Get Paid to Make a Bigger Impact

What if your book deal could do more than publish your ideas? What if it could help fund your legacy?

In this episode of Kind of a Big Book Deal, Meghan Stevenson explains why traditional publishing can be a powerful form of leverage for entrepreneurs, experts, and creators. She breaks down how publishers often act like business partners, taking on the upfront financial risk of producing, distributing, and supporting a book. Meghan also reframes the book advance, not as a simple payday, but as working capital that can help authors write, promote, and build something bigger.

She shares why investing in a strong book proposal can create a major return, especially when it helps attract the right agent and publisher. Through the story of Jamie Sears and her book How to Love Teaching Again, Meghan shows how a traditional book deal can expand both impact and reach. This episode is especially useful for creators who have valuable ideas and want to serve more people without carrying the full financial risk alone.

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(1:15) Why publishers act like venture capitalists
(1:44) What a book deal really means
(2:15) How publishers take on the upfront risk
(2:33) Why your advance is working capital
(3:04) The leverage authors gain through traditional publishing
(3:34) Why many authors hire help with proposals
(4:22) The real numbers behind proposal investment
(5:35) Why impact matters beyond the money
(6:02) Jamie Sears’ book deal and mission
(6:36) How to Love Teaching Again reached thousands
(7:22) Why traditional publishing can grow your legacy
(7:45) How to start pursuing a book deal
(8:26) Outro

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 Podcast Mission

Meghan 0:00

As an entrepreneur, expert, or creator, you can grow from helping hundreds of people to thousands or even millions. Welcome to the Kind of a Big Book Deal podcast where entrepreneurs come to learn about traditional publishing. I'm your host, Megan 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 and 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.

Why Book Deals Fit Entrepreneurs

Meghan 1:17

Which is great for entrepreneurs, experts, and creators like you who want a book deal. That's because as entrepreneurs, experts, and creators, we understand business and specifically the economic benefit of partnerships in business. Because that's what a book deal is, really, at least for the how-to commercial nonfiction I work on and that you want to write.

What A Book Deal Really Is

Meghan 1:41

From a contractual perspective, a book deal is actually a license that allows the traditional publisher to print and distribute your intellectual property as the author. And when a traditional publisher offers you a deal, they're actually taking a chance. When you get offered a deal for your book idea, that is an editor or publisher saying, Hey, we think this book idea and this author has merit. We think you as the author can sell this book. And because of that, the publisher is willing to take a financial risk and pay all the upfront costs of producing your book. That includes the publisher's in-house costs of paying their staff, keeping the lights on, paying to produce the physical book itself, as well as the advance you as the author are paid to help cover your costs. This is a handy reminder.

The Advance As Working Capital

Meghan 2:32

Your advance is not meant to be a payday. Instead, it is meant to be an advance on your future earnings for your book. Your book advance is actually working capital. That money is meant to help you take time away from your business to write or promote the book, to hire a collaborator or ghostwriter like me to help you through the editorial process, to get marketing support for the book itself once it's published and available to buy, and usually all of the above. So, what most entrepreneurs, experts, and creators don't realize about the traditional publishing industry and the process of publishing a book, though, is how much leverage this actually gives you, the author. Yes, the publisher controls a lot, but as the author, you are essentially being paid to create a product that will benefit your business, grow your personal brand, and potentially create a passive income stream, all with very little risk to you. Now, mind you, there

Paying For Help And ROI Math

Meghan 3:31

is an upfront investment cost in getting the deal itself. And frankly, what a lot of entrepreneurs, experts, and creators do is hire that help, just like you would with any other business initiative that's outside your realm of expertise. Most often, what this looks like is hiring somebody like me to help collaborate on your book proposal. This has so, so many benefits, including making the process of landing a literary agent faster and easier, and it greatly, greatly increases the chance you'll get a book deal at all. Honestly, what I've seen, and I've been in this business a long time, is that the cost of time and money you invest in a book proposal or even support for your book is minimal compared to the return you get when a traditional publisher pays you to produce your book. Let's talk numbers because you might be asking about that. I would be. My proposal fees as of this recording, and I'm doing this in the summer of 2026, starts at $30,000. But the average advance my clients have received, and this is going all the way back to 2015, y'all, is $200,000. So what that means is that when a client chooses to take the risk of investing in my services, they often get a 400% return on that investment. So to put that another way, by investing 30k, you will get back at least 200k to co-create your book with a major publisher. If that was any other kind of product or service, I'm guessing you would jump at that opportunity, right? I would. And even when I factor in the max cost of hiring me to help you with the proposal and the manuscript, and build in the standard 15% commission you'll pay a literary agent in exchange for their work, you as the author still end up getting a positive return on that investment. And that doesn't even include the royalties you might receive when a publisher pays you a percentage of sales after the book starts to make a profit, or any subsidiary rights, anciliary payments, all that

Impact Matters More Than Money

Meghan 5:32

sort of stuff. I want to pause though on that money conversation and return to what you're really here for. As an entrepreneur, expert, or creator, you likely want to write a book for more reasons than just making money. In fact, if you're like every author I've ever worked with, your not-so-secret goal is to make an impact on the audience you serve and care deeply about. Which is yet another way a traditional book deal gives you leverage.

Jamie Sears And Real-World Results

Meghan 5:56

Consider my client Jamie Sears. For Jamie, getting a book deal was more about making an impact than it was about being revenue generating. Here's how she described her goal in our very initial sales call, and these are her words, y'all. I want to be able to publish a book and have it be really accessible to lots of teachers. I feel like I'm holding on to this precious, helpful information, and I want to share that with my audience who have been super supportive of me. Now, for context, Jamie and I had that initial conversation in 2020. We started working on her book proposal in November of 2020, in fact, fast forward a few years, and her book, How to Love Teaching Again, was published by Penguin Random House, the number one publisher in the United States, in early 2023. To date, Jamie has sold more than 30,000 copies of her book, but even more importantly, Jamie has helped at least that many teachers. In fact, even three years after its initial publication, Jamie's book is still selling 50 copies a week. I helped Jamie's goal and dreams to come true by assisting her with the book proposal and the manuscript. Because of that, Jamie got to write a book that has helped thousands of educators. She made an impact while getting paid by a major publisher to do so. Y'all, this is what I mean by leverage. And this is why entrepreneurs, experts, and creators who want to make a bigger impact traditionally publish. It's also why those same folks hire help to make landing a book deal possible, easy, and frankly fun.

How To Work With Megan

Meghan 7:31

So if you are an entrepreneur, expert, or creator with a book idea that you know will benefit readers, I want to help you. When you're ready to pursue a traditional book deal, I can help you craft an amazing book proposal that will attract a literary agent and a publisher, and help you write a manuscript that becomes a best-selling book. To get started on that journey, all you have to do is answer a few questions. You can check out the show notes for a link or visit my website at MeganSevenson.com. That's M-E-G-H-A-N-S-T-E-V and S O N dot com to find out exactly what you need to do next in order to make your dream of becoming a traditionally published author a reality. I look forward to seeing your answers to those questions, and until next time, cheers to your success.