103: How to Land a Literary Agent and Publisher with David Moldawer (Part One)

What takes a book proposal past the slush pile onto a publisher’s deal sheet? How do you get the attention of literary agents who might also be looking for you? 

In the first half of this two-part conversation, I’m chatting with longtime publishing, editing, and ghostwriting maven David Moldawer about what makes a great “big” book idea. 

More About David: David Moldawer spent over a decade as a book editor at a slew of New York publishing houses including St. Martin’s Press, McGraw-Hill, and Penguin, acquiring and editing bestselling nonfiction in the areas of business, technology, health, and memoir. Today, he’s an independent writer and editor. He also writes the Maven Game, a newsletter for experts, authors, publishers, and agents on making ideas and knowledge public—writing, speaking, sharing—without hating yourself in the morning.

🌟3 Key Takeaways:

• Get to the heart of your goals for your book by visualizing yourself taking your current draft and putting it on Kindle within an hour. Is that what you want to be presenting? Why or why not?

• If you want to write a book in your category, read books in your category to better understand the challenges and possibilities.

• People are more likely to buy your book because you wrote it than because of the content, so emphasize your audience and platform.

📝 Permission:  Go ahead and reach out to agents with a concise query email—don’t forget they are in the business of meeting new authors and finding great books! Just make sure to find one who specializes in the kind of book you want to write.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Create an idea capture file. I use Notion for this - check out the Loom walkthrough here, and the full Author Toolkit here »

📘Books Mentioned:

• Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business 

• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

• Life After College, Girl Wash Your Face

• Perennial Seller 

• The Personal MBA

• Atomic Habits

• The Tipping Point 

• Exactly What to Say 

• Books by 37 Signals cofounders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

🔗Resources Mentioned: 

• David on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn 

• Newsletter: The Maven Game

• Jenny’s Author Toolkit (including the book marketing spreadsheet)

• MBS’s article on selling over 100,000 copies of The Coaching Habit

• Video: Exactly How to Sell 1 Million Books (Phil M. Jones)

• Chandler Bolt’s Self-Publishing School podcast

🎧Related Podcast Episodes: 

• 036: Shaping Big Ideas — Notion Walkthrough #2

• 012: Generating Personal MBA Momentum with Josh Kaufman 

• 038: Tracking Progress Toward Finishing a Book (or Big Idea) with an Essay Tracker — Notion Walkthrough #3

• 057: You 2.0 with MBS

💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »

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