POV: You want a book deal.

Here's how I got one.

Jan 28, 2025

I’ve always wanted to write a book; partly because I’m a writer and I think most of us hold the unfounded belief that to truly be writers, one must be published on paper. What a silly thought, when to be a writer all one must really do is write.

Alas, I am currently working on two books; one is business and brand oriented that I am co-writing with my close friend and business partner Bree. The other is a work of fiction I am penning solo. In this post I will take you through my experience with the former, from pitch to publishing deal. Over the course of the next 12 months I’ll take you behind the scenes through the writing, editing, marketing and publishing process; with the blessing of our wonderful publishers, Simon & Schuster.

QUICK OVERVIEW

My experience writing a book proposal and pitching to publishers
How I structured the book proposal document
Key lessons and insights from conversations with publishers

When my daughter was 8 weeks old a wave of enthusiasm came over me.

I’m going to write a book.

Actually, not one book. Two books!

I was on an adrenaline high that most parents of newborns are familiar with. They come in waves, presumably so we don’t fall over and die of sleep deprivation.

My daughter went down for her morning nap and I made a coffee; long and black as always. I used those precious 90 minutes to commence a book proposal. I had no idea where to start, it was me and a blank google doc, taunting me. Bree and I had discussed our plans to write a book many times over the years, but we had never sat down to document anything formally. As my sleep deprived brain recalled our conversations from over the years, our vision, plans and purpose for the book, I started fumbling around with the obvious elements, clumsily tapping away at the keyboard with the enthusiasm of a baby elephant taking its first steps.

The title (which I can’t tell you until closer to the release date) came to me instantly. A double entendre because I do love them.

The positioning was not so clear, I knew I had multiple messages I would like to communicate but I wasn’t entirely sure which messages were my own, which were that of the founders I had built my businesses with, which were from my conversations with Bree and which were pure delirium after having slept a grand total of 47 minutes the night prior. It took some work. I wrote several drafts, went back and forth with Bree until we landed on a succinct positioning that was focused on our expertise rather than our experience. The book is not a meandering down the garden path of our lives type book; it’s practical, it’s rooted in what we do and how we do it so that it not only inspires, but guides others.

The vision also came easily. I am a brand builder, so I created a brand for the book. I chose a colour way, I toyed with fonts, I trawled my favourite mooboarding sites and selected images, I designed every element of the proposal document from scratch. Every part of the book from pitch to being on shelf would be an all encompassing experience.

How to structure a book proposal

I had never put a book proposal together, but I’ve put together dozens upon dozens of brand and marketing proposals. It made sense to me that the structure should be relatively similar as ultimately I am trying to help someone understand my vision, what the idea entails, what the crux of the story is and how it can be positioned in market.

I wanted the proposal to reflect my vision for the book; visceral, textural, the antithesis of every business book out there. There’s no white space, it’s rich in colour and imagery that help transport the reader of the proposal into the mindset I want. Here’s how I structured it:

Page 1: Title Page
Full bleed image with title and bi-line

Page 2: An introduction to the concept
A designed page with copy that introduces the concept of the book, a brief overview of who we are and supported with imagery.

Page 3-4: About us.
A more detailed introduction to each of the authors, again designed with block, image and tonal elements - not blank.

Page 5: Our stats.
This section detailed our databases & social communities with the unspoken undertone being that we would actively promote the book to them. We quickly learned that in the world of non-fiction this is incredibly important to publishers.

Page 6: The Mission
A one pager explaining why we wanted to write this book and the impact we hope it has.

Page 7: Bi-line + Blurb
Hopefully no explanation is required here.

Page 8: Similar titles
A collection of titles that we think may have a similar readership to us. This is key to do your research on. One title that was inserted at the last minute actually did us a slight disservice due to its poor sales.

Page 9: Friends of the book
People we have great relationships with who may* promote the book.

Page 10 - 14: Chapter outlines
Each chapter laid out with a title and 1-2 paragraph explanation of the content for the chapter.

Page 15: Call to action and contact details
Ask the publisher to do something; call you, email you, get a coffee. Don’t just leave them hanging.

Bonus: Sample Chapter
I wrote the opening chapter so that publishers could get a feel for our writing style. Bree and I usually write by one person taking the lead and the other editing and are approaching the book in the same way; each of us taking the lead on our assigned chapters and the other then edits back and forth. It has worked well for us for over 15 years, we have very little ego in our writing practice and always assume positive intent when the other gives feedback. It’s a very special writing and business relationship that I am lucky to have.

