Getting Published as a Subject Matter Expert with Chad R. Allen

Episode 131

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Are you one of those people that really believes you have a book in you? Or maybe you’ve written a book already. Perhaps you self-published and now you’re thinking to yourself, “You know, I really think that I need to get published next time by a traditional publisher. I’d like a book deal.” Well, today’s episode with Chad R. Allen is right up your alley.

Chad is a writing coach and the founder of Book Proposal Academy and Book Camp who’s been on the podcast before. And today, we are going to talk about a lot of things that you can really relate to if you’re a subject matter expert.

In this episode, Chad shares the three ingredients of publishing success, the importance of building a platform before you submit any proposals, how many people he recommends having on your email list by the time you send out proposals, his thoughts on ghostwriters and whether or not they work for subject matter experts, at point in the process you should start looking for an agent, the basic components of a book proposal, the value of having being part of a community of others who’re also going through this process, his biggest internal hurdle to being a voice of influence, and more!

Take a listen to the episode!

Mentioned in this episode:

 

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Transcript

People of influence know that their voice matters, and they work to make it matter more.  I’m Andrea Wenburg, and this is the Voice of Influence podcast.

Are you one of those people that really believe that you have a book in you?  Or maybe you’ve written a book already. Perhaps you self-published, and now you’re thinking to yourself, “You know, I really think that I need to get published next time by a traditional publisher.”  “I’d like a book deal.”

Well, today’s episode is “Write Up Your Alley.”  You’re going to get a lot out of this episode with Chad Allen.

Chad is a writing coach and the founder of Book Proposal Academy and BookCamp.  And today, we are going to talk about a lot of things that you can really relate to if you’re a subject matter expert.  We’re diving into that, because I’ve actually had Chad on the podcast before. He was in episode number 9; you can’t succeed as a writer until you take the first step.

It’s been two and a half years since that last episode aired and I really encourage you to go back and listen to it, because we do cover a few same things.  But for the most part, we really tried to dive into what it would be like for, in particular, a subject matter expert to get published. So, what we talked about here today is the reason that he made this journey from being a managing editor at Baker Books to actually working with authors to work to help them get their work out into the world.

We talked about the three seeds or pillars of book publishing success and how those specifically apply to subject matter experts.  And then we also discussed his biggest internal hurdle to being of voice of influence, which I’m pretty sure that you will be able to relate to.  I think we, probably, all can in some way or another.

Chad has a ton of resources available on his website which we will link too in our show notes, as always, at voiceofinfluence.net,

Here’s my interview with Chad Allen:

Andrea:  All right, Chad Allen, it is great to have you, again, on the Voice of Influence podcast.

Chad Allen:  Thanks a lot for having me.  I’ve been looking forward to this.

Andrea:  Me too, me too.  I was listening to our conversation from three years ago.  It’s really two and a half years ago about right now and I was just struck by how much neat was in there and how many good things that people had to chew on after that conversation.  And so, I thank you again for that and I know that today is going to be just like that was.

Chad Allen:  Awesome!  Well, yeah, I mean you and I, we always go into an interesting direction, so let’s see what we can do this time.

Andrea:  That’s right.  That’s right. OK, so the last time that we talk – well, the last time you were in the podcast, you were an editor for Baker Books.  Can you tell us what has changed for you and your career since then?

Chad Allen:  Yeah, big change – about a year and a half.  So, in about four months, little less than that, I will have been on my own for two years.  I worked in traditional publishing for about 20 years, worked at Baker for over 16 years. The last seven of which as editorial director of the Baker Books division, you know, overseeing 60 some books published a year and transitioned that out to working as a fulltime writing coach.  And people hear it were like “Gee, how do you do that?” Well, it sounds much more sudden than it was. I mean, I had been blogging for writers for years and that were sort of enabled me to make a smooth transition out of corporate into working for myself. So, that’s what I’ve been doing.

Andrea:  So, what is the lure or the…I don’t know, what was the draw for going out on your own and being a writing coach versus having so much influences as an editing director?

Chad Allen:  Yeah, that’s a great question.  I mean, there are probably few different factors but the main one, I mean, the reason I started the blog in the first place was because I was feeling called, like internally, like there was this, you know, I don’t know.  It is intuition. It’s God, it’s a sense of vocation, you know. You can use lots of different words to describe it. Some people might use the word God to describe it or whatever it is, like I felt this internal pull to begin serving writers on my own.

