Meet the MasterMinds: An Author's Take on Publishing
 Meet
Andrew Sobel, a leading authority on client relationships
and a noted business strategist. He is the co-author of
the bestseller Clients for Life: How Great Professionals
Develop Breakthrough Relationships
(Simon & Schuster), which is in its seventh printing.
His articles and work have been featured in a variety of
national media, including USA Today, The
Sloan Management Review and Consultants News,
and he has appeared on a number of national radio and TV
programs, such as CNBC's Today's Business.
Sobel was a senior vice president and managing
director for one of the world's largest management consulting
firms. He has spent 20 years advising senior executives
in 30 countries.
Sobel, who just finished writing his second
book, Making Rain: The Secrets of Building
Lifelong Client Loyalty, talked to MCNews about
the ins and outs of writing a book--how to pick a compelling
topic, work with literary agents and publishers, and the
vital role of promotion.
* * * * *
MCNews: How did you get started writing
nonfiction?
Sobel: I'm one of those closet liberal
arts types. My undergraduate major was American literature,
and I've always enjoyed writing. Throughout my business
career, I harbored the desire to write a book. But for many
years, I didn't have an idea I thought was persuasive enough.
And, working at a big consulting firm you don't have much
time for that either. To write a book, you must enjoy
writing, be motivated to write and have a compelling
idea.
MCNews: Most consultants, with their hectic
schedules, would find writing a book to be a daunting task.
Is it as hard as people think?
Sobel: The first book is the hardest.
There is a substantial learning curve to the process of
writing a book, getting a publisher, promoting the book
and leveraging it in your business. The value chain is long
and complex, and the process requires enormous concentration
and devotion every step of the way. It's like starting a
new business--there's a lot to learn.
And, psychologically, it's especially difficult
if you're doing it in the middle of or after a substantial
career in business. In your work with clients, you're accustomed
to top executives listening to what you say, respecting
your ideas and following your advice. When you set out
to write a book, all of a sudden you're on the bottom rung
of the ladder in the publishing industry.
Agents and editors just aren't going to listen
to you the way people listen to you in a business meeting.
You'll tell an agent or a publisher you've got this great
idea, and they'll just yawn at you.
There are over 100,000 books published a year.
And, there's almost no subject that hasn't been written
about many times, so they've heard it all.
If you have an idea you're excited about,
you will have to use all your powers of persuasion to get
other people excited about it. It gets better once you have
a successful book, but the first time around you are, to
some extent, starting over.
MCNews: What are the advantages of working
with a large publisher? Do you think an author should consider
self-publishing?
Sobel: There are a couple of big advantages
to working with a large publisher, namely more credibility
and better distribution for the book. If you meet with a
senior executive and you have a book that's been published,
for example, by Doubleday or Simon & Schuster, it's
a stamp of credibility.
If you self-publish your book or use an obscure
publisher, you will have trouble getting it reviewed in
major publications and it will not be sold in the big chains--most
likely it will sell a few thousand copies a year at best.
You do have a shot at getting much better distribution with
a large publisher.
I'm not saying self-published books aren't
good, but they serve a different purpose. They can help
you a lot with your own personal marketing, but they don't
provide the same credibility or potential for wide distribution.
MCNews: Should an author expect to derive
significant income from book royalties?
Sobel: The average business book sells
8,000-10,000 copies at best. A very successful business
book might sell 20,000 or 25,000 copies. Authors have
to be realistic about what they're going to sell and the
royalties they will receive. Hardcover royalties are
typically 15 percent of list price, and it's less for trade
paperbacks.
The real earning potential for a book is not
the income derived from royalties, but for the work that
follows if you are able to capitalize on it. Royalty income
is perhaps 10 percent of the total incremental income you
might expect over time from a book in terms of enhancing
your reputation and drawing clients to you.
Most business book authors, and I'm one of
them, reinvest the royalties, and more, in their publicity.
In fact, a properly promoted book is somewhat of a loss
leader to generate future consulting income. If you
hire a publicist, send out copies of the book for review
and do a book tour, you have to finance all that. You are
investing a lot of time and money upfront with the hope
that the book will build your reputation. It's a tricky
formula.
MCNews: How do you choose a focus for a
book?
Sobel: It's a combination of things.
It has to be something you know a lot about, so for a consultant
it's got to be pretty close to your core as a professional.
There has to be some originality to it. For example, if
you're going to write a book on leadership there's got to
be an unusual spin to your approach because there are already
at least several hundred books on leadership.
Daniel Goleman's book Primal Leadership,
for example, focuses on the emotional connections around
leadership, so it has a different spin from the other popular
books on leadership. Whatever your subject, if you want
to get the attention of a major publisher your approach
must have uniqueness.
