Hi Everyone,
This past week I had the privilege of chatting with several senior editors and publishers from major houses in NY. All were interested in the new book I’m ghosting and, while I can’t tell you anything about our specific project, I did pick up an editorial formula that might interest you. It’s how one publisher predicts which books will be bestsellers.
For more on this, read on!
Message, plus Messenger, plus Moment = The Rule of 3 M’s
The Rule of 3 M’s
The question on the table was how this Big Four publisher decides which projects to bet big on. She’d just finished telling my Author and me that she loves Big Idea books and that, after 20 years in the trenches, she’s earned the right to focus exclusively on her own passion projects. But by her own admission, she has a wide array of interests and enthusiasms, so we were still unclear how she narrows the field — and whether our project hit her marks.
That’s when she explained, “I have a pretty tried and true formula for a hit. It takes the right message, delivered by the right person, at the right moment.” In other words, Message, plus Messenger, plus Moment.
Now, this publisher specializes in nonfiction, but she applies this formula when considering any genre, especially when bidding for a book runs high. You can see why this matters to you as an author.
So, let’s unpack those three magic M’s.
You need to know your shit. And you need to have it framed and organized in a way that communicates to readers why and how it matters.