And part of that was, when I was working for Baker, I regularly had to tell writers “no.”  My job was to bring books under contract, but for every book I brought into contract, I said no to 20 others.  So, I was saying no a lot. I was like “I’m tired of this.” Like, I really think I can help writers. I want to say yes to them.  So, my blog really became a place where I could do that. And that sense, that internal pull toward that work only increased over time because I think I enjoyed the work and because I was seeing the response from writers – people who appreciated what I was doing.  And then of course, it really came to before when I started creating products that people started buying. That was real validation that I needed to move more and more in this direction.

Andrea:  So, what exactly do you provide as a writing coach?

Chad Allen:  Well, yeah, so this business I’ve started, full time at least, is less than two years old.  So, I’m still figuring that out. I can tell you this; one of my areas of specialty is helping writers with nonfiction book proposals.  That has become a real sweet spot, which of course makes sense because, you know, when I was in the traditional publishing space, I reviewed thousands of book proposals.  So, when a writer told me years ago, “You know, if you could help me with writing a book proposal that would be really helpful.” My first thought was “My goodness, I’ve literally reviewed thousands of book proposals, I think I would have few things to say about how to write a good one.”

Andrea:  Absolutely.

Chad Allen:  And so, my first product was, of course, called Book Proposal Academy and that was kind of the beginning of my move in this direction.  And now it’s just gone different ways. You know, you can still get the course but then you can also get 101 coaching with me. I provide a small-group experience now.  You know, it’s a six-month experience of building a platform and writing a proposal, that’s called Book Proposal Academy Elite. But the core competency, the core service is really helping writers craft compelling book proposals.

Andrea:  I think it’s interesting that the opportunity to say yes to writers is what drew you in because what I know of you and your voice, and I worked with you one-on-one as well, you are incredibly encouraging while being realistic.  So, it’s like you are saying yes to writers and then you’re also _____ to writers, I think, in order to help them to actually move forward.

Chad Allen:  Yeah, thank you for that.  I think that’s right, and for whatever reason, that space really works for me.  I don’t ever want to give writers false hope, right? Like, I don’t want to say “Oh, you’ll absolutely get a book deal.”  At the same time, you know, I have a pretty good sense of what you need to do to plan a book deal, and so I can see where a writer is.  I can see a path they can take toward getting to a traditional book contract. And because I can see those two things, I feel really comfortable encouraging them, guiding them, and helping them on the path to get where they ultimately want to go.

Andrea:  So, do the people that work with you usually – are they pursuing a traditional book proposal or is it possible that they might go self-publishing as well?

Chad Allen:  Yeah.  So, I would say, I mean this isn’t scientific but I would say, at least 75 percent of the people I end up working with are interested in a traditional book deal.  Many of them get one, but they all know and I told them, “If for some reason it doesn’t work out and you get tired of trying to pursue a traditional deal, don’t let your dream die, like, self-publishing is still a great option.”  So, that’s how that works.

Andrea:  Sure.  OK, one of the ways that I wanted to take this conversation today, to kind of narrow or focus a little bit more would be on subject matter experts.  People who particularly adept and understand a specific kind of subject matter within their career, their job, and they have something to say about that; sometimes their voice may not get or carry the same amount of weight that it could or maybe it should.  And it seems to me that it would make sense for them to shoot for publishing getting published as an author. What are your thoughts on the subject matter expert as an author?

Chad Allen:  Well, I think the first step is confidence in one’s own ability or in one’s own expertise and authority.  And I remember reading Brendon Burchard’s The Millionaire Messenger, and in that book he writes – it was the first book I ever read that said, “You know what, you have expertise…” and I’m saying this now to your listener’s, you have expertise that people will gladly pay you for.  When I read that, Andrea, I was like “Wait, really? Is that really true?” You know, it was like this spark of hope and that was really pivotal for me in the early days.

And so, I think that first step that is just trusting that that’s true.  You have expertise, you have authority, and your guidance in your area is just extremely valuable.  And I think the next step is to begin serving your audience. They’re out there. I promise you, you have a tribe.  And many of your listeners may have already started building one. But if not, like just trust your tribe is out there.  Begin serving them by creating content and that can come in the form of speeches, podcasts, blogs, or videos. I mean, there are lots of different ways to serve and audience.

You know, the best books are those that come organically out of the work that an author has been doing for a while, you know.  So, for example, if you were to write a book called Voice of Influence, you already did the Unfrozen book, but if you want to do Voice of Influence, you know that would come from years now of doing this podcast and serving your audience with this message, with this commitment.  And it would have more weight because of that work you’ve done.

