Episode 28 - Get a Book Deal This Year

What if the book deal you dream about isn’t actually far away, it just needs the right plan, the right timing, and the right support?

In this episode, Meghan Stevenson opens the doors to traditional publishing even wider by sharing the exact framework she uses to help experts and entrepreneurs land major book deals. She breaks down her trusted Three P Framework: Potential, Platform, and Proposal; and explains why each step matters more than most aspiring authors realize. From understanding whether your idea can sell, to proving you have a real, working audience, to crafting a compelling proposal, Meghan shows you the path publishers actually want to see.

She also pulls back the curtain on her business, revealing how her team has helped clients earn over $950,000 in advances in 2025 alone and more than $7 million across her career. Plus, she announces a new, limited offer: a qualified one-on-one session to help you close the gap between where you are and the book deal you want.

Whether you're early in your author journey or ready for a proposal, this episode gives clear steps, honest insights, and direction you can trust.

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(1:32) Insider look into her business and client results
(2:14) The Three P Framework explained
(2:33) Understanding “Potential” for your book idea
(3:56) Why most authors fall short on “Platform”
(5:12) Lessons from past programs and what changed
(6:39) New 1:1 qualified consultation offer
(7:48) What it takes to reach proposal readiness
(8:20) Podcast updates and download milestones
(9:06) How to support the show and ask questions
(10:01) Final message and quiz link
(10:10) 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 2026 Focus

