How to build a book
The inside track on how I got my book deal, starting with the proposal
When I was younger and less cynical about the world I believed that anyone could write a book. If you had experience, an interesting point of view and enough patience to sit down and do the thing, then you could get a book published.
Of course, you and I both know this is not true.
Because over the years, mainly from being married to a writer, but also from having the fortune of getting to know many great memoirists and novelists and journalists who have knuckled down and done the actual thing, I realise there is a different truth.
Firstly, books are as much about timing as they are talent. The Great Gatsby, was a giant flop until after WWII. Most of Kafka too. And Revolutionary Road, one of my all-time favourite books. Proof that prescient writers are often punished for predicting worlds few of us are yet ready to accept.
And a good idea is only as strong as the scaffolding you are able to place around it- structure, language, strong, believable characters. None of which is easy to do.
And then there are pesky things called sales. You and I know that the real marker of success when it comes to books is to have a word of mouth hit. That means having someone you know and trust, hungrily press a book into your palm and say: I loved this and I believe you will love it too. (Books that travel in this way therefore can become things of both great value and great sentimentality.) Sure hype is helpful. And a book review in exactly the right place can certainly help a book on its way, but after a little while you have to leave its path to your readers. Which is a lovely idea, except that takes time. Which bestseller charts often don’t take into account. To hit those charts you need to sell around 1000/2000 books in your first week of publication if it’s a slow publishing month-January, say ; and closer to 5000 if it’s a big one, such as any of those autumnal months when people are hunkering down to read. (By the way, I’m not an absolute expert on these numbers but this is a rough guide.)
There are of course beautiful examples of books that find their way to these charts many years later, for example Katherine May beautiful book Wintering which was both a bestseller on publication, but then, many years later found itself back in the charts. But that’s a rare thing. (By the way, if I saw you in person this is exactly the sort of book I would hungrily press into your palm.)
All of this is to say that getting your book published by a major publishing house requires a bit of thought and planning. Of course, this is not the only way to get a book published. In fact just the other day I watched a podcast with the CEO of Hachette Publishing who admitted that ‘publishers don’t always get it’ and therefore if you have faith in what you want to put out into the world then self-publishing can be both a noble and smart move. There are by the way lots of well-known writers who do this and talk generously about it including Tasmina Perry and Emma Gannon .
Anyway, as promised I am going to spend the next 18 months or so inviting you behind the scenes of my book, How Not To Have Children (far less controversial than it sounds- I promise) which will be published by Ebury Press in spring 2028. I’ll be sharing thoughts, ideas, the writing process and whatever else I think you might enjoy.
And so I thought I’d start by delving into the proposal I put together. Let’s get to it…