Why I Said No to a Two Book Deal
(part 1)
Tell Them You Lied has been out in the world for over a week now, and I have no idea what is going on with it. Is it selling? Is it stagnating? Has anyone beyond my friends and family purchased it? Can I do anything about it? The truth is I don’t know. I might not know for a while. And this has made me a sleepless, anxiety-ridden mess.
What better time, then, to talk about something I did have control over? To dive back into the whole purpose of this Substack– which is to make the publishing process a little more transparent. I’m feeling a little braver after listening to this week’s TSNTYAW (thank you, Bianca!), I’m ready (I think) to talk about another bump in the road: My offer.
We have to go back in time two and a half years, to December 16, 2022, the day I received my formal offer for Tell Them You Lied. (If you want to see a detailed timeline of all things publishing, please check out this interview I did with my writing partner and friend,
, on her Substack last week.) I was in Austin, TX with a friend of mine, having champagne at two o’clock in the afternoon to celebrate our 45th birthdays. It was a Friday, 4pm on the East Coast, and I had my phone face-up on the table. I had already had “the call” with the acquiring editor, and I knew the offer (or the pass) could come at any moment.And then it came. CeCe’s name lit up my phone, and I downed my glass of champagne and hustled into the hallway to pick up.
“We got the offer,” she said.
“And?” If I hadn’t been day-drunkenly anesthetized, my heart probably would’ve started pounding. “Is it good?”
She hesitated. “It’s a good offer.”
From that little pause, I knew the other shoe was about to drop—hard, and right on my hopes and dreams. “But…?”
“But,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a good offer for you.”
(And that, friends, is the nutshell version of what it feels like to try to get a book deal— the highest high and the lowest low within the same 30 seconds.)
CeCe went on to explain what she thought was the problem—it was a six-figure advance for a two-book deal. I wanted to argue back– But, wait, isn’t that the dream? Isn’t that what writers are told to strive for?
The answer, of course, is yes– so many of us think that a multi-book deal is the ultimate goal. It ensures that no matter how poorly your first book does, you get to try again. But, I also understood that accepting this deal would cone from a place of fear, not ambition— fear that I would never get another chance—and we all know how we feel about choosing fear over ambition. (If you know CeCe, you know the answer is not great.)
Taking that two book deal would mean that I was beholden to the whims of that one publisher, which could pose problems down the line—my acquiring editor could leave at any time, and there was no guarantee that the next person would like my book; the higher-ups could reject my book #2 proposal; or they could sit on it, or delay my progress, or otherwise derail me. What’s more— I already had book #2 written. It had taken so long (eight months, but who’s counting) to get an offer for book #1 that book #2 was ready to go. CeCe and I both loved book #2. My would-be publisher hadn’t even seen it.
So, there was a chance that, by taking this 2-book deal, we’d be selling book #2 short. At the same time—this had to be said—there was an equal chance that if I didn’t take this deal, I would never sell Book #2.
I might not even sell Book #1.
It was up to me to decide: Do I take the safe bet? Or do I bet on myself?
My therapist didn’t understand the problem, so CeCe became my therapist. I spoke to many confidantes (thank you to Bianca Marais and Jennifer Close and Andi Bartz and Amanda Pellegrino and Caitlin Kunkel and Caitlin Barasch and Francesca King), and I knew I was really torn because whenever someone pushed me in one direction I pushed back in the other. It didn’t matter which side they pushed toward, I was dead-set on going the other way.
It took a few weeks, but in the end, I sided with my ambition. CeCe was able to negotiate a good one-book deal with the publisher, not quite six figures (not yet at least– but I will save that story for another post), and not a hardcover (again not yet at least–listen to my interview on TSNOTYAW for more on that).
In the revised offer, the publisher had an option clause, meaning they would have the right to look at / make an offer on my next book before I tried to sell it to anyone else. I could send them my book #2 at any point after my D&A (Delivery and Acceptance, when you turn in the manuscript to the publisher and they accept it), and they would have 60 days to make an offer.
It seemed fair. Negotiating took a little more than six weeks, but we agreed to terms. The actual contract, however, didn’t arrive for another 10 months.
Does anyone want to guess what happened just one month after I signed that contract? If you’ve been here a while, you might already know.
My acquiring editor quit her job.
We knew it might happen, and it did. What about the option book, you ask? Stay tuned for Part 2!!!
And in the meantime—for all my midwestern friends, I will be chatting and signing books at the Joseph Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati (where, incidentally, I worked while I was in grad school) on June 11
—and for all my NYC friends, I will be in conversation with the great CeCe Lyra herself at the Atlantic Avenue Barnes & Noble on June 17
DM me for details on either event! And if you want to support me and this Substack, grab a copy of TTYL wherever books are sold 🤓
First, I bought your book, so there's a sale you can count :-)
Second, I have great admiration for CeCe Lyra for counseling you to not jump at a six-figure offer because it might not be good for you. That's the kind of long-term vision and commitment to your career you want in an agent, and she obviously has great faith in you. Huge congrats!
Wow, this is so eye opening. As an emerging author, it's great to hear what some of the pitfalls can be when considering a book deal. As someone who's still dreaming of getting an agent it can sometimes be hard to hear that there's choices to be made even after getting a book deal offer, but I think it's so important to hear about so that we can be prepared and consider the benefits and drawbacks for our long-term careers as well. Thank you for sharing your insight!