What You Do To Get a Book Deal

When I lived in New York City and worked for major publishers, I was broke. (As an editorial assistant, my salary started at $27,500 per year — and when I left Penguin 8 years later, it was only $40,000.)

Around that same time, I read the same poem by Tracy K. Smith — The Good Life — over and over again on my way to work. The poem was featured in Poetry In Motion, a program where poems were put up in transit systems including the NYC subway.

The author described subsisting on bread and coffee until payday, when she would splurge on roasted chicken and red wine for one or two nights like everyone else. I knew what that felt like at the time, and every time I roast a chicken (and often, pop open a bottle of red while it’s cooking) I think of it. But riding the subway a few years ago, I realized that poem had done more than made me think. Tracy K. Smith had HELPED me.

By sharing her story she made me feel less alone.

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you have a story too. (Everyone has a story but that’s for another time.) Most of the people who contact me want to publish because they want their story, advice, or lessons learned to “get out there.”

But here’s the thing: you can do that now — days, months, and maybe even years before you get a book deal.