Your Big Book Deal: Sell Your Book Idea to a Major Publisher

About this course

Do you have a great idea for a book, and want to make sure you get the best deal possible for it?There are five major publishers in the United States, known as "The Big Five: Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan. They're the ones that offer the highest advances and have the best chance of landing your book on bestseller lists. I've written for all five of them, including several books that landed six-figure deals. Now I'm excited to teach you how to sell a nonfiction book to a major publisher.Learn How to Sell Your Big Book IdeaDid you know that you don't have to write a book before you sell it to a publisher? In fact, publishers and agents don't even want you to write the whole thing. They want to be involved in the process, so what they want from you first is a document called a book proposal. We'll go over all the ins and outs of vetting your idea and then writing an amazing book proposal, including...How to analyze your idea to make sure it's good enough and big enough to land with a major publisherHow to determine if you need a coauthor, ghostwriter, or other collaboratorChecking out your competition to make sure there's a market for it and see how you can differentiate your bookHow to write an overview that grabs attentionThe "author platform" and how you can build and improve yours before the book dealHow to write an effective book outlineShowing publishers you're ready to promoteTips for your sample chaptersWhy Take This Course?This is a rare opportunity to take a course with an author who's really "done it all"-- I've had more than 30 books published, more on the way. They range from biographies and memoirs to true crime, reference, business and leadership, self-help, health, psychology, inspirational, and