How I Would Get a Book Deal in 2026 If I Had to Start Over
If I woke up tomorrow with zero followers and zero publishing connections but a big, traditional nonfiction book dream … I wouldn’t start with the book. I’d start with the business that proves my idea works and the content that shows the world I can sell it.
That’s the heart of this episode of Kind of a Big Book Deal, hosted by traditional publishing expert Meghan Stevenson, founder of Meghan Stevenson Books. Through the course of this episode, she lays out exactly how she’d reverse‑engineer a book deal from scratch — and how her clients have used the same steps to earn over $7 million in traditional advances.
Meghan’s proposed plan is blunt:
You get a traditional nonfiction book deal by first building a business and audience around your expertise, then using that proof of concept to support a strong proposal — and finally investing in leverage so you’re not doing it alone.
If she had no followers and no industry contacts but a book idea she wanted to pursue, she’d do four things:
Start or intentionally grow a business around her expertise.
Create content to attract and serve clients and test the book idea.
Accept that the process takes years, not months.
Invest in a professional collaborator with connections — once the foundation is there.
Everything else (ideas, talent, even book quality) sits on top of those four pillars.
Step 1: Start A Business (Or Intentionally Grow The One You Have)
Meghan’s first move is not “write chapter one,” it’s build a business that lets you get paid while you figure out the book you want to write.
Why the business comes first:
A business forces you to get clients, and clients force you to market yourself.
Marketing — learning how to attract, communicate with, and sell to the people you serve — is also exactly what literary agents and publishers look for.
When agents and editors evaluate an aspiring author, they’re really assessing two things:
The strength of the idea.
The likelihood that the book can sell, based on your ability to reach and convert a specific audience.
Without a business, your book idea is largely theoretical. With a business, every client interaction becomes a live test of what might eventually go into the book.
Step 2: Create Content To Grow And Test
Once the business is in motion, Meghan’s second move is content.
She’d commit to:
Creating and publishing content that speaks directly to her ideal client or reader.
Using that content to grow her business and build an audience at the same time.
What content gives you:
A way to test your idea in real time:
You see what resonates and what flops.
You learn which problems your audience actually cares about.
A lab to refine your frameworks and approach with paying clients.
Practice in marketing, promoting, and selling at scale — the very skills publishing relies on when your book comes out.
She’s clear: when you’re doing this well, you’re actually proving out the exact things agents and publishers are most concerned about—before you ever send a proposal.
Meghan tells a story to illustrate this approach.
Her client built and grew her business first, serving clients and getting paid.
She used content to attract those clients and test her ideas.
Over time, that content and client work gave her:
Proof of concept for her eventual book.
A growing audience interested in her perspective.
Only after that foundation was in place did the book idea become something a publisher could realistically bet on.
The takeaway:
1. You intentionally grow the business.
2. You use content to grow that business and your audience, creating a book‑ready proof of concept along the way.
Step 3: Accept That It Will Take Time (Years, Not Months)
Meghan’s third point is a reality check: this is a long game.
She sees far more people who regret rushing their book than people who complain that it took too long to find their bestselling idea.
Her guidance:
Think years, not months.
The publishing industry isn’t going anywhere; your job is to build something worth publishing when the time comes.
Content and platform are compounding assets — growth and clarity build over time.
A key data point she highlights:
Only about 5% of your audience is going to buy your book.
If you’re like her client Vivian Tu (@YourRichBFF), with millions of followers, 5% is huge.
If you only have a few thousand followers, 5% isn’t enough to create the impact or sales you’re probably hoping for.
So instead of chasing overnight virality, she recommends aiming for roughly 5% growth month over month across your public channels:
Email list.
Podcast listeners.
Social media followers (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).
YouTube subscribers.
Small, steady percentage growth compounds — especially over two to three years.
To make this concrete, Meghan shares a story about her client Erica:
In 2022, Erica had what many entrepreneurs have: a successful business, small audience.
She knew a book was in her future and asked Meghan what needed to change to improve her chances of landing a deal.
Meghan’s advice:
Focus on public‑facing platforms — Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn — because that’s the first thing a literary agent will look at.
Erica committed to that 5% month‑over‑month growth goal.
Less than two years later:
She’d grown her audience enough to start working on a book proposal with Meghan.
She had both a stronger business and a more robust platform.
Only then did they move into proposal and deal territory — grounded in real, observable growth.
Step 4: Invest In Leverage (Don’t Go It Alone)
Once you’ve:
Built or grown your business.
Created content to grow and test.
Given the process enough time to add up…
Meghan’s fourth move is to invest in leverage.
By leverage, she means:
A professional collaborator who:
Knows the publishing industry.
Has relationships with literary agents and editors.
Can make direct introductions and help shape your project into something the market understands.
Her clients don’t use generic AI advice to cobble together a proposal; they use her expertise and connections:
The result: in the best-case scenario, you could show up once a week for three months and end up with a six‑figure book deal—because you’re not trying to reinvent the entire process alone.
Her fee, in her words, is a business expense — an investment that sits alongside other strategic spending, like ads, team hires, or coaching.
Back to Erica:
After doing the work to grow her audience and business, she engaged Meghan to create her book proposal and use her industry relationships.
Meghan introduced Erica to her dream literary agent.
Three months after that, Erica landed a book deal with a publisher “you would definitely know.”
Her book is slated for release in 2026.
Throughout, Erica had leverage at every step — critical because she’s a busy CEO running an eight‑figure business.
The key principle:
Once you have something worth leveraging (business, audience, content, idea), you don’t have to carry the rest alone. Strategic collaboration is part of how serious authors get serious deals.
Reverse‑Engineering A Book Deal: The Four Steps
Meghan closes by rewinding her advice into a simple sequence. If she were starting from zero followers and zero connections, here’s how she’d reverse‑engineer a traditional nonfiction book deal:
1. Start a business (or commit to growing the one you’ve got).
- Make sure it’s rooted in your real expertise and serves a clear audience.
2. Create content.
- Use content to attract clients, test ideas, and grow your audience.
- Let the market help you refine your frameworks.
3. Know that it’s going to take time.
- Think in years; aim for consistent, modest growth (e.g., 5% monthly across key channels).
- Don’t rush your book or your platform.
4. Invest in leverage.
- When your foundation is strong, bring in a collaborator with publishing know‑how and relationships.
- Use their experience to accelerate and de‑risk the proposal and deal process.
As Meghan says at the end:
“It’s not magic, y’all, it’s simply putting in the work.”
Questions Answered In This Episode
Why is starting or growing a business the first step toward a book deal?
How does creating content help both your business and your future book?
What do literary agents and publishers look for in potential authors beyond the idea itself?
Why is it important to accept that landing the right book and deal will take years, not months?
What does the “5% of your audience will buy your book” rule of thumb mean for platform strategy?
What does it mean to invest in leverage when you’re ready to pursue a book deal?
How can a professional collaborator help authors with no industry connections secure major deals?
Why do some entrepreneurs end up regretting rushing their book instead of taking time to grow their idea and audience?
