Reader David Qaoud recently asked,

“I understand that email subscribers are an important part of both platform-building and selling books, but I never hear a specific number from anyone. Generally speaking, how many email subscribers do I need to get a publisher’s attention? 1,000? 10,000?”

I’ll answer the question directly first and then offer four more ways to catch a publisher’s eye.

1. Get 10,000 Subscribers

The ultimate measure of a platform is this: If a publisher were to send you copies of your book, how many could you sell on the strength of your own platform?

If you can move a thousand, that’s okay. If you can move five thousand, that’s solid. If you can move ten thousand, chances are publishers are already interested in talking with you.

That’s the beauty of a large platform. Once you have one, you no longer have to hunt for agents and publishers. They’ll come hunting for you. Not a bad goal to have in mind. Inside BookCamp, my mentoring and community hub for writers, we teach you how to grow your email list. Anyone can do it. It just takes the right tactics and some time.

2. Develop a Need-Driven Concept

Publishing insiders sometimes refer to name-driven vs. need-driven books. Name-driven books are those driven by a high-profile personality (read: big platform). Need-driven books are those that may not be attached to a big platform but engage a real need that people actually feel and will pay money to address.

Obviously a publisher’s dream is to publish books that are both name- and need-driven, but if you don’t have a platform, try to develop a winning concept—that is, to address a need that real people really feel with a fresh title and subtitle.

Following are titles of published books with need-driven concepts:

How to Win Friends and Influence People

How Successful People Think

How to Talk So People Will Listen

Laugh Out Loud Jokes for Kids

How to Make Money in Stocks

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

His Needs, Her Needs

The Fast Metabolism Diet

3. Develop a Fresh, Creative Concept

Sometimes a concept is so fresh, so innovative and intriguing, that a publisher just can’t pass it up. Here are some examples:

Freakonomics

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Predictably Irrational

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Jesus Calling

Start with Why

Mind you, many of the examples under ways 2 and 3 above are from authors who do have platforms. In many cases the books they wrote expanded their platforms exponentially. But none of that changes the fact that these concepts likely would have been strong enough to be accepted for publication even without a massive platform.

4. Wow Us with Your Writing in Creative Nonfiction

You can wow publishers with your writing in at least two different ways.

The first is with a captivating narrative of your own life or someone else’s. Here I’m thinking of memoir, autobiography, biography, personal narrative, or what we call simply narrative nonfiction. To learn how to do this kind of writing, I encourage you to check out the Great Courses class titled “Writing Creative Nonfiction” by Tilar Mazzeo.

5. Wow Us with Your Writing in Other Genres

But let’s say you’re writing self-help or Christian living or business or inspirational. How do you wow publishers with your writing in this kind of book? You include a sample with your book proposal that is so magnetic, the reviewers on the publishing committee want to keep reading. The best way I know to do that is with a great story, written in a way that engages the reader’s imagination, and powerful principles that make the reader stop and think.

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There are several ways to get a publisher’s attention. A big platform, which often means 10,000 email subscribers or more, is one way—a way worth pursuing for a lot of writers today. But there are other ways too. Often authors are drawing on more than one of these. The key is to pick the one or two or more that seem to fit your own gifts and aspirations best. Then get after it!

Question: If you were to pursue just one of these ways to get a publisher’s attention, which one would it be? You can leave a comment by clicking here.