The Real Reason Mel Robbins Became a Bestseller

What really makes a book a bestseller, and is the famous “blueprint” worth following?

In this episode of Kind of a Big Book Deal, Meghan Stevenson breaks down what entrepreneurs need to understand about bestselling books, platform growth, and the publishing machine behind major author success. Using Mel Robbins, James Clear, and other big self-help names as examples, Meghan explains why simple ideas, wide audience appeal, and massive platforms often drive bestseller momentum.

She also looks at the darker side of influence, including parasocial relationships, copycat strategies, and the line between learning from others and losing your own integrity. This episode is especially useful for entrepreneurs, experts, and creators who want to publish a meaningful book without feeling pressured to chase trends or copy someone else’s path.

The big reminder: You do not need a New York Times bestseller badge to write a book that matters. You need clarity, purpose, and a publishing path that actually fits you.

Read the Atlantic article here: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/04/let-them-mel-robbins-cassie-phillips/686840/.
Watch journalist Scott Carney’s YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VFa7AVis7E.

Episode Highlights:
(1:24) Why Mel Robbins Is the Case Study
(2:02) How James Clear Reverse Engineered Success
(2:42) Platform Matters More Than Content Alone
(3:27) Mel Robbins’ Publishing Path
(4:48) Finding a Broad but Specific Niche
(5:48) Influencers, Trust, and Parasocial Relationships
(7:32) Bestseller Dreams Without Losing Integrity
(8:28) The Let Them Theory Controversy
(9:24) Copying, Learning, and Bestseller Strategy
(10:42) Bestseller Lists Are Not the Only Impact
(11:37) How to Start Your Publishing Journey

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

Why Bestsellers Are Not Magic

Meghan 0:00

Following the blueprint of marketing a simple concept and writing a simple book for a wide audience and growing a huge platform of millions is one way to hit a bestseller list. But it's not the only way. Nor is the bestseller list the only way to make an impact on readers. In fact, lots of my clients have become best-selling authors but never saw their name on the New York Times list. 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.

Reverse Engineering Simple Blockbusters

Meghan 1:24

Today I'm going to talk about Mel Robbins. Not because I feel one way or another about her personally, but rather because talking about her helps me to answer a question I get a lot. Which is, what is it that makes a book a bestseller? Is there a blueprint? The answer, my friends, is yes. You may have noticed that the execution of really, really, really big best-selling books, well, it's sort of dumb. But Atobic Habits being a great example. That book takes a simple idea and extends it over 300 pages. And when writing that book, James Clear actually initially struggled. He had to look at books that had sold over a million copies and break down how many chapters each of those books had, how long each of those chapters were, and the overall structure. He took all that data, put it in a spreadsheet, and then used that to reverse engineer his book. Now, did that work? Yeah, it did. A lot of people love Atomic Habits. But would James Clear's strategy land him on the bestseller list without having a platform, without having a popular blog, without having an email newsletter that was incredibly popular when his book was published? Probably not. Because as you know, if you listen to this podcast often, the content of your book is only one contributing factor to its overall success. And a lot of what makes a book a

Mel Robbins And The Platform Signal

Meghan 2:50

bestseller is the author's platform. Which brings me back to Mel Robbins. Her books are about as simple as Atomic Habits is. She uses the same formula. Take a basic concept that applies to a lot of people and extend that over 300 pages. Stop saying you're fine. The five-second rule. The high five habit. The let them theory. Just listing those titles at a high level, you can get a sense of what those books are about without even having to read the copy on the flaps or the back of the book. Without even having to look at the description on Amazon. But what I find really interesting about Mel Robbins in particular is her publication history. So after having a publisher for her first book, Stop Saying You're Fine, she ended up at a hybrid publisher for her second book, The Five Second Rule. Now, I don't know Mel's story. I don't know her personally. There are a ton of reasons that this could be the way things shook out. Mel could have chosen to hybrid publish for more royalties or more profit, but the fact that she went back to traditional publishing signals to me that her first book didn't sell enough to justify a second book deal, at least not when she went to go get said second book deal. And she only ended up getting subsequent book deals when she was able to grow her platform and therefore increase her previous book sales. That's all platform, baby. When you see that happening, so when you see someone traditionally publish, hybrid publish, and then go back to traditional publishing, that is like a big flag. It's a big sign that someone's sales for the first book didn't do super well, and then they had to, you know, grow their platform, grow their audience, grow their sales, and then go back to traditional publishing that way. So that's just an FYI, a little tangent for you. And if you go back to previous episodes, I talk about why that is how self-published authors and hybrid authors eventually go to traditional or smaller indie published authors go to traditional. It's a clear way to go back to the big five model. And in doing research for this episode, I came across an incredibly on-point quote from Vox. In the self-help guru space, it's hard to be entirely new. There are only so many ways to empower people. Robbins' patchwork philosophy feels like a cross between the more emotion-based work of Professor Brene Brown and Tony Robbins' more spiritually macho leadership advice. And in my opinion, that assessment is 100% accurate. My hypothesis from again, a completely outside perspective, is that somewhere along the way, Mel Robbins landed on a niche that was specific enough and broad enough to amass millions of followers. And on the face, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I work with a lot of clients

