An editor can love your book — and you can still leave without a book deal.
Before a publisher makes an offer, that editor has to convince other people that your book belongs on their list, reaches a real audience, and can sell enough copies to justify the investment.
Your proposal isn’t just a pitch to one person. It’s the case that person will use to get everyone else on board.
On this episode of Kind of a Big Book Deal, Meghan Stevenson, traditional publishing expert and founder of Meghan Stevenson Books, talks with Simon Acumen editor Kimberly Meilun about what happens behind the scenes of a nonfiction book acquisition — and what authors need to understand before their proposals land on an editor’s desk.
How do you get a traditional nonfiction book deal?
You need a compelling book idea, a strong proposal, an audience you can reach, and an editor who can make a convincing business case for publishing your book.
In the acquisitions process Kimberly describes, a literary agent submits your proposal to editors who might be a good fit. An interested editor then brings the project to an internal editorial meeting, gathers support, and moves toward a meeting with you. Before making an offer, the publisher evaluates the financial opportunity, including projected sales, comparable books, your platform, and the costs of publishing.
The central question isn’t simply whether your book is good. It’s whether the publisher believes it can sell.
How does a book proposal get to an editor?
The process starts before your proposal arrives: with the relationship between your literary agent and potential editors.
Editors keep agents informed about the subjects they want to acquire, the authors they’re interested in, and the kinds of books that fit their imprints. Those conversations help agents decide where to submit a proposal.
Sometimes an agent sends a proposal exclusively to one editor to explore whether they can make a deal. Other times, the agent submits it to multiple editors who could be a good fit.
That’s why fit matters. Your agent isn’t simply looking for someone who buys nonfiction. They’re looking for an editor whose interests and publishing list align with your particular book.
What do editors look for in a nonfiction book proposal?
Kimberly describes proposals that include an overview, a sample chapter, a detailed table of contents, and information about the author’s platform.
She reads the overview from beginning to end and, in most cases, reads the full proposal. A strong idea might emerge in the chapter outline, or something in the material might suggest a promising new direction.
But a proposal can also reveal an immediate mismatch. If the imprint already publishes essentially the same book and your proposal doesn’t offer meaningful differentiation, an editor may decide it isn’t a fit.
For the prescriptive nonfiction Kimberly likes to acquire — books that help readers do something — she highlights three appealing ingredients:
A substantial problem that a broad audience wants to solve.
A distinctive, engaging voice and actionable material.
An author with a strong platform.
The opportunity lies in bringing those elements together, not relying on just one.
How competitive is the nonfiction acquisitions process?
Kimberly says she may receive roughly 10 to 25 proposals a week from established agents, depending on the season. But she typically raises a proposal for acquisition only about three times a month.
Those are her experiences, not universal acceptance rates. Still, they illustrate how selective the process can be.
An editor is looking for more than an interesting idea. The project needs to be compelling, commercially promising, and right for both the editor and the imprint.
What is “Edboard,” and why does it matter?
“Edboard” is shorthand for an editorial meeting where editors present projects they want to pursue and gather feedback from colleagues and leadership. The exact format varies by imprint.
An editor may have only a few sentences to explain:
What the book is.
Why it will sell.
Why the publisher should acquire it.
That’s why Meghan says she writes proposals for Edboard. Winning over an agent and an editor matters, but the proposal also needs to equip that editor to persuade the people who approve the acquisition.
The clearer your book’s promise and commercial argument are on the page, the easier they are for someone else to repeat in that room.
How should you prepare for a meeting with a publisher?
Take the meeting seriously — but remember that you’re talking to potential business partners, not people waiting for you to fail.
Kimberly says author meetings can materially affect a publisher’s enthusiasm. An author with a large, engaged following can undermine a promising opportunity by seeming distracted or uninterested. An author who struggles to explain the idea may also leave the team uncertain about how they’ll communicate it to readers.
What helps?
Show genuine enthusiasm for the book.
Explain its central idea clearly and concisely.
Articulate what makes it different.
Demonstrate that you can talk about the material in a compelling way.
Stay present and engaged throughout the conversation.
The publisher is imagining how you might perform on podcasts, in interviews, and in other settings where you’ll need to get people interested in your ideas.
How do publishers decide how much to offer?
An offer involves more than an editor deciding what they’d like to pay.
Kimberly describes a financial evaluation built around a P&L — a profit-and-loss projection. The publisher examines comparable books, the author’s platform and audience engagement, expected sales, and publishing costs. Editors also prepare an acquisition memo explaining the commercial case.
