Publishing Success and Common Misconceptions in the Publishing Process

Welcome to Media Minds with your host, David Wolf.

Welcome to Media Minds. I'm your host, David Wolf. Randi Peiser joins us on this segment. She ghostwrites, she edits books, offers book coaching, and pitches manuscripts to literary agents and publishers. She's worked on many bestsellers, optioned some of them for film, and many have been featured in Cosmo, Time, Oprah magazines, and in airport bookstores. You're an absolute consummate expert. Thank you for joining us, Randi.

I'm very happy to be here and I have something stellar to report. In this year alone, I've already sold 16 projects. That means 16 manuscripts, 16 people are having their dreams come true because I've helped them find publishers or agents. We're talking New York publishers, we're talking the top of the tops. And I love helping people do that. I'm ecstatic.

That is so powerful to hear. And for those that are authors who are listening now, um, they want to pay attention to the way you think about the business and the way IP flows from an author into a monetizable, lucrative, fruitful relationship, either with a publisher or an agent, or even an option for a film. So this is going to be very interesting. Um, by the way, I should mention your company is called Author One Stop. For those who wanna kind of check things out as we're talking here. So at the very highest level, Randy, what's the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing?

You know, I wanna preface that by saying I love both. I've done both with different books that I've written. When I speak with anyone, I have no agenda. I want what is highest and best for each person depending on their goals. So I'm going to share the differences between both of these methods. So with traditional publishing, you get, your book is vetted. And that means that you're gonna get a lot more publicity. You're gonna get a lot of media. So my first-time authors who have wound up, as you mentioned, in Time Magazine, airport bookstores, Cosmo Magazine, Hallmark TV, Daily Mail TV, you know, FedEx Office stores around the country, is because their books came out with a traditional publisher. Now for speakers, for someone who's using a book for your career, definitely try for a traditional publisher. If you wanna be bigger, you wanna go much bigger than where you are now, whatever that means for you. So if, if you're, you know, more regional, local, and you wanna go national, absolutely try for traditional publisher cuz you have no idea what doors will open for you. With self-publishing, you can get a book out much quicker typically, and you control every single word in it. You can also make typically more money. I'm speaking very general terms, but you can usually make more money per book. So one gives you access, national access, more to media and to bookstore distribution, all the Barnes Noble around the country, things like that. Whereas if you're just using your books, you wanna get something out quickly. You know, you wanna control every word. You wanna control your cover design. And make more money per book, then self-publish.

Okay, thank you. That makes it extremely clear. What is the process if an author's interested in moving the needle and working with you? What would that process look like?

So there are different things that people need. So for example, if somebody wants to write a book, but they're just not clear on what that book is, we might do book coaching and guide the person to create detailed chapter summaries. Here's your theme, here's your detailed chapter summaries, and then you're gonna write each chapter and then get feedback, revise, get more feedback, revise, and then we'll edit. So I'm just talking about the content aspect right now.

Absolutely, absolutely, I understand.

You know, if you're pressed for time, then ghostwriting is a great option. And we will do a bunch of interviews and create the detailed chapter summaries and then constantly be speaking with you to really make sure we get your voice correctly. And we get your message correct because we've ghostwritten a number of books that have gotten six-figure deals. We really know how to, we really know how to do the ghostwriting. In fact, in this last week alone, I've gotten two people book deals with different publishers and they're both for books that we ghostwrote. And our ghostwriting is confidential. So we never tell people like, you know, which books, you know, were ghostwritten. We just, ask to be, you know, acknowledged as editors. And let's say somebody wants to just write the book themselves, then bring it to us. That's another option. And if that's the case, then we start by doing a read-through and analysis. And that, it's a very detailed analysis going page by page using the comments bar in Word. And so a typical process is we analyze, it goes back to the author to input changes, and then it can come to us for editing. And in that analysis round, we're also discerning, is this a book that we think a publisher will want to buy? Because I tell people, there's a book you want to write, or the book you've written or are writing, and the book a publisher will buy. Are they the same book? And so in that analysis round, we are discerning that.

