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Hi — I'm Meghan Stevenson.

I help entrepreneurs and experts land book deals and craft bestselling books.

My clients have earned more than $7,000,000 to date in advances from top publishers including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette Books, Macmillian, and Hay House (among others). My weekly emails share my insights on how entrepreneurs and experts can position themselves to land literary agents and six-figure book deals with traditional publishers.

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Featured Post

How a Traditionally Published Book Makes You Money

Hi Reader — I’ve worked in traditional book publishing for 20 years, and a statement I hear all the time is that “books don’t make you any money.” This can be true, especially if and when you choose to self-publish because the money to produce the book is paid upfront by the author. In that model, you only make money when and if you earn those costs back. So — let’s say you paid $10,000 to self-publish and your book is $10. You would need to sell 1,001 books to make any money. In traditional...

about 1 year ago • 1 min read

In this email I’m not going to give you a specific number you need to fit in order to please the Publishing Goddesses and get a book deal. Because there is no magic number. Sometimes I wish there was — like when a client with the ability to sell lots of books gets turned down by literary agents for what I think are dumb reasons. Or when editors at publishing houses don’t see what I do in a project. Traditional book publishing is subjective and whimsical (and not in a good way). One of my...

over 1 year ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader — The most important thing to know about me and my team is that we don’t write book proposals for folks who aren’t ready. 93% of you reading this email aren’t ready. I know that because for the past few years, I’ve been keeping track of the people who reach out to me wanting to work together, and the conversations we have. I know most of you aren’t ready because you talk about yourselves instead of your readers. I know most of you aren’t ready because it’s clear from a two-minute...

about 3 years ago • 1 min read

I loved being an editor in traditional book publishing. Being an editor at big publishing houses — like Simon & Schuster and Penguin, where I worked — requires a lot of different skills. You have to be willing to socialize constantly — to build relationships with literary agents, to curry favor with authors but also your colleagues — designers and marketers and publicists and the entire production department. At the same time, you must be willing to hidey hole somewhere for days in order to...

about 4 years ago • 3 min read

Reader — What it takes to get a traditional book deal is pretty simple. This example actually shows why so many celebrities write books. If a literary agent or talent manager came to me tomorrow with a reality TV star and said let’s get this person a book deal, it wouldn’t be that difficult. That person already has a platform — or an audience — that’s easy to sell to because those folks already know this person. In a lot of ways, their audience is ready to buy the book. What I would do in...

over 4 years ago • 1 min read