The Deliberate Owl

So you want to write a book, but aren't sure exactly where to start. Here's a guide, based on my experience refining ideas, writing a proposal, finding an agent, and dealing with publishers for my book Grad School Life.

(Read: Why write a book? How do you meet deadlines? And other answers…)

The idea

If you're reading about how to publish a book, chances are, you already have an idea. You have something you want to share: a story, a question, a process.

You need to decide, however, if now is the right time to execute on that idea, and whether a book the right format for your idea. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is my idea? How could I share this idea with the world? Consider formats such as articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts, and exhibitions as well as books. Is a book the best format for my idea? Keep in mind that compared to some other formats, books require a lot of time investment up front before you see any payoff.
• If a book: Why this book? Why now? What do I have to give this book that other people don't? What makes me the perfect author for it? You should have satisfactory answers to all these questions. Reasons for writing a book might include: to further your career, as a side hustle, to bring in leads for your main business, and/or to share your idea with the world.

For me, I wanted to write. While many of the ideas that I put into the book could easily be shared in blog posts or articles, I felt that the whole would be more coherent and better as a single book rather than as a series of shorter pieces. Plus, I thought that many of the people who might benefit from my ideas—such as grad students and other academics—would appreciate having everything in one place, bound together. Academics notoriously like books, anyway.

If you decide that a book is the right way to share your idea, then you need to decide whether you want to engage with the traditional publishing industry or if you would rather self-publish or find an independent publisher. You can find endless debates about traditional versus self-publishing that cover all possible pros and cons to each method. The biggest factors involve timeline, creative control, marketing, prestige, and finances. Generally, you can get a book out faster and have more control over it when you self publish; you are also likely to pay more up front getting the book ready. You may get more help with marketing and more prestige from a traditionally published book; the publisher will take on the costs of getting the book ready, but take a large cut of sales.

It's up to you to do your research and evaluate what method will work best for you, for this particular book project.

For me, I decided that a traditional publisher made the most sense for my book Grad School Life. I knew a publisher would have connections to the universities and libraries that might likely buy copies of my book. Plus, I wanted to write and have someone else handle the rest of it; I didn't want to go into business as a publisher myself.

Step One: How to land a nonfiction book contract

Now that I had my idea, knew it ought to be a book, and had decided to pursue traditional publishing, I needed to land a nonfiction book contract with a publisher. How could I do that?

It starts with a proposal. Nonfiction is different from fiction. With fiction, most books are sold after they're written. Most nonfiction books, however, are sold on the strength of the proposal. (There are exceptions. Memoir, for instance, is usually treated more like fiction in the publishing process.)

The proposal

I spent a few weeks researching what goes in a nonfiction book proposal. Most publishing houses have their own favored formats, and if you search online, you'll find dozens of slightly different templates. I looked at a bunch when crafting mine. They all have a few things in common:

• A short summary of your book idea
• A longer, in depth description of your book idea
• A list of proposed chapters, with chapter titles and a brief description of each chapter
• An analysis of where your book might fit in the market, such as a list of comparable books and who the audience is
• One or more sample chapters
• An author bio

Sometimes, proposals may also include your ideas for marketing the book, details on your social media presence and platform, special connections or social media presence that you have that could promote the book, spin off ideas, and more.

Publishers use the proposal to decide whether or not your book is a good fit for them. It's a useful summary of your book plan that they can share internally throughout the publication process.

I spent a couple months crafting the proposal. The longest part was writing sample chapters. The hardest part was writing the short summary that I knew everyone would read first.

Hint, don't use AI to write the whole thing for you. You can use it as a tool to do market research and suggest comparable books or brainstorm titles… but do your own writing. Good writing shows the author's voice and personal style. AI doesn't have your voice. Your proposal is your first impression; write it with the same voice that you write your book. People who are trained in written words can tell when something has no voice.

Finding an agent

Agents are intermediaries between authors and publishers. As such, they have vast knowledge of the publishing industry, what's normal and what's not, and often extra legal knowledge about contracts, plus negotiation skills for getting you the best deal for your book. They have contacts in the industry, too, which may make your proposal more likely to be seen. My agent happened to be a lawyer as well, who specialized in the legal aspects of publishing, which I personally think is a very useful set of skills for an agent to have. My agent also helped me revise my book proposal so that it would have the best shot with publishers, and he handled submitting the proposal to publishers.

Having an agent is technically optional. For some academic books, taking the time to find an agent is probably unnecessary, especially if you know up front that you're going to publish with an academic publisher (such as a university press), and if you don't mind doing some research to make sure your contract is reasonable.

However, for anything but the most academic of books, I would recommend an agent. If your book might have a chance with a trade publisher, you need an agent. Without an agent, it may be a very long time before your proposal is seen, if it ever is; some trade publishers won't even look at a proposal if it doesn't come through an agent.