So, right, I told writers “Look, don’t wait for a publisher to give you permission to serve your audience.”  I mean, we have a global audience at our fingertips. It is unheard of, right? It’s amazing _____ the influence that we can have.  So, start with that and then a book can come from that work.

Andrea:  OK.  I kind of remember you talking about maybe three pillars or something about a book proposal, am I right on that?

Chad Allen:  Mm-hmm.

Andrea:  OK.

Chad Allen:  Yeah.

Andrea:  Could you share what those were again?  You did talk about it in the other episode but share with us what those are again?

Chad Allen:  Well, they’re time tested.  They don’t get old. They’re kind of classic, the classic three ingredients of publishing success.  And this is true whether you’re self-publishing or traditional publishing – a great concept. And a publisher will sometimes refer of these as the three seeds; Concept, Crowd, and Craft.  So, Concept is what’s the problem your book is solving and how do you that in a unique way. The more effectively you communicate about that, the stronger your concept is. And great concepts market themselves.  That’s why they’re so important. So, start there.

And then Crowd and sometimes, you’ll hear the word platform.  This is the author’s ability to reach an audience. So, one way to do that is with a podcast, you know.  So, what is your ability to reach your audience – that’s your platform. That’s your ability to reach your crowd.  And then Craft is pretty simple – how good a writer are you? You know, is the book written in a compelling way? When you have those three things in place then you have the makings of a book that kind of have a big impact.

Andrea:  That’s great.  OK, so, the concept sells itself is got to be really good.  We did talk about that one a little bit more in the last episode.  I think it was episode number 9 of the Voice of Influence podcast, but we’ll link to that in the show notes for sure.  When it comes to crowd and craft, I’ve a couple of questions for you. So, I think that of all the things, most people are most intimidated by this idea of building a platform or creating that crowd for their work.  Why is that essential and how can somebody who is busy – they’re in their expertise and working on their projects or they’re in their job all the time. They’re not thinking in terms of crowd and to aim in building a platform, why should they think about that and how did they even begin?

Chat Allen:  Well, I would say, if somebody is listening to this and they’re feeling that internal pull as I did years ago and it’s not going away, then it’s important to marry that with the reality that we all have a little bit of time in about which we get to make decisions, you know.  How are we going to use that a little bit of time that we have to do with us we wish. And six or seven years ago what I started doing is getting up a little earlier and putting on my backpack and walk into my neighborhood coffee shop. I mean, I still have very fond memories of doing it.  And at 6:00 a.m., I’d walk into this coffee shop. The guys know Grand Rapids, it’s the Biggby on Michigan Ave., and I would go in there and I would start typing. And you know, it was just me and the keyboard doing our thing for a long time, but that is how I slowly began to build an audience.

And then you know, you meet people along the way.  You can naturally seek out people who can help you start building an email list.  But the thing is don’t get overwhelmed with… Sometimes, we let our fears about the future sabotage what we do in the process.  And I would just encourage people, “Don’t do that, just start today what’s one thing you can do today to move yourself forward, and then when you get up tomorrow, ask the same question.”  If you start with “Oh gosh, I need a thousand email subscribers,” you know and that could be really self _____. And you know, I love what Jon Acuff says “Don’t compare your middle…” Or in this case your beginning to someone else’s middle, you know.  Just start, would be my advice.

Andrea:  So, when it comes to actually doing a book proposal and getting published then what should people be shooting for in terms of platform on social media or in their email list?  What are the actual numbers that they should be shooting for?

Chad Allen:  Well, that’s a question I get a lot.  You know, “What’s the number, Chad?” So, the number of I would give people is I say, “Shoot for a thousand email subscribers.”  And email is really the metric that we’re using these days for the sizing of platform. Your Facebook following is important. Yeah, your Twitter following and Instagram; all of it is important.  But the key metric is your email list. And by the way, there are ways of converting your Facebook followers into email subscribers, but I would shoot for a thousand.

Now, we have authors with few of them a thousand email subscribers landed book contracts.  Yes, have authors with 20,000 email subscribers failed to win a contract. Yes, it’s one factor.  There are three factors and it’s one. But it’s an important one and so my role if I may, shoot for a thousand.  But again, don’t get overwhelmed with that in the beginning. In the beginning, just start doing the work because eventually, you know, you get there.

Andrea:  OK, a thousand doesn’t seem like it’s out of, you know…

Chad Allen:  Not for you, because you’ve been doing this before.

