do workshops, I don't do platform building anymore. And that's because I don't see it as a integrous thing, personally. Okay, so that's our stop in Tangent Town for this episode. So going back to who you should learn from, it's generally people who have years of experience in book publishing specifically. You want to look for folks who have worked on your specific type of book and have receipts like testimonials as well as a history of helping authors to achieve the goals you have for yourself and your book. So let's wind this episode back with a quick recap. So when you're paying for help with your book in any form, you want to be sure you understand two things. First, what the deliverable is. Second, how successful the program or expert has been, and I'm gonna run myself and my own services through these filters. As I mentioned before, I don't teach platform building anymore. You know, in the last five years, I've been running my business online, I've done all sorts of things. I did a live event, I didn't love that, because again, I didn't have a real deliverable, right? I did a membership, I didn't love that because people didn't get results. I did workshops, I did like those, so I might offer those again. Um, but again, it was just informational, and I can do that with more fun in something like this that I hope you guys are enjoying and learning from, right? So let's run my current offers through these filters, okay? First, the deliverables. I have three offers in my business: paid consultations, book proposals, manuscripts. That is it, that is all. Regardless of how you work with me and my team, there is a clear definition of what we're going to provide and what you as a client or a customer are going to get. So in paid consultations, right? You are going to get 45 minutes of my time one-on-one. And, you know, in exchange for that, you pay a certain amount of money, that's what you get. Book proposals, you work with us for four months, and as long as you give us what we need, we come back out with a book proposal, right? Same thing with a manuscript, only on a longer time frame, and usually with more stakeholders. You know, you have your literary agent, you have an editor, you have a publishing house. Those are the things. They're very quantifiable. So that leads me to the second filter. How successful the program or the expert has been. That leads us to the second filter, how successful the program or expert has been. Let's go to the receipts. Since 2012, 88% of the proposals that my team has submitted to major publishers get book deals. And out of the over 20 deals that our clients have landed since 2020, nearly half, 42%, have received more than $250,000 as in advance. Oh, and as of when I'm recording this in September of 2025, my team is responsible for 10% of all six-figure nonfiction deals made in the United States from January to June of this year. And two of our biggest deals for clients were not included. So unsurprisingly, I passed my own filters. But seriously, I recorded this episode because I want each and every one of you to succeed. I would love for every one of you listening to avoid wasting time, money, and energy on shit that does not work for you or your book or your business. The intention of this episode isn't to get you to work with me, although if we're great fit for each other, awesome. Yay for us. Instead, it's to help you find capable hands that you can trust with your book, your work, and your dreams. Even if that's not me. So until next time, cheers to your success. Thanks for tuning in to the Kind of Big Book Deal podcast. Want to see where you're at on your book journey? Check out my free quiz at MeghanStevenson.com 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.