She Got Her Sixth Book Deal Because of Her Podcast, Not Her Books

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life. 

Stefanie Wilder-Taylor sold over 120,000 copies of her first book. Her most recent royalty check was for $95. That's not because people stopped reading—she's published five more books, launched four podcasts and now teaches memoir writing. It's because selling 120,000 copies doesn't actually pay the rent. Which is the fact almost nobody in publishing admits out loud.

When Stefanie wrote Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay in 2005, she was a new mom, a former game-show writer and completely unknown as an author. Her publisher told her she'd been declined everywhere for publicity. Her husband cold-called some old talk-show contacts and got her on the Today show; by April of 2006, she was a bestseller with a $30,000 advance she thought made her rich. Every subsequent book—and there have been five—has failed to earn out.

But what I really wanted to talk about is how she finally cracked her sixth book deal after years of being told she wasn't "sought after" anymore. Stefanie pitched Drunk-ish using her podcast stats—who her audience is, how loyal they are, exactly what kind of woman listens and exactly what kind of book that woman buys—and the publisher bought it. Which, for anyone under the delusion that publishers still do the selling, is the whole story.

We also get into the COVID storytelling podcast she recorded episode by episode and then abandoned, her theory about why new moms buy parenting books and school moms don't, the agent who told her "never compare yourself to the exception" after she brought up Sex and the City and the weird fact that Down with Love with Renée Zellweger ruined her idea of what the writing life actually is. Plus: where Stefanie thinks traditional publishing is actually heading, which is the question driving this whole season.

In this episode:

• Why selling 120,000 copies of a book still isn't a living wage
• The $30,000 advance she thought made her rich (and what happened to the royalty checks)
• How she used her podcast stats to pitch her sixth book deal after years of rejection
• Why people accused her of getting sober just for the publicity (and the real reason she got sober)
• The COVID storytelling podcast she recorded and never released
• The agent advice that should be tattooed on every aspiring author's wrist

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Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.