The Complete Guide to Landing a Book Deal

I recently signed a six-figure book deal with Simon & Schuster for my book Building a Second Brain. 

As a first-time author, and in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in a generation, this is a spectacular outcome. It took a year of hard work, a team of editors and advisors, and countless proposal drafts and revisions, along with a heavy dose of luck.

My guide through this process was The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published (affiliate link), recommended to me by my agent as an industry standard. It is a monster 500-page book detailing everything (and I mean everything) you would ever want to know about landing a book publishing deal.

This series is a summarized collection of insights drawn from this book, other published sources, and my own experience. I’ll do my best to focus on the most interesting, unusual, counterintuitive, or important pieces of advice for writers interested in one day navigating the waters of the publishing world.

My hope is that it gives those of you who are just beginning your writing journey a better window into the process. That it helps you be more strategic about publishing your writing while avoiding common mistakes and pitfalls.