In my experience, there tend to be two types
of publishers for business books. There's a group that looks
for the next breakthrough or leading edge idea-it's no longer
interruption marketing but permission marketing; it's no
longer teamwork, but individualism. Then, there are other
business book publishers who like fresh but solid treatment
of a subject that has really good nuts and bolts to it,
even if it's been done before. I think you can go either
route. Which is good, because there are very few breakthrough
ideas left.
So, think of a new topic or a totally different
spin on an old topic. Or, write on an old idea, but make
it the best book ever on how to implement that idea.
MCNews: Assuming you have a solid idea
or an interesting twist, how do you get some degree of certainty
about marketability before you put pen to paper?
Sobel: If you want to go through a
literary agent, which I personally would recommend, that
can be your first test marketing--to see if you can interest
an agent in a proposal. All non-fiction business books are
sold based on an outlined proposal, which is essentially
a business plan for the book. Unlike a novel, agents and
publishers never want to see a whole manuscript for a non-fiction
book; they want a proposal.
Another preliminary step is to socialize the
book with other consultants, business people who read a
lot, friends and family, if appropriate. You might say to
them, I'm thinking about a book on X and, honestly, how
does that strike you? Some people might say, that's an intriguing
idea, or they might say, I've seen five books on that subject--what's
different about yours? You will probably change a lot based
on this socialization process.
MCNews: Recent business books seem to be
formatted with shorter chapters and more visual interest.
Do you think the Internet has turned us all into scanners,
and that business books are getting less dense?
Sobel: Yes. As one editor said to
me, the ideal business book today is one people can read
on a long plane flight. I think there is some truth
to that. I read a lot of books, but I don't have a lot of
patience anymore for 400-page business books. I read the
first chapter and then scan the rest.
MCNews: You've mentioned that it's a good
idea to have a literary agent. Why?
Sobel: Because agents know the editors.
It's possible to go directly to publishers, but you have
to identify the right acquisition editor. The big publishers
have lots of different acquisition editors, who specialize
in different areas. It's just like selling anything: you
have to find the right market and the right buyer. A good
agent will know all that.
You do need to be aware that, typically, agents
take 15 percent of the royalties due to the author.
MCNews: Do publishers prefer to deal with
agents rather than authors?
Sobel: Publishers will work directly
with established authors because they are known commodities.
But, publishers get thousands of book proposals every year.
The first-time author is at the bottom of the heap for attention,
so an agent helps get that attention. When editors get proposals
from agents they respect, they take them seriously and respond
in a reasonable amount of time. Agents get proposals to
the top of the pile.
That being said, just because an agent isn't
interested doesn't mean that you don't have a good idea.
Stephen Covey went through over 20 agents with his manuscript
for Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People before he got one to take the project. And,
there are many other examples--Chicken Soup for the
Soul is one--of the same thing happening to other
authors who have gone on to be successful.
MCNews: How much effort should an author expect to put
into the promotion of a book?
Sobel: Promotion requires an enormous
amount of effort from an author. Writing a book is only
the first hurdle in the value chain of book publishing.
Promotion is so important that a publisher's interest in
your book depends a lot on the perception of your ability
to effectively market the book. Impressive credentials help,
but you must include in your proposal a persuasive plan
of what you will do to promote the book.
A publisher will not be interested in an
author who is not going to put money and time into promotion.
That's because the publisher is not going to promote
it. Unless you get a major advance for the book, which is
rare nowadays, the publisher just won't put much effort
into it. They will put out 50-150 business books and see
which ones stick. Of those, 10-30 books will do well, and
the rest they don't worry about.
So you have to relentlessly promote your
book. You have to develop speaking engagements, network,
publish articles based in your book, and hire a publicist,
if you can afford it. For some business book authors, promoting
their books is their full-time job
If you're going to publish with a major publisher,
you've got to be prepared to invest in it. If you self-publish,
I think it's a bit different. Then, you can be low-key about
it, hand your books out to clients and use them to promote
your other services. With a self-published or small publisher
book, you don't have to pay to print thousands of copies
of your book until you need them.
MCNews: What one piece of advice would you give to someone
who wants to write a book?
Sobel: It has to be a labor of love.
There must be something about the process of developing
your ideas, writing and then communicating those ideas that
is satisfying to you personally. You've got to have a
passion for your ideas and for writing. Otherwise it
will be hard to sustain the project from start to finish.
From idea conception, to selling your idea,
to writing the book and promoting it is a two to three-
year project. Consultants are accustomed to three, four,
or maybe twelve-month projects. To write a book, you've
got to have the stamina for a longer haul. And, that kind
of stamina does not come from mercenary motivations. It
has to come from your love of a subject.
You need an infectious enthusiasm for your
subject to get other people excited about it. Have you ever
met an entrepreneur who was totally jazzed about a new idea?
Think of yourself as that entrepreneur with the passion
to see you through your new business.
MCNews: Thanks for your time today. We're
looking forward to your new book.
* * * * *
Visit Andrew Sobel at www.AndrewSobel.com
to learn more about his book, and check out his free newsletter,
Client Loyalty, and other services.
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