Andrea:  Right, right.  No, I mean, even it’s starting…I think the first number I ever heard was 10,000.  So, that totally _____ out. I was like “Oh my gosh, there is no way I could get published then.”  And so that’s the reason why I went with self-publishing Unfrozen in the beginning. So, it’s interesting that you’re saying a thousand.

Chad Allen:  Yeah.  Well, I have just seen a number of people get interest from publishers at/or even below that level.  So, if you have a great concept, if your writing is compelling, if your proposal is strong, you know, let’s say you have a great marketing plan, sometimes it’s that combination of things that can help a publisher capture a vision for you and your book.

Andrea:  OK, perfect.  All right, so in terms of craft, some people are very comfortable writing, some people might enjoy the idea of writing, but they don’t have time.  They like literally don’t have time. They’re so busy that they don’t have time to do it, to dig in and get better to their craft that sort of thing – to what extent have you seen ghostwriting work for folks like that?

Chad Allen:  Works all the time, yeah.  Yeah, and that’s true, some people – they have the expertise.  They have the authority in a particular space, so they really are the author but they need a writer to help get the content into book form.  So, I think, it’s a perfectly legitimate way to get a book into the world. And let’s face it, like if your expertise is, I don’t know, human resources and somebody else’s expertise is writing, you know, it kind of makes sense to combine the two to create the best book possible.  So that would take some resources, I mean, a ghostwriter doesn’t come for free typically, but it’s a great way to get a book into the world.

Andrea:  Do you recommend that if somebody wanted to go that route, do they try to find their own ghostwriter?  Is that where they could start?

Chad Allen:  Yeah.  I think so, yeah.  I mean, it wasn’t very often that we in the publishing world would…there were some cases where we really had a vision for a0. project.  We knew the author had, for example, a great platform but maybe the author’s writing ability, you know, needed a little help. And so, we would go and help them find a ghostwriter.  But more often than not, the projects came to us with the pair already in place. So, I would ask around. And the book you want to write, you know, in that space see who the ghostwriters are out there and start sending emails and see if see if you can buy in somebody who can help you out.

Andrea:  When people starts with their book proposal, what point in the process do they start that?  And should they be seeking out an agent before writing the book proposal? Is an agent even necessary?

Chad Allen:  Yeah.  You know, you can start your book proposal anytime.  My advice is to at least get a website up and start serving, you know, audience for a while and then as you begin to develop your concept that will makes sense to work on a proposal.  You learn so much about your book by just doing the work of a book proposal. In terms of agents, the larger publishers typically do not accept what they call unsolicited proposals. So, the only that you can get to hear with those larger house is with an agent.  And then different agents have different submission guidelines. Some want just a query, you know, just a description of your book initially. But eventually, you will need a book for all of it. The agent is going to need a book proposal to pitch your book to publishers.

So, I always recommend, even you’re pursuing an agent who doesn’t want a proposal at the beginning, it’s a good idea to have a proposal already written so that when the agent replies and says “Yes, I wanna work with you,” you have a proposal you can send them right away because eventually you’re going need that.

Andrea:  So, for those who don’t know, what are some of the basic components of a book proposal?

Chad Allen:  Yes.  So, there’s the cover page obviously, which is where you kind of present your title and subtitle.  It sounds really simple but actually your title and subtitle encapsulate your book concept – the first C.  We talked about how important that concept is. Your title and subtitle in many ways, they are your book concept.  So, very simple to put a title and subtitle on a piece of paper but the process of coming up with a compelling concept takes a lot of work.

Then, I will put up the major elements – there are more than these.  But the major elements are the cover page with maybe a few alternative titles and subtitles, the brief description which is a three-to- five-paragraph vision statement for your book, your bio, a table of contents and chapter by chapter synapses, your marketing plan and sometimes it gets divided into platform, and marketing plan, and then the writing sample.  It’s usually about three chapters of the proposed book. So, those are the major elements of a book proposal.

Andrea:  OK, so let’s see.  Is there anything else that I’m missing in terms of asking, you know, what is subject matter expert, in particular, would need to consider when they’re thinking about the idea of writing in doing a book proposal?

Chad Allen:  You know, you could ask a question like if someone out there is considering this but they’re nervous about trying to do it on their own, what might they do so that this isn’t quite so solitary.

Andrea:  OK, got you.  All right, if someone out there is thinking about doing this, they might be a little daunted by the idea of trying to tackle this on their own, what are some of the options that they have that they could do?

