Your proposal has acquired the love of a reputable agent, and he or she is out selling it to the highest bidding publisher.  That process can take a few weeks to a few months.  Publishing is seasonal; there are spring and fall catalogs, and fast and slow times.  So let’s take advantage of this period of enforced idleness (on your part) by discussing how publishing works today. 

Many of the people who come to work with us are writing their second book, having been burned the first time around.  They thought the experience would go one way, and in fact it went another, and not as delightful, way.  But it’s not usually because of malfeasance, just misunderstanding. 

The author-to-be imagines a close relationship with an editor, who is simultaneously enthusiastic about the book and helpful in making it better with sagacious editing suggestions.  When the book is finally published, the author imagines a book tour, with a limo and perhaps even paparazzi and SRO crowds at chic bookstores in New York and San Francisco.  Then, there’s the appearance on the Today Show, and maybe, just maybe, Oprah.  Can bestsellerdom be far behind?

Here’s the problem with that scenario.  Publishers have no idea what books will sell, so they make strategic bets on 100 or so books a year (depending on the size of the catalog).  They’ll pay a big advance on the one book that they think will sell, and small advances on all the others.  What they’re really hoping is that one book in the catalog will take off and pay for the other 99. 

Accordingly, they’re in the wholesale business.  They’re not interested in retail sales – bookstores and such.  They sell to the 5 or so big book distributors and they like to move thousands of books at a time.  For public speakers, this means that you won’t really get the attention of a publisher unless you can credibly claim to sell 500 to 1,000 books or more at your speeches.

And that means that editors no longer edit; they are in the deal-making business.  Their job is to line up a portion of those 100 books a year, and that keeps them quite busy, thank you very much.  Once the publishing contract has been signed, their work is done, and their interest in you will become vanishingly small. 

Don’t take it personally.  It’s just the book business today, pushing too many books on an increasingly disinterested public. 

Oh, yes – that whole publicity thing.  Publishers do astonishingly little of that nowadays except on the one book they’ve paid a fortune for.  You’re on your own.  Again, it’s nothing personal.  Hire a PR agent yourself, or, better yet, create an online marketing program.  But more about that later. 

For now, it’s best to think about the publisher as someone who will pay you an advance to write the book, and then will print and distribute that book – nothing more.  For that, the clever devils will take about $15 – $17 out of a $20 book.  In fact, they’ll take all $20 until your book has sold enough copies to earn the advance back. 

So go ahead and sign the contract; the point is that you’re getting published and that’s a necessary step on your way to a successful public speaking career.  But read the contract thoroughly; the fine points – especially the electronic rights and other recent developments – are negotiable.  That’s where your agent earns her commission.  And you need to figure out what’s important to you – if you think your book is likely to get optioned as a movie, then make that as lucrative as possible.  Or maybe you believe that there is a significant Asian market.  Then push hard on the international rights. 

The book business is dysfunctional, out of step with what’s happening today, and changing.  Electronic books, free digital downloads, and a host of other trends have the publishers confused and frightened.  The only sure prediction is that 5 years from now the business will be quite different.