I started by writing everything in a google doc & then designed it in Canva and shared it with Bree for edits and feedback where she could add her own unique thinking and concepts, which of course she did because she has an incredible creative brain.

I developed the initial framework, then wrote and designed the pitch over the course of a week or so, during baby nap times. With each session at my computer the structure and contents were clarified, like any writing practice.

Don’t let a lack of time be your enemy; I had said I wanted to write a book for years. So I finally sat down and did the work required to make it happen instead of talking about it.

The pitch process

This is where I truly had no idea what to do. I reached out to a friend who has secured book deals for talent she represents to ask for advice. What started out as a friendly phone call in which she imparted her wisdom on me, turned into a formal process as it became clear I did not want to the do the pitching myself; not with a newborn at home and breastfeeding around the clock. I wanted someone with experience to go to bat for us, as did Bree.

Do you need someone to pitch for you? No.

Could have done it myself? Now, probably, but I wouldn’t have had the know how to negotiate on certain elements. At the time I was in a vulnerable position with a newborn baby, a huge transitional period in my career and I needed help. Our agent was wonderful and informed, and in my opinion having someone to broker our deal was worth the commission.

During our calls with Gen, our agent, we worked through two key things in order to inform our list of publishers to pitch to:

What was important to us? Advance, royalties, marketing support etc.
Who is our ideal publisher? What do we want from a publisher and editor, how can they support us, does the watermark matter to us, how aligned do we need to be on the vision?

We identified our North Star publisher and took the pitch to them first.

I still remember the moment my phone buzzed with an update that they loved the proposal and wanted to talk. I was ecstatic…for a while. During our calls it became clear the publisher did not understand the vision for the book, they wanted to tik-tokify it whereas we were aiming for something coffee-table worth, something sophisticated, a line in the ground and a marker that would move us into the next phase of our careers and wave goodbye to our years of Millenial pink.

This meant some doing some internal reflection, managing my ego and letting go of the watermark I had envisioned would embellish the spine of our book. The decision to take the pitch to other publishers (without closing the door on publisher one) was the right move.

We were introduced to Kelly Doust at Simon & Schuster and from the first call it was clear she understood our vision. She offered helpful guidance and feedback without changing the soul of the book. She was the one.

Finding alignment with your editor and publisher is to me, the key to ensuring the project with your name plastered across the front is something you’re proud of.

What we see in the movies is also not a reality. The pitch process itself can be somewhat anti-climactic, taking place mostly by phone and zoom. No views of Central Park and fancy lunches for me. Yet.

If I was pitching by myself, here’s what I would do.

I understand that securing an agent is not always possible, for me it was almost accidental. If I didn’t have someone to turn to for advice or to represent me, here’s what I would do:

Reach out to anyone and everyone I can that has published a book to talk about their experience and any commercial information they are able to share; ask what red flags to look out for in contracts, ask about how many books to ask for in your contract, ask how they got marketing support, ask about timelines, do the math on your contract to ensure you can actually earn royalties etc. Read blogs, listen to podcasts. Do your research. Use the comment section of this post to ask me anything you want.
Ensure I had a beautiful, top notch proposal. Think of designing your pitch like designing a book cover, it needs to jump off the shelf.
Stalk: Get on LinkedIn and IG - publishers details are everywhere, find them, get to know them and then email your pitch.
Diversify: competitive tension when pitching a book is a good thing, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Consider self publishing: We definitely explored this option and could see how it would be the right move for many people. It’s something I may consider for future projects if I had more time to be hands on with the publishing process.

Key lessons I’ve learned

Publishers care a lot about how the book will sell, obviously, but I was not prepared for how much emphasis would be placed on our networks & communities. Truth be told, it was a bit disheartening, but I understand in the face of softening sales across the publishing industry, they need to back a good horse. The takeaway: Invest in building a community you can announce the book to, it will not only help you in the long run with sales but may be the key to differentiating your pitch from someone elses.
Your dream publisher might not actually be your dream publisher, listen to your intuition and find someone who wants to stay true to your vision.
Manage your expectation in terms of timing: from writing the pitch to signing the deal was just over 6 months.
Ask for feedback: If you want to write well, you need feedback. We asked our potential publishers actively for feedback so that not only could we refine the pitch, but so that we could get a feel for their editing process.

Where to from here

Next we commence work on refining our chapter outline and refining our first draft of the book over the next 3 months.

As I go through that process I will take you behind the scenes of that process, as told from my perspective and experience.

Got questions about anything you read here? Hit me below in the comments.

MUSE MUSE

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