Parasocial Marketing And Integrity Lines

Meghan 5:35

who have similar platforms and similar reach. But with Mel Robbins and some others, there's more to the story. Y'all, I went down a rabbit hole of haters for this episode, and that commentary reminded me of two things. The shows about cults and grifters that my husband and I like to watch in our free time, as well as some scandals that have gone down with prominent best-selling authors in the past few years. It's worth noting that cult leaders, grifters, and big best-selling authors often have things in common. These folks are all great at marketing, at hooking people, at using emotion to convince you, all while claiming to be neutral or to be your friend. What cult leaders and some influencers do is actually eerily similar. Repeat the same things until followers believe you. And in this way, both cult leaders and influencers are absolute masters of the parasocial relationship, where their followers see them as friends or in closer relationship than they actually are. Essentially, followers and fans think they know these influencers and leaders when all you truly know is the persona that they choose to show you. Mel Robbins embodies this when she tells the millions of people that listen to her podcast that she loves them. And I can see similar techniques and approaches in other big self-help gurus like Jay Shetty, who has been called out for sketchy things, and Rachel Hollis, who imploded her own brand a few years ago by assuming that she was untouchable. And I could name more people who show up in similar ways. Obviously, not every best-selling author or prolific influencer is a scammer or a grifter. I know that because I work with people like this. There are lots of great people who are influencers, lots of great people who are best-selling authors. They are lovely, they are considerate, they are amazing, right? That's not an exclusive thing. It's not, oh, if you're a big influencer of millions of followers, you must be a jackass and a scammer. That's not real. All right. So if you're listening to this and it's your dream to become a New York Times bestselling author, don't worry because you do not have to become a grifter or a charlatan or break your own integrity to hit the list. Instead, as an entrepreneur, as an expert, as a creator, you get to decide what you want to do and what falls inside your integrity. So now it's time for us to take a quick trip to Tangent Town. So a few years ago, I attended a day-long workshop hosted by a client who stood on stage and said, My integrity is not your integrity. Then a few months later, that same client stole my framework that I had taught her and used it to sell and host a $15,000 per person writer's retreat. So yeah, her integrity, not my fucking integrity, because I would never steal from a colleague. Much less a colleague I had known for a decade. But her integrity, not my integrity.

The Let Them Theory Controversy

Meghan 8:23

Which brings me back to Mel Robbins. Around the time her latest book, The Let Them Theory, was published, there was controversy. There was a scandal that Mel Robbins had stolen the idea and the concept of the book from a writer named Cassie Phillips. Long story short, Cassie's writing had gone viral a few months before with more than 50,000 shares on Facebook. There was a ton of drama and discourse online to the point where the Atlantic picked up the story and wrote about it for an article. Now, I could do a whole separate episode on what happened, supposedly, right? Because it's her word against her word. But instead, what I've chosen to do is link to the Atlantic article in today's show notes. Because that article does a great job of explaining what happened and when, as well as how Cassie herself feels about the whole situation, which honestly I think is the most important. But going back to how you end up on the bestseller list, Mel Robbins actually herself has some advice for you. In my rabbit hole, I watched an amazing YouTube video called Mel Robbins and Jay Shetty Evil Geniuses by journalist Scott Carney. I'm also including a link to that in the show notes because it is a deep dive. And if you love scammers and grifters like me, you're gonna love it. At the end, Scott shares Mel's advice, which I found incredibly relevant for all of you. Namely, and this is a quote from Mel herself, y'all, the learning part, the studying others, allowing others to lead the way and show you and to truly flip envy into learning from somebody that's worth a hundred million dollars. That's what Mel Robbins says, y'all. Also, from the Atlantic article I mentioned, in a passage about starting your own business, Robins tells her readers to follow the example of a business owner who is already successful and to not be afraid about whether you'll seem like you copied them. Let them think you copied them, she writes, because you did. I mean, that's what James Clear did too. Copied previous bestsellers to write his own. So there is honestly a blueprint for writing a best-selling book that some people choose to use.

Choosing Impact Over Chasing Lists

Meghan 10:35

But whether that is right for you is honestly up for you to decide. Following the blueprint of marketing a simple concept and writing a simple book for a wide audience and growing a huge platform of millions is one way to hit a bestseller list. But it's not the only way. Nor is the bestseller list the only way to make an impact on readers. In fact, lots of my clients have become best-selling authors but never saw their name on the New York Times list. I've also worked with authors who sold hundreds of thousands of books over years or decades, making a huge impact on their communities and on readers while never becoming a quote unquote bestselling author. As a traditional publishing expert and professional collaborator, I honestly don't care that much about bestseller lists. I'm only answering these questions because y'all keep asking me. Instead, what I care about is helping my clients write books that matter and make a difference to readers. So you can do that by being a copycat and following the blueprint others have designed and written, or you could write your own book on your own terms with your own flavor. The choice ultimately is up to you. And when you're ready to get started, my team and I are here to help. The best place to start is our quiz. There's a link in the show notes. And as always, no matter what you choose to do, cheers to your success. Thanks for tuning in to the Kind of a Big Book Deal podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you subscribe and also leave a review. Not only is this good for my ego and annoying for my enemies, but it also helps more entrepreneurs like ourselves find this podcast. Also, I'm pretty sure it's good karma. See you next time.