Other revenue can matter, too. Expected audiobook sales or income from subsidiary rights may affect what the publisher can offer.
Those projections feed into the imprint’s budget. They aren’t just numbers created to make a desired advance work.
How many books do you need to sell to get a six-figure advance?
There isn’t a guaranteed sales threshold.
In the conversation, Meghan uses approximately 20,000 books as a back-of-the-envelope benchmark. Kimberly suggests that projected first-year hardcover sales around that level may support a six-figure advance under relatively standard assumptions — but repeatedly qualifies the estimate.
A book with meaningful subsidiary-rights income might support that advance with a lower sales projection. Strong expected audio sales can also change the calculation. Production costs and the wider business environment affect the numbers as well.
The useful question is not, “What number guarantees me six figures?” It’s, “What credible evidence shows that I can help sell enough books to support that investment?”
Do you need a huge social media following to get a book deal?
A large follower count isn’t the same as a strong sales platform.
Kimberly emphasizes engagement: a smaller audience that consistently pays attention may be more valuable than a much larger audience that barely responds.
Your platform also doesn’t have to depend entirely on social media. The conversation includes newsletters, speaking, corporate audiences, consulting, and bulk purchases as ways authors may reach readers.
What matters is having an identifiable mechanism for turning audience interest into book sales. A publisher wants to understand not just how many people know your name, but how you can reach people who are likely to buy your book.
What happens if multiple publishers want your book?
Your agent may run an auction.
The format depends on the agent and the situation. Kimberly describes best-bid auctions, multiple rounds, and processes in which publishers decide whether to match or exceed competing offers. Some auctions finish in a day; others last weeks.
When two imprints within the same publishing house want a book, the process can look different. Kimberly explains that the imprints may agree on a shared house bid, leaving the author to choose between their editorial visions.
Meghan calls that a “beauty contest”: when the financial terms are the same, the decision becomes about which editor and publishing home feel right for the book.
Will the publisher handle all your book sales and marketing?
The episode frames traditional publishing as a partnership — not a handoff.
Kimberly stresses that publishers are for-profit companies looking for books they can sell. They work with authors, but they also want authors who bring a direct connection to an audience.
Meghan’s advice is to expect the overwhelming majority of sales to come through your own efforts and audience. That’s an expectation she uses to prepare authors, not a guaranteed sales breakdown for every book.
The point is to approach the deal ready to participate actively in selling the book, rather than assuming the publisher will supply an audience you haven’t built.
Does your book need to hit a bestseller list to succeed?
No. Kimberly encourages authors not to organize their entire definition of success around bestseller lists.
A book can sell consistently over time without earning a bestseller designation. It can also help an author grow a business, secure speaking engagements, reach more people, or make a meaningful difference in readers’ lives.
The conversation distinguishes between a book that breaks out briefly and a book that keeps meeting readers’ needs year after year. Both sales and impact matter.
Define what success means before preorders and publication put those expectations to the test. For your book, that might mean business growth, sustained sales, reader impact, or a combination of those outcomes — not just a line on the cover.
Kimberly Meilun is an Editor at Simon Acumen acquiring in business and economics. A fierce believer in the power of business to transform lives, she is particularly interested in prescriptive books about entrepreneurship, personal success, career growth, personal finance, and habit change.
Find Kimberly name on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-meilun-74729490/
Learn more about Simon Acumen: https://www.simonandschuster.biz/p/simon-acumen
Have a great idea for a book but don't know where to start? MeghanStevenson.com/quiz
Questions answered in this episode
How do you get a traditional nonfiction book deal?
How do literary agents and editors work together?
How does a book proposal reach an editor?
What do editors look for in a nonfiction proposal?
Do editors read the entire proposal?
How many proposals does an editor consider?
What is Edboard, and what happens there?
Why does an editor’s enthusiasm not automatically lead to an offer?
How should authors prepare for publisher meetings?
How do publishers calculate a book advance?
What is a publishing P&L?
How many projected sales might support a six-figure advance?
How do audiobook sales and subsidiary rights affect an offer?
Does audience engagement matter more than follower count?
What kinds of author platforms can help sell books?
How do book auctions work?
What happens when two imprints at the same publisher want a book?
How much responsibility does an author have for selling their book?
How do editors evaluate a book’s success after publication?
Can a book succeed without hitting a bestseller list?
How should authors define success for their books?