Okay. And that, it seems, it strikes me that that probably should be early in the the process. Am I— is that correct?

That is correct.

You want to reverse engineer from what the market will buy. I know you and I have talked a bit when I've gotten calls from authors that wanted to talk to you, and I made the introduction, and we determined that the book was probably not— what are the misconceptions about that authors have about what may or may not sell? This is in that zone of what mistakes authors make in terms of how they think about this process. Sure.

You know, I You know, I want to share that one of the biggest mistakes people do is to do things out of the proper sequence. So I'll have people have contact me and they'll say, you know, they've been querying agents. And I'll say, well, has your book been analyzed? No. Has it been edited? No. Did you put together a book proposal? Yes. Did you have it reviewed by anyone who's actually in the industry and knows what a book proposal, which is a business plan, needs, how it needs to read. No, they just, people just think they know what they know. And I don't expect people to know my industry, an industry that I've been in, you know, for 25 years. I mean, there's a reason why I get so many people book deals, you know, because it's doing things in the right sequence. So that is like, you know, a major thing I see. In query letters, people don't know how to query correctly either. And so, you know, very clear, like when I query, you know, I have all the ingredients that a publisher or agent wants to see. And most people mess that up. They just don't know really what an agent or publisher wants to see. Wow.

So the guidance from you is so profoundly important if they don't know how to do this, the format of what is needed, the elements, the assets, and also the sequence of events. Sounds like all of these things are important.

You know, one of the things that's really important, let me just say this as well, is that I will never, never waste anyone's money. I am not about that. You know, there are too many companies out that I hear, you know, are charging outrageous amounts. I don't do that. I really don't. I don't waste anyone's money.

Okay, thank you. That's very important to know.

You've been listening to Media Minds with your host, David Wolf. Media Minds is produced by Audavita Studios, a premier production company producing audiobooks and podcasts for clients worldwide. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about the team at Audavita Studios, visit audavita.com.

Are there certain types of books that, and this may be a trend and depending on, you know, the season we're in, in terms of markets and the way they evolve, but what types of books are trending or selling best? And conversely, which are the hardest hardest to sell to publishers.

Right, right. So I'll just share of the books just in this year alone that I've sold. That includes 6 business books. Business books are typically the easiest for me to sell. There are some qualifying conditions, but yes, 6 business books, 2 whistleblower books, 2 self-help books, 2 mind-body-spirit books, a memoir, a political book, a guidebook, and 2 novels. And that's what I can just think of off the top of my head.

Wow. So a small portion was novel. Yeah, no, that's great. That's really good. It gives us the spectrum and also the proportional spectrum. Yes. So only 2 were novels, which is interesting.

Well, it's just because of what I've gotten in. It's really what I've gotten in. When it comes to the novels, I work with top, top literary agents. That I secure for my people for their novels. And not only that, but my editor for novels is a former publisher from Simon Schuster. He is the guy who bought the books. So when he gives me the thumbs up, I can sell them.

He's gonna know.

That's, yeah.

Yeah.

And he's so good working with authors. People love working with him.

So. And it sounds like there's an appetite for business books and self-help.

Yes.

Well, talk about that a little bit. What have you learned about the type? You said there's some qualifying characteristics.

Yes. So let me share what I mean by that. In a book proposal, which is a 20 to 30 page business plan required, absolutely mandatory for all nonfiction, the first major section of it is called the overview, typically 4 double-spaced pages in which we're just talking about, you know, what is this book about and why should a publisher care? And I love to be able to start the entire overview by giving the author's title. So title of the book is the first book to, and then fill in the blank. Because if you can fill in a blank, that means you own that lane. Publishers, yeah, publishers don't want to, they don't want to provide a book deal to somebody who's, who's quoting other people or using material that's been hashed over and hashed over. You have to own a lane. You have to bring something new to a conversation that's happening. And if you own that lane, and that goes back to your branding, how you own your lane.