Meghan 0:00

So when I started planning for 2026, I knew that I didn't want to reinvent those programs. But I also knew I wanted to help experts and entrepreneurs who dream of getting a book deal but who need custom advice. So I decided to give you exactly that. Specifically, I'm going to start offering those who qualify a one-on-one conversation with me where we talk through your book idea, your goals, and how you individually can mine the gap between where you are right now and the book deal you 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 to become authors. To date, my clients have earned over $7 million from publishers including Penguin Random House, Simon ⁇ Schuster, Harper Collins, and Hay House, just to name a few. In these podcast episodes, I will blast open the well-kept gates to traditional publishing. I'm going to 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 had the pleasure to work 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. Okay, y'all. Today's episode is going to be a little different. In addition to offering you advice on how you can get the book deal you've been dreaming about, I'm also going to share an insider's look at my business and how my team helps experts and entrepreneurs like you get published. In case you missed it, my team and I helped clients earn more than $950,000 in advances from publishers in 2025, which brings my personal career total to over $7 million. How we accomplish that is really simple. We have a proprietary process and only work with clients that we know we can help. You might be wondering, Meghan, how the heck do you know who you can help? Well, that goes back to my 3P framework, which I've mentioned before. The three Ps are potential, platform, proposal. And this is also the recipe for your book deal. So let's dive in to get a shared understanding of these three Ps. If you want deeper dives, I've got some episode recommendations for you in the show notes. So back to our three Ps. The first P is potential. This is honestly pretty simple. Does your book idea have the potential to sell in today's market? And even more importantly than that, is your book idea the type of book that my team and I work on? Because spoiler alert, I don't work on every kind of book out there. In fact, most people in publishing don't. Instead, like a lot of other industries, we all specialize. A top reason people don't qualify to work with us is because their book idea is in a category or a format that my team and I don't work on. To be clear, and I will keep repeating this forever, so please forgive me if you have heard it before. But my team and I only work on what's known as prescriptive nonfiction, meaning self-help and how-to books. If you're writing something else, there's probably someone else who can help you, and I encourage you to listen to that podcast. Similarly, we also tend to only work with authors who want to be traditionally published. So if you want to self-publish or hybrid publish, you're probably going to be better served listening to someone else because I'm, for better or worse, married to traditional publishing. So, okay, let's assume you have the first P, a book idea with potential. That means we can move on to the second P, platform. Honestly, this is where most people fall short. Historically, 90% of the experts and entrepreneurs who take my quiz and qualify on potential don't have a big enough author platform to work with us. Often this is because you don't have an audience, and always when you don't have the proof to show that you can sell thousands of copies of books through systems and marketing that's already working to sell products and services. This is literally the most succinct definition of author platform I could come up with after years of thinking about it. Let's go back to that again. Okay, so an author platform. It is audience, yes, but it is also the proof to show that you can sell thousands of copies of books through systems and marketing that's already working to sell other products and services. So no plans here, y'all. It already has to be working to sell other things. So, needless to say, author platform is complicated. I've dedicated a lot of episodes to understanding that topic in super fine detail and nuance. So if you want to know more about why your platform is so important or how to grow your author platform and audience, you can check out the list of episodes I recommend to educate yourself. There are so many resources, honestly, this week, in our show notes. I'm also going to pause for a moment here and go to our favorite plays, Tangent Town, just for a minute. If you've been in my world for a while, you might remember that I used to run a membership called Author Platform Builders, an Intensive called Book Deal Bootcamp, and occasionally I'd host workshops on how to get published. The goal of all of those offers was to help entrepreneurs and experts understand traditional publishing and how to mine the gap between where they are and where they need to be in order to get a book deal. That gap, most of the time, was growing a bigger audience and building a proven way to sell books. So let me be clear, those programs were popular. They made me money. They also drove me nuts. Something you need to know about me is that I have a habit of stopping at nothing to achieve my goals. And because of that, I often feel frustrated by people who don't do the same. Now, I've done enough work in therapy and in coaching to know that it's judgment with a capital J, but that frustration is a big reason why I stopped offering those programs. Another reason was that those programs didn't really work. Only a small segment of people who were in the membership or intensive grew their audience to the point where I could work with them on a proposal and help them to get a deal. So when I started planning for 2026, I knew that I didn't want to reinvent those programs. But I also knew I wanted to help experts and entrepreneurs who dream of getting a book deal but who need custom advice. So I decided to give you exactly that. Specifically, I'm going to start offering those who qualify a one-on-one conversation with me where we talk through your book idea, your goals, and how you individually can mind the gap between where you are right now and the book deal you want. So you can find out if you qualify for this offer right now, and it is a qualified offer. I am definitely making sure that I'm going to be able to serve you. All you have to do in order to know if you qualify is to take the quiz. And again, the link is in the show notes. And for those of you who have taken the quiz already, congratulations. Thank you for doing the work. You have to do nothing now because you're going to get an email this week inviting you to book your call. Now, there is a caveat. Availability is limited, so I'm hoping the spots will book up fast. And because platform growth is a lot like investing, where more time is for better, you may want to act sooner on this offer than later. Okay, so that's all I had to say about that. We can happily leave Tangent Town and go back to the bigger topic at hand, which is how you are going to get a book deal in 2026. So let's go back to our 3P framework and say that you have a how-to book idea that it has potential and your author platform is in place. Now it's time to talk about your book proposal. The first thing you need to know is that I only work with people I can help, meaning that you have to have those other two Ps in place, no exceptions. That said, for those of you who qualify by taking my quiz, again, that link is in the show notes. I'm excited to share that I do have a few openings in 2026 for proposal work. So check out those show notes and take that damn quiz already, won't you? Last but not least, I have an update for you about this podcast. I appreciate every single one of you who has listened since we launched. Thank you sincerely to each and every one of you who take the time to share how much you like these episodes. When we first started, my podcast producer told me to set a goal of 5,000 downloads for the first year. Thanks to you, we met that within two months of our launch and are well over 15,000 downloads. Yay! That's all because of you. So thank you. And because of you and your fandom and your downloading and your consistency of showing up here and listening to me, I am thrilled to share that I'm going to be moving to a weekly format. So starting today, you're going to get new episodes in your feed every Monday. Yay! Wherever you listen. And if you want to continue supporting the show, thank you in advance. But I've got two asks for you. First, please rate and review the show wherever you're listening to it. That helps the algorithms understand the show is awesome and puts it in other people's feeds. Plus, it's good karma, and doesn't everyone need a little bit of that these days? Second, I would love it if you submit your question for me to answer on an upcoming podcast. Secretly, I've wanted to be Delilah since the 90s. If you get that reference, I love you already. But honestly, without those questions, it's up to me to decide what to share and what I decide to feature might not be what you need. So do yourself a solid and get some free advice. That link to leave a voicemail for me is in the show notes. Thanks so much in advance. And as always, until next time, cheers to your success in 2026 and beyond. 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.