This is a guest post by my friend Lucinda Halpern, head of Lucinda Literary. Lucinda is a literary agent. That means she gets writers book deals with traditional publishing houses. Trust me, she’s no slouch. She’s gotten some pretty amazing deals for some of my book proposal clients. Even if you don’t harbor the fantasy of publishing your book with a big New York house, you’ll want to pay attention to her advice. Because it holds across the board, whether you intend to self-publish, partner with a hybrid press like Summit Press Publishers (I turn books down for the very same reasons), or go the traditional route.
If you’re reading this article, chances are that you have a story worth telling. But as world events have publishers cutting budgets and turning away submissions more aggressively than ever before — is now your moment for a book?
As a literary agent who turns down the majority of books that cross my desk, there is nothing that excites me, and many other agents, quite so much as a smart book idea by an established entrepreneur, filled with fresh, timely, and practical takeaways.
Yet, this doesn’t mean that for every founder and CEO, there’s “a book in you.”
If you’ve led a corporation or created a groundbreaking product, you’re accustomed to captivating large audiences with your stories. You have an aptitude for risk and imagination. You may even come from an improbable beginning. So it’s quite possible that your founder story is inspirational, educational, and even downright moving.
Despite all of this, and what you’ve heard from your most trusted colleagues, fans, and family members, or even from the inner voice keeping you up at night, it’s very possible that the forces compelling you to write a book aren’t the right ones. Based on our work with CEOs over the last decade, here are 7 common assumptions you should challenge:
1. Your book is going to be the next Good to Great.
CEOs are accustomed to being the most trusted and respected voices in the room. So ask yourself, “Does my boardroom represent the thousands of readers who buy the category of book I’m hoping to write?” Possibly. But who is your greatest existing audience? If you sketched him or her as a singular individual, what would their motivations be? What would give them a return on their $28 investment for the book? This is how agents and publishers are assessing your work, so you must first (critically) assess your concept the same way.
2. There’s no one better to write your book.
You may have founded the company, but could your Chief Storyteller relate your story even better than you could? She’s written your speeches and created your company’s video material — so, maybe. It could even be that your company’s story would be better rendered by a journalist, like one of my personal favorites, The Everything Store. Before diving into the onerous process of writing a book, determine whether you’re actually the best person for the job.
3. You’re writing a business book… but you’re actually writing a memoir.
If the general reader knows vaguely of your company name but has no idea who you are as an individual, a thinly veiled memoir posing as a big ideas book fools no one and attracts few. You’re captivated by your personal history, but what your readers actually want are answers to the future. Consider what might galvanize a large readership two years from now, when your book is actually out on shelves. For many CEOs, it’s both your proven expertise and your clairvoyance — your vision for what the future looks like, and how your unique perspective or values will apply.
4. You believe your ideas are sine qua non. (They’re not.)
As with anything else, do your research. Read books by CEOs to ensure that, if you share the same principles, you package them in a different way. Seeking an agent early on, and not once you’ve written an entire manuscript, can be vitally important in shaping the right and most marketable idea. Once you align the topic of your book with what your built-in audience demands, define your CDE (Chief Differentiating Element). In his book Open Source Leadership, for example, CEO author Rajeev Peshawaria turns the idea of democratic leadership on its head, suggesting that, based on his proprietary data, autocratic leadership is actually more effective.
5. Your book will market itself.
Launching a book is a lot like launching a business. It’s one product in a suite of products. If you haven’t thought through what mechanisms within your company — social media, newsletter, corporate events — will funnel book sales, you’re not yet in a position to approach an agent or publisher. In 2019, according to Publishers Marketplace, there were just 47 CEO-authored books acquired by publishers. Most, if not all, had vast email lists of 100k or more subscribers. Be sure your book fits into a larger marketing plan.
6. Your book makes you look (too) good.
Your pre-existing audience is familiar with your story, and you’ve likely done more than a few media interviews, so if you don’t offer readers a new, unseen angle, you’re missing the mark. What will convert intrigue into buyers is a story not yet in the public domain — something far more “private” or intimate. This is a big reason, in our view, for the commercial successes of CEO memoirs like Shoe Dog, #Girlboss, and more recently, The Ride of a Lifetime. Perhaps counterintuitively, it’s your darkest and most vulnerable moments that will encourage readers to relate to you. If you’re willing to connect with readers on a human level, you’ll see returns.
7. You’ve already written the entire book.
Pump the brakes! Nonfiction books are generally sold on the basis of a 20–50 page book proposal. So even if you’ve written the full manuscript, an agent will ask you to double back. The best first step in giving yourself, and publishers, a full picture of what your book will become is to assemble an outline of approximately 25 pages. Make sure your well-written, smart idea comes first, and that your credentials and marketing plan are impossible to resist. Your proposal serves a second, even better purpose: providing a crucial roadmap for writing the full book later.
So when are you ready?
You’ve done your market research, chosen the person to tell your story, identified your actual audience and their motivations, uncovered your CDE, and thought through the various marketing channels that will promote your book.
Now it’s time to put pen to paper.
Lucinda Halpern is the President and Founder of Lucinda Literary, a literary agency based in Manhattan specializing in big idea, narrative nonfiction, self-improvement and productivity books, and selectively representing fiction. Subscribe to Lucinda Literary’s newsletter for motivation, education, and inspiration about publishing.