That's right.

You know, and how you're speaking about it. That is gold. That is your goal.

And I love your setup sentence there. It makes it very simple to understand. And it's, it's deceptively simple, isn't it? For probably some authors to really figure out figure out how to complete that sentence and own their lane? I'm guessing it's elusive. Yeah.

So I want to share some of my secret sauce, if I may.

Oh, we would love that.

So in the book proposal, there's one section called About the Competition. And so how you do this section, and you might even do this section, if you're serious about getting a traditional publisher, Even before you write one word of your book, you might even want to try this exercise or wherever you are in the process of writing your book. Go on Amazon, put in keywords related to your subject matter and pull up the most recent books you can find. So like in 2025, you're probably not going to want to go back past 2023 if possible. So, and find books that relate to your book. Choose 5 titles, 5 to 7 titles, and you're going to put them in chronological descending order from publication date. And what you're going to do is you're going to do some copying and pasting, and you're going to copy and paste their, their information, their, their title, the author, the name of the author, the year of publication, and the name of the publisher. And then scroll down the page and copy and paste their editorial text. You're going to do that for at least 5 to 7 of those titles. Now, for each of them, you need to write an equal amount of text that you've written, whatever their text is, about how your book differs and is therefore better. Now, you don't want to use—

And just to clarify, Randy, the editorial text is what? Just so I understand.

It's actually on the page and it's their description. It's the author or their description of the book.

Oh, it's the description of the book.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, you can say it. So if you're on Amazon, that's what you're reading there.

Yeah.

I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure I understood.

Yeah, and you can shorten it to a paragraph each. Not, you know, if they're going on and on, just bring it down to a paragraph.

Right, sometimes they're going on.

Show how your book differs and do that for 5 titles. Nothing self-published. Use, find, you know, the most reputable publishers. If you see Wiley or Penguin Random House or HarperCollins, you know, or Hay House, whatever it is, use those kind of titles and compare yourself to them. Now here's my secret sauce. After you've done that for 5 to 7 titles, you wanna go back and what I say is turn their glow down and turn yours up. And what I mean by that is that their editorial text shows all these different adjectives and superlatives. You know, they're the greatest and the best. Their book is the first book too. No, you are the first book too. So you take out all the adjectives and superlatives, turn their glow down, turn yours up. So that's just like one little technique out of many that we do in a book proposal.

So it's really a writing exercise. Are you literally taking— when you're toning theirs down, you're actually editing their editorial copy?

Yes, that is it.

That's fascinating. So that you better understand, it's a thinking exercise to really understand the taking the glow out and putting it in. Well, you said it well, so I don't have to reiterate.

Turn your glow down, turn yours up.

Turn it, there it is. Yeah.

See, I'm always looking to tip the sail in the favor of my authors.

I love it.

You know, and so these are just these little techniques that make a big difference.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anything else you'd like us to know about the process and the state of the market now?

You know, it's really interesting because, you know, I hear so many people, you know, just making general comments. Oh, people aren't reading books. They're not buying books. Not true. Absolutely not true. You know, so I just want to share whether the book's coming out in print or in audiobooks, you know, I mean, there is a market and it is alive and it is happening and it can be national. It can be international. A number of my books, once they're sold to publishers, the publishers sell foreign rights. You know, there are just incredible opportunities.

Opportunities to monetize them in many different markets across the globe. Your company is AuthorOneStop.com. That's the website for more information about the work Randy Peiser is doing. What a delight and how informative for our author audience. Today. Thank you for being with us.

Very welcome.

You've been listening to Media Minds with your host, David Wolf. Media Minds is produced by Audivita Studios, a premier production company producing audiobooks and podcasts for clients worldwide. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about the team at Audivita Studios, visit audivita.com.