The key to getting a book contract is looking way beyond the book contract to when your book hits shelves. The key to getting a book contract is pairing a great idea with a significant platform and compelling writing. The key to getting a book contract is, in a word, hustle.
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Every publisher loves to work with authors who hustle, who work hard to write a great book and then work equally hard to promote it.
The key is determination, relentless determination.
The key to getting a book contract is never giving up. It’s refusing to take no for an answer. And when you do get a no, the key is to dust yourself off and keep after it.
The key to getting a book contract is to see your book as more than just a book—to see it as an experience that has the potential to become a movement. Isn’t that what the best books do? They become movements as readers can’t help passing them on and talking about them and telling people “You just have to read this.”
It’s about the book!
The key to getting a book contract is to forget about yourself and focus on the serving. It’s thinking about how your book will really and truly be helpful to others. It’s also realizing—and this is so important—that the only way a book ever helped anybody is by entertaining even as it educated, by compelling even as it motivated.
The key to getting a book contract is to seize your role as somebody the world needs. (Note: the world desperately needs you!) It is believing that God put you on this earth to do something, to make a difference, to be heard. And by determining you will be obedient to that God even while you reject the gods of fame and fortune and fear.
The key to getting a book contract is to know without a shadow of a doubt you are in the 1 percent. You’re in the 1 percent of people who may not be the smartest or most beautiful, but you dare everybody to just try and outwork you.
Do you see what I mean?
The key to getting a book contract isn’t about the book contract at all. It’s about seizing who you are, the person you’re becoming, and letting the rest go.
Question: How can you practice relentless determination this week? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Hey Chad, I love this post. Short, sweet, and poignant. We live in a society where people are tempted to write a book because they want to simply check off an item on their bucket list. But this manifesto reminds us, it’s always about the book and the idea behind it. It’s about serving others before serving yourself.That’s what I call a great book!
Agreed!
I’m going to rework a title/brand that I don’t think was working and narrowing my audience. That was great input at the Q today! Thank you.
You’re welcome! Thanks for participating, and good for you on that concept. Godspeed!
You’re most welcome, Dean. Thanks for participating. And all the best as you rework your title/brand.
Thanks for the giving me a good, swift kick in the butt to get going already. I’m sending out my proposal today for the first time and your post reminds me this is but the first very small step in the next part of the journey.
Awesome, Sarah!! Good job.
Thanks. 🙂
Again, great post! It’s about the book — and the purpose of the book. Purpose is what will have me practicing relentless determination this week as I’m in the trenches of editing one project (that needs a contract) while under deadline for another.
Purpose is a powerful motivator!!
Thank you! The Spirit is talking to me cause I just read three posts in a row-yours, Tracy Groot, and Susie Finkbeiner’s, who basically said the same thing to me….write, read, trust God, do it, go for it, keep going!!
That’s good advice!!
Don’t be afraid to be a little different or to think in a new way. Trust that God has a purpose for you and your Art.
Well said!
Using spring break from work to get my writing hustle on!
Sweet! That’s how I wrote DO YOUR ART.