A medium-sized publishing house in Florida pursued me over the course of a year, from late 2018 through late 2019. They heard me on the popular Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast discussing the power of authentic leadership.
It felt good to be pursued by a publishing house and I was honored to be considered by them as someone they wanted to work with. As far as my previous books, I went through an independent publishing house for my first book, and for my second and third books, I self-published. Now, for my fourth book, I had an incredible opportunity to go through a publishing house that wasn’t requiring any kind of upfront investment on my part.
Offered a Powerful Marketing Plan
After playing phone tag for a while, I got on the phone with the representative of the publishing house who first heard me on the podcast.
“I took a shot by throwing a Hail Mary and seeing if I could get a hold of you,” the representative said.
I asked him different questions to learn more about the publishing house, and it sounded like an interesting opportunity. While they weren’t offering to pay me for the manuscript of my next leadership book, they weren’t requiring any upfront investment either and they had a powerful marketing plan.
“We could print five-hundred thousand copies of your book on the first print run,” the representative said. “And we could also get you on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, like some of our previous clients.”
This got me excited, and the Mountaintop was so close I could almost reach out and touch it. This would be a huge exposure for my book and the opportunity to reach millions of people, so it was definitely interesting and enticing.
Speaking With One of the Partners
The representative then put me in touch to have a Skype chat with one of the partners of the publishing house (I could share names here, but I’m leaving them out because of the purpose of this post is about the overall lessons learned from the experience, and not about specific people).
The partner was friendly and we had a fantastic chat.
“Some people think they’ve ‘made it’ because we take them on,” he said. “But the truth is, even after signing, it takes a lot of work and authors need to continue to market themselves as much as possible.”
This was a good point and I like his encouragement to stay both humble and hungry. This publishing house can help with the marketing, but it’s still the author’s responsibility to continue marketing their own book. I agree with this.
I took a positive risk and asked him if the publishing house would consider paying me for my completed manuscript.
“We typically only do that for New York Times bestselling authors,” he said.
The answer was a no, but I give myself credit for having the guts to ask something like that.
Never be afraid to ask. You have nothing to lose.
The conversation then turned to social media and engagement.
“With a social media following, it’s more about engagement,” the partner said. “I see people with millions of followers and little engagement. And I see people with far less followers, but more engagement. I’d rather work with the person who has more engagement.”
This was a good thing because I currently don’t have millions of followers, but with some of my social media posts on certain platforms, I have strong engagement. I was resonating with what he was saying.
From there, we got into sales figures for my previous books. I also asked about the sales figures of previous authors they worked with and I was impressed with the exposure and success of some of the books they represented.
Near the end of the call, the partner told me he was inspired by my energy. I took this as a compliment. Some people like my high energy and others don’t – in this case, the partner liked me for being myself, and that was awesome.
Always be yourself. The right people will like you for who you are.
The call ended with the partner asking me to email him the chapter titles, as well as a brief explanation of what each chapter is about. I followed through and sent what he asked for, excited to hear back and maybe sign a contract. The book is about the dysfunction that happens in the workplace, and how you can deal with and break free from that dysfunction as an employee and a leader. In the book, I share my personal experiences in the workplace as a way to inspire the reader to stand up for themselves and walk away from toxic environments.
Following Up
I didn’t hear back, so I followed up – and still didn’t hear back. It was disappointing, but it fell through.
I had a chat with a friend of mine who said that follow-up is absolutely crucial.
“Right now you’re hearing crickets, so you really don’t lose anything by following up again,” my friend wisely said. “Follow-up is what leads to success.”
I took action on her advice and the next day, I called the publishing house to speak with the representative. That evening, as we began our call, he told me excitedly how he just got off the phone with Joe Namath, the successful former NFL quarterback. I was impressed with the kind of clients they were working with and it made me want to work with them even more. The difference from earlier is that now it was me pursuing them, instead of them pursuing me.
The representative said he will check with the partners to see if they wanted to move forward.
The day after that, I had another call with the representative who said that the partners didn’t want to move forward at this point in time. (This was now the fall of 2019.) The partners didn’t feel comfortable taking on the risk at this moment. With that said, it wasn’t a straight no because he said they would be willing to re-consider my manuscript for publication in the spring of 2020.
“Because I’m the one who originally contacted you,” the representative said to me, “you don’t have to go through the formal application process. You can contact me and the publishing house directly.”
It was a no, but it was a very soft no – and possibly not a final no.
I followed up with the representative in 2020 and didn’t hear anything back. I left it at that.
Lessons Learned
To be transparent, it was a bit disappointing. They had me extremely excited when they started talking about getting me on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which would be unbelievable exposure, a boost for my brand, and a dream come true. And most importantly of all, it would have been an incredible opportunity to reach and help more people with an important message on authentic leadership.
I was talking with a good friend about the experience (a different friend from the one who encouraged me to follow up with them) and he said something that was very powerful:
This is where your character comes through. A huge opportunity was right in front of you and then fell through. The key here is to validate yourself. Don’t let them not taking you on stop you from publishing the book. Publish it anyway and validate yourself by spreading your message.
This was excellent insight and the reason I wanted to share the experience with you. I would not describe this experience as a “failure” – it was an honor to even be considered by them – but it was certainly disappointing and even a little bit frustrating. But I don’t need them to publish the book. I have other options to publish the book and I can choose to validate myself.
The moral of the story: validate yourself, even when particular opportunities and people don’t come through for you.
A few other lessons to quickly share with you as you keep moving forward with your own set of life and business opportunities:
- Don’t talk about something too soon, and don’t celebrate it too soon. Celebrate once the contract is signed, but not before. I didn’t make any big mistakes here; at the same time, I do remember telling others about the opportunity too soon, and I could have waited until a contract came through to start spreading the news.
- If something is not meant to be, it’s not meant to be. They started out by chasing me, and then I ended up chasing them a little bit. There’s a balance between following up and knowing when it’s best to let something go, and I feel that’s something I did properly here. I followed up with them several times, but I didn’t go crazy with it either. I realized that it’s not the end of the world if I don’t work with them, and I have other possibilities to publish my next book. And, technically speaking, they never officially said “no”. Maybe I’ll end up working with them in the future – who knows.
Jeff Davis is an award-winning author, most recently publishing The Power of Authentic Leadership: Activating the 13 Keys to Achieving Prosperity Through Authenticity.
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