Chad Allen:  Yeah, that’s great.  So, I do think it’s really important to have a community that you’re doing this with.  And so, it kind of depends on what you want to accomplish. So, if you want to start a blog, to kind of begin serving your audience, there are communities or people out there who have an interest in the same thing.  And so you can search out those communities. With my friend, Jonathan Milligan, he runs Blogging your Passion. There’s a Facebook group and there’s this whole community of people who are interested on being on that journey together.

If you want to write a book and you want to be in a community of people who are trying to figure out how to write a book, I would point you to BookCamp, my own community of writers.  You can go to chadrallen.com and you can find the information on BookCamp where I kind of service a coach or community of people. You know, there’s some training involved, some mentoring.  You can get direct coaching from me in BookCamp, but that’s a great community. But wherever you go, think about what you want to accomplish and then search out communities either virtually or where you are locally that could support you on that journey.  Because you’re absolutely right, like if you try to do this on your own, I mean, you might be a little _____ but chances are you’re going to get worn out and give up, you know. So, I don’t want to see that happen. I want to see your listeners thrive. And so, yes, listen to that impulse and go find that community of support.

Andrea:  I think it’s a really good idea, because it can feel very isolating.  It can feel very lonely, especially when you’re trying to kind of confront some of your own internal battles that might come up because writing can be a very strenuous thing on your own soul.  Chad, when I think about that, I’m curious about you. What is one of your biggest internal hurdles to having a voice of influence for yourself?

Chad Allen:  Yeah.  Thank you for asking.  I think it’s, in many ways, the question that we all have to answer.  And I’ll tell you a little story if I could that illustrates this in my own life.  Last fall, I was having lunch with an entrepreneur – he’s a little farther along than I am.  His name is Bryan Harris. He’s my buddy, a friend from Tennessee. And we’re having lunch and he said, “So, what are you excited about right now?”  And I said, “Well, you know, I’ve never done this before but I’m really excited about getting a small group of people together and this wouldn’t be for everybody because the price would be a little higher than it would be six months that I would coach them on writing a book proposal and building a platform.”  “And we would become a community together as we do this and there’d be an _____ like halfway through and I would try to help all of these people land book deals.” “I’m really excited about that.” “But I’m nervous because I’ve never done anything like it.” And Bryan looked at me, you know, and he said “You can totally do that.”  He said, “I love this idea, you can totally do that.” “You can do that by this time next month.” “You can have 10 people sign that.”

And it was like, the fact that Bryan believed in me was everything.  And I went it off and sure enough, it didn’t happen as quickly as he said but I got some people signed up by then and that was enough momentum for me to carry on and it happened.  And it was an incredible experience. And so, I think belief in oneself is so important. And as long as I can keep the faith, as long as I can find people like Bryan to believe in me when I’m having trouble believing in me so that I can get to live my way into that belief from own self, “I’m all right.”  “I’ll do just fine.” But if I’m isolating, like we talked about before and I’m just struggling with myself talk, I don’t know. I think that’s like 70 to 80 percent of the game right there. Just believe in yourself so that’s would I would point to.

Andrea:  I really appreciate that perspective because I think there have been times when I’ve heard maybe coaches or mindset gurus who would say, “It’s all about your belief in yourself.”  “It’s all about that and you just need to believe in yourself.” It could just happen, like as though you could put the switch. But what you just told us that there are times when you have to rely on other people’s belief in you so that you can live into that and I also found that to be true.  It helps tremendously to have outside validation, not just to make you feel better, but to actually help you believe that it’s possible.

Chad Allen:  Yes.  So, seek those people out, absolutely.  Like even as we’re talking about, you know, Brandon Burchard did that for me in the book I read and then Bryan did it for me over lunch.  And now there’s another fellow that I’m in regular communication with _____. So, it’s not always going to be the same person but I would just encourage your listeners to be ______ about looking for who that could be.  Sometimes we do, we sort of to borrow the belief of others to move forward.

Andrea:  Hmm.  So, Chad, again, people can find you where?

Chad Allen:  chadrallen.com.  So that’s chadrallen.com.

Andrea:  We will definitely be linking that in the show notes.  And is there anything else in particular that you would like to say to our listener before we leave?

Chad Allen:  You can do this, do your art, get out there, and make your difference.  You know, Steve Jobs talked about making a dent in the universe and we all can do that.  So, listen to that internal pull and take action – the world will be a better place if you do and you will be a better person if you do.

Andrea:  Thank you so much.

Chad Allen:  Thank you, Andrea.

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