Personally, I wanted an agent who knew the ins and outs of book contracts, so that I would get a better deal. My book also has a shot with some trade publishers, though ultimately we went with an academic press.

Be prepared for a lengthy search process. You want to find the right fit for your book, and for you. You want someone you can work with. You want someone passionate about your book, who will fight for the ideas you're sharing, because it'll give your book the best shot. (Breaking up with a bad agent is a whole separate topic, which I haven't had to deal with, but others have written on it extensively.)

To find an agent, you go through the following steps:

1. Write a query letter.
2. Research agents who might be a good fit.
3. Send them your query letter.
4. Wait.
5. Interview any agents who respond positively.
6. If you find a good fit, great! If not, or if you did not get any responses, revise your query letter and repeat steps 2-5.

Query letters

The query letter is what gets your foot in the door. It briefly introduces you and your book. There are lots of guides to writing query letters out there, which I won't rehash here. All of these guides will tell you to be yourself, be polite, keep it professional, be relatively brief, and follow all the specific instructions each agent or agency wants you to follow.

Research agents

You can find lists of agencies online. You can also check comparable books to yours to see who published them and, usually in the acknowledgements section, who represented the book. I looked through lists of agencies that deal with nonfiction books. I checked out all their websites. I read agent bios and their blurbs on what kinds of books they preferred to represent. I looked at what books they had represented in the past. I wanted to get a sense of whether my book would be a good fit for their interests.

To keep track of everything, I made a spreadsheet. My spreadsheet had columns for the agency, the agency's website, the specific agent I intended to query at the agency, their email or a link to their contact form, what specific information they requested (e g., did they want the proposal right away? Did they just want a book summary and chapter list?), the date I made the query, the timeline within which to expect a response, what response I received if any, and miscellaneous other notes.

Query and wait

Once you have constructed a list of agents to query, it's time to actually send queries. I queried around 5 or so agents, then waited for responses before sending out another round of queries. If I got no replies within a week or two, I took another look at my query letter to revise before sending out the next batch.

It took me a long time to find an agent. My book was very niche and finding someone passionate about it took time. I sent 40-50 query letters. Perhaps that means I should have done better research up front into who might be a good fit, based on their states interests, types of nonfiction books they represented, and so forth

Interview and Decide

I had interest from a couple agents. I scheduled phone or zoom calls to talk with them before signing anyone on.

In the interview, you're looking for a couple things. Do you have rapport with this agent? Could you see yourself working with them, getting their advice, communicating with them about your book? Do they have the expertise you need?

There are lots of websites with lists of questions to ask during agent interviews; check a few lists and pick some of those questions.

If you interview more than one agent, be sure to follow up with everyone regarding your decision. Be polite and professional; no ghosting.

Finding a publisher

If you have an agent, this part is simple. (Simple does not necessarily mean fast.) First, your agent may ask you to revise your book proposal or suggest edits. My agent, for instance, recommended I include an additional sample book chapter. Then, your agent compiles a list of publishers they think would be a good fit for your book and sends queries on your behalf. All you have to do is wait. If your book covers a niche topic, it may take longer to find a publisher that's the right fit. It took around a year to find the right publisher for my book.

When an editor at a publishing company is interested in your book, they may reach out to set up a meeting. If you have an agent, they will reach out via your agent. Your agent will probably sit in on these meetings.

What will this meeting cover? The editor may request more information from you, ask questions to help them determine the fit of your book for their publishing house, explain more about their publication process, and, in all likelihood, try to sell you on why their publishing house is better than all the rest of them for your book. If an editor has gotten to the point of asking for any review, it means they're interested. They may not have the final say, however. A meeting with you may give them the information they need to sell the book to the rest of the publishing house.

When my agent was submitting my book to publishers, we had interest from someone at a trade press, who then requested a meeting. The editor gave us a lot more information about why they thought the book would be a good fit for their press. Ultimately, however, the publishing house did not pick it up, because although that editor really liked it, they did not have the final say. Often, editors will have a general meeting with all the other editors and the sales folks at the publishing company, and a book has to appeal to everyone as a good business decision in order for them to invest in it.

When a publisher is interested

When a publisher is interested in acquiring your book, the next steps can vary. It'll depend on the type and size of the publisher. Trade publishers have different processes from university presses; big publishers are different from small publishers. They might communicate with you via your agent or they might start communicating directly with you.

A university press was interested in acquiring my book. The next step was to send the proposal for peer review. Peer review is a very common part of the process at university presses. They want to ensure that the work they're considering is quality work, with valid methodology, no big red flags that only someone in the field might notice. Since editors are experts at editing, and not experts on the specific academic topics that university presses tend to publish, they rely on peer reviews to get expert opinions on potential books.

When the publisher had received a couple reviews on the proposal, they sent the reviews to me and requested an author response.

