How to Sell a Lot of Books

Every so often I see moaning and groaning about how publishing works. Most of the time, these complaints come from authors saying that only celebrities get published or that books sell poorly because publishers do nothing to support authors and the books being published.

There’s a kernel of truth here, because both of these things are true. Celebrities do get published, often, because there’s a track record of those books selling lots of copies. And often, books and authors do flounder for a lack of support.

But that’s not always the case.

I don’t work with celebrities, but have helped my clients — entrepreneurs and experts — land dozens of book deals. 100% of the clients that we collaborate with on book proposals land a literary agent and 80% land a book deal. Partly, that’s because I know what literary agents and editors are looking for — and because I am super careful about who I decide to work with. I’m not taking on clients that I know will be rejected for their lack of an audience, for example, or who have an unproven book idea.

Similarly, the books my teams and I work on also defy common statistics for book sales. The most recent data I can find comes from Kristin McLean, an analyst at NPD Bookscan (which tracks book sales nationwide). She estimated that 51.4% of new books sold less than 1,000 copies. In contrast…