There are several ways to get a publisher’s attention, the key is to pick the one or two or more that seem to fit your own gifts and aspirations best.
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Reader David Qaoud recently asked,
“I understand that email subscribers are an important part of both platform-building and selling books, but I never hear a specific number from anyone. Generally speaking, how many email subscribers do I need to get a publisher’s attention? 1,000? 10,000?”
I’ll answer the question directly first and then offer four more ways to catch a publisher’s eye.
1. Get 10,000 Subscribers
The ultimate measure of a platform is this: If a publisher were to send you copies of your book, how many could you sell on the strength of your own platform?
If you can move a thousand, that’s okay. If you can move five thousand, that’s solid. If you can move ten thousand, chances are publishers are already interested in talking with you.
That’s the beauty of a large platform. Once you have one, you no longer have to hunt for agents and publishers. They’ll come hunting for you. Not a bad goal to have in mind. The person I listen to when it comes to list-building is Bryan Harris. I’m currently taking his “Get 10,000 Subscribers” course. It’s hard work, but he provides the best content on list-building that I’ve come across.
2. Develop a Need-Driven Concept
Publishing insiders sometimes refer to name-driven vs. need-driven books. Name-driven books are those driven by a high-profile personality (read: big platform). Need-driven books are those that may not be attached to a big platform but engage a real need that people actually feel and will pay money to address.
Obviously a publisher’s dream is to publish books that are both name- and need-driven, but if you don’t have a platform, try to develop a winning concept—that is, to address a need that real people really feel with a fresh title and subtitle.
Following are titles of published books with need-driven concepts:
How to Win Friends and Influence People
How Successful People Think
How to Talk So People Will Listen
Laugh Out Loud Jokes for Kids
How to Make Money in Stocks
What to Expect When You’re Expecting
His Needs, Her Needs
The Fast Metabolism Diet
3. Develop a Fresh, Creative Concept
Sometimes a concept is so fresh, so innovative and intriguing, that a publisher just can’t pass it up. Here are some examples:
Freakonomics
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
Predictably Irrational
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Jesus Calling
Start with Why
Mind you, many of the examples under ways 2 and 3 above are from authors who do have platforms. In many cases the books they wrote expanded their platforms exponentially. But none of that changes the fact that these concepts likely would have been strong enough to be accepted for publication even without a massive platform.
4. Wow Us with Your Writing in Creative Nonfiction
You can wow publishers with your writing in at least two different ways.
The first is with a captivating narrative of your own life or someone else’s. Here I’m thinking of memoir, autobiography, biography, personal narrative, or what we call simply narrative nonfiction. To learn how to do this kind of writing, I encourage you to check out the Great Courses class titled “Writing Creative Nonfiction” by Tilar Mazzeo.
5. Wow Us with Your Writing in Other Genres
But let’s say you’re writing self-help or Christian living or business or inspirational. How do you wow publishers with your writing in this kind of book? You include a sample with your book proposal that is so magnetic, the reviewers on the publishing committee want to keep reading. The best way I know to do that is with a great story, written in a way that engages the reader’s imagination, and powerful principles that make the reader stop and think.
There are several ways to get a publisher’s attention. A big platform, which often means 10,000 email subscribers or more, is one way—a way worth pursuing for a lot of writers today. But there are other ways too. Often authors are drawing on more than one of these. The key is to pick the one or two or more that seem to fit your own gifts and aspirations best. Then get after it!