This part of the peer review process was familiar to me, having published a number of academic articles, which have a similar process. You write the article, you submit it to a journal, you get reviews back, and if the reviews are not too negative, you have the opportunity to respond to them and revise your paper. Both of my reviews were reasonably positive, with a good deal of constructive suggestions, which I was happy to take. In this case, the press did not request a revised proposal, simply a response to the reviewers explaining how I intended to incorporate their feedback when I drafted the full manuscript.

At this point, with the positive peer review and good response letter, the editor said they could acquire my book. If the peer review had not been positive or if I had not been able to address the reviewers' concerns adequately, the university press could have decided not to acquire the book.

Signing the deal

The publisher sent over a contract, via the editor who liked my book proposal and was going to be in charge of my book. The contract will specify details such as when you need to complete the book, how many copies of the book the publisher will send you when it's published, what your advance will be (if any) and how or when it will be paid out, who gets which rights (such as the right to publish in other languages or other countries), royalty rates, and so on.

The advance is money the publisher pays you to help cover your time while you write your book. It's money paid in advance of selling the book, thus the name. When the book starts selling, the publisher tracks how much they make; after your book earns as much as the advance, they will start paying you royalties on every book sold thereafter.

Advances for first-time authors tend to be pretty low. For a niche academic book, you may not even get an advance, or it may be a couple thousand dollars. Trade books may get an advance in the thousands or tens of thousands. Higher advances are generally reserved for well-known authors. But it varies.

My agent mediated with the publisher. This is where agents tend to shine! He explained the entire contract to me, told me which parts we could push back on (such as upping the advance), and suggested a few other changes to the contract.

Writing the manuscript

Once the contract with the publisher is signed it's time to write the book. At this point, you have an outline of chapters and several chapters complete from the proposal. Don't forget about optional sections, such as acknowledgements and dedications, if you want to include them! You have a deadline from the publisher. Get writing! My advice on getting the work done:

• How to Procrastinate Less by Increasing Your Motivation and Decreasing Temptations
• My Experience Writing Morning Pages as a Parent with Young Children
• Productivity and Balance as a Parent: Challenges, Ideals, and Strategies
• I Wrote 200 Words a Day for Two Years—Here's What I Learned
• How Do You Write and Publish a Nonfiction Book?

Reviews and revisions

What happens after you complete the manuscript and send it to your editor at your publisher?

The revision process varies by publisher. If you publish with an academic press, the process will involve these steps, but they may be in a different order, and they may have other steps, too:

• Peer review of manuscript. This was the first step for me after submitting the manuscript to my editor. This can be a lengthy process; for my book, it took nearly half a year for my editor to find two reviewers and get reviews back. Your editor at the academic press uses the peer reviews to help guide you through revisions. The reviews are also used by the faculty board to determine whether your book is ready for production, or whether it needs more work first.
• Editor feedback. Your editor will give you specific suggestions for how to make the book better. For instance, they mayhave suggestions for how to address points better, how to appeal to your audience better, clarify your message, and so on.
• Faculty board approval. At an academic press, books need to be approved by the faculty board to go into production. The board typically reads an excerpt of the book (not the entire thing) and the peer reviews with your reply. Your editor may get a chance to argue on your book's behalf at the meeting. If the faculty board does not approve, you probably go into another round of revision. My book was approved, so I don't know for sure what happens if it isn't.
• Further editor feedback based on the peer review, faculty board review, and any other thoughts the editor has.

You will likely be given a deadline by your editor for when to complete the revisions, but if you are not, you can ask for one. Sometimes having a deadline can help you get your work done on time!

Here's more details on how the process went for me: The book announcement, about the writing process, finishing the manuscript, the revision process, production and copyediting, and the cover reveal, pub date, and page proofs).

After you finish revisions

After you've revised from high level feedback and the manuscript is pretty much complete, your publisher will probably have a copyeditor go over the manuscript. Copyeditors will update sentences for grammar and to match the publisher's style guide, if they have one; they'll mark citations and footnotes that need more information; they'll go through your text with a done tooth comb for typos and other errors.

Then you'll have a chance to go through the copyedited pages and approve the changes. I approved almost everything.

After that, you'll receive page proofs. Page proofs have everything laid, and you are given the final opportunity to make edits. These can't be substantial edits - usually just grammatical or factual errors, or fixing typos and citations.

Some nonfiction books require an index. Mine did. Sometimes you do the indexing yourself; or it can be outsourced, or you can hire an indexer to do it for you. Sometimes the press does this for you or hires someone to do it for you.

After all these steps, you may see one final set of proofs before the book goes to press. At some point in the process, the publisher may get your input on cover design and cover copy; how much input you have will depend on the publisher.

While you're waiting on publication day

Then it's a waiting game. Your publisher may assign a publicist to work with you and may help make a marketing plan. With their help, or not, you can work on marketing, securing reviews, promoting your book on social media, and so forth while you wait for publication day.