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How to Get Traditional Publishing Deal

Published on: 27th November, 2014

Today I am talking to Farnoosh Brock. I've been following her online since few tears already. Farnoosh is an inspiring online entrepreneur. She quit her 6 figure job and now is the passionate founder and president of Prolific Living. She has also been published by a major publishing house - twice!

Farnoosh Brock's Story

Farnoosh had a long 11+ years corporate career. She had everything you could imagine for a perfect dream corporate job. But she wasn't happy. She was looking for something that would fulfill her. She was looking for distractions to keep her busy - so Farnoosh started blogging. And blogging took off for her. Maybe that's because Farnoosh was passionate writer. For several years Farnoosh's blog was a hobby, but it grew with the time and more it grew more she was interested in blogging and less interested in her corporate job.

In 2010 Farnoosh attended the bloggers conference the Blogworld event in Las Vegas.

At that conference I saw people, who have turned their online blog into a full time business.

She came back home from there and started looking at her blog as business. She started her newsletter, thought about launching her first product and write her first book - Writing Manifesto. She gave it away to her readers, but it did not do well because they were coming to her blog for personal development.

At that point Farnoosh was assigned a project she did not want to work on. She also felt so unhappy at work. That is why Farnoosh resigned. 2 years after that she even hired her husband to come on board and together they are running their online business now.

The Entrepreneurial Journey

Farnoosh told:

"My company was my identity – my corporate job. Not a minute of this three years I have regretted my decision. Have I missed anything – anything at all. I’ve almost forgotten that I was part of that corporation. This is so the right thing for me. There has never been that looking back and thinking that I should have staid – ever!

There’s leaving where you’ve been miserable and there’s arriving to that next place. And that has been very difficult.

Even before the publishing deal came, I was self-publishing my own books and creating my own products. There have been products which did not do well. In fact the very first product I was in love with myself it didn’t do well at all and it was too hard to come to terms with that.

And it’s so necessary – it has to happen. You have to fail and to deal with it. And to learn from it and to see that it’s part of the process. You just don’t quit something and jump to a series of success. It does not happen that way to anyone.

Everyone that you admire has had struggles. It was a shift to being very much on your own. It is a lonely journey – so you have to create opportunity to connect. You have to be part of mastermind, support communities, etc that will help you. The one thing that helped me get me through was the support of my husband.

When you see online entrepreneurs, writers, bloggers – the people who are really successful, they get help. They hire mentors, they hire coaches. They invest in themselves, they put money on the table. Be willing to invest in yourself.

There is no secret formula. You just have to follow the road. If this is your road you have to take it."

How did Faroosh get traditional publishing deal

Farnoosh said:

"At first I published 5 self-published non-fiction books on Kindle. Most successful book on Kindle store was the green juicing guide. It was selling 100s of copies a month at $9.99. You plan your entrepreneurship journey and something completely different happens. So that success was quite unexpected.

That book was actually how traditional publishers found us. They contacted us. At first they refused. When they came and persisted and we agreed to write a new book. It was…. And I had only 6 weeks to write that book, which by now have sold around 30k copies.

Self-publishing opens doors of opportunities. When you publish on Kindle store and get natural readers and good reviews publishers come to you. Being traditionally published was not about money – it was about the credibility, which still comes when you have a traditionally published book.

If you have not published take your opportunity to publish using self-publishing. Otherwise you are wasting your time. Your book has to come out today for your readers.

If you are writing to be read as opposed to be published by fancy publisher then you have to publish."

Self-publishing vs Traditional publishing

Farnoosh told:

"For us both – self publishing route and the traditional publishing route have been successful. The reason we had the 2nd deal from the traditional publisher was because we worked with them as equal partners. When the book was handed over for editing I started working on the marketing to help them sell the book. I used my platform online to promote my book.

The distribution power of the traditional publishers is so much bigger. Many people who otherwise would never see your book otherwise. It can be a lead generation for you.

Self publishing has given us the opportunity – it has opened a door.

For every book it’s different, for every person it’s different. The first door you can have absolute control on is the Kindle door. If you don’t have a literary agent or traditional publisher then self publish on Amazon and do your best to promote the book."

Book Marketing Ideas Farnoosh implemented

We decided to do a book trailer and put that up on a page and linked to all the places the book was selling at.
We worked together with the publicist. I was offered free copies. I tapped into my network and send individual e-mails. They said yes, we sent out the books and I followed up. And we got media coverage.
Barnes and Nobles had us make smoothies in the bookstores. They let me sell my books there.
I put together a media kit for the book. Making super easy for people who were willing to promote the book. (you can access the media kit Farnoosh created by clicking here).
Using non-standard creative approach