The Case of the Disappearing Author and Why You Probably Don’t Want a Six or Seven Figure Deal

Every author eventually loses her innocence, and I’m no exception.

Years ago, I was speaking on a panel at a book festival with a debut author who’d gotten a six-figure deal.

Afterwards, over wine, I spoke to a more seasoned author acquaintance—let’s call her Lisa— and said I was envious of the debut author’s deal. Lisa said, “Don’t be. She’s a dead author walking.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s in the 300,000s on Amazon. She won’t be getting another deal.”

That was terrifying to me! Naively, I thought that getting a publishing deal was like receiving the golden key to an exclusive club. Once you were in, you were in for good.

But after that day, my innocence was forever lost. Obviously, publishing is a business and if you lose the company money, they’ll cut you loose. But when you’re first allowed entry, you have this silly notion it won’t happen to you. You tell yourself that your editor likes you too much, or that your next book will sell more because you’re now a better writer.

Lisa was right. That debut author was never heard from again, but what was even worse, after a few years Lisa also disappeared.

To me, that was far more chilling than the disappearance of the debut author. Lisa had a star agent and had gotten a significant deal for one of her books. Her debut was a bestseller. But her sixth novel, published in 2011, didn’t perform to expectations and it was bye-bye, Lisa

Over the years, I’ve met many authors with similar fates. Such stories are more the rule than the exception. This week many authors were spooked about an article called “The Publishing Industry has a Gambling Problem” which discusses an authors’ sales track and how a poor sales record can follow an author around for all of eternity.

I’m late to the party becasue I publish on Mondays and this issue dominated last week, but I also have the advantage of reporting on what everyone else has said, and there are several wise perspectives on the issue.

Why is a writer’s sales track such a hot topic? If you’re an author with some scary sales skeletons rattling in your closet, when you go on a submission with a new book, editors will look at your sales on BookScan and will possibly dismiss your manuscript without even reading it.

Authors are naturally sensitive about forever wearing a scarlet “did not earn out” mark on their breasts and typically feel they aren’t to blame for their sales.

Author and literary agent Jenna Satterthwaite had an understandably feisty reply to the sales track article:

“…what happens next makes me want to jump of the nearest cliff, drown, and then set myself on fire, because after looking at these numbers (and if it’s a new publisher, this always happens without the context of the previous publisher’s efforts, where the previous book sat on their list, how much was invested in marketing, etc), they often very quickly decide on whether or not to move forward with the New Book based on that number.”

Publicist Kathleen Schmidt weighed in as well and points out that the reason publishers are wary of a poor sales record is because their customers are book accounts not readers. A buyer at a bookstore can look at the past sales of a title and decide not to order any copies. If sales were really skimpy, some large accounts like Barnes and Noble might decide to skip over a book completely.

As for me, I’ve always been fascinated with big ticket book deals, starting in the 90s when they’d be breathlessly celebrated in the media.

When Publishers Marketplace came along, I tracked the bigger deals and over time, I noticed that many celebrated debut novelists were never heard from again. I was so disturbed by the all the disappearing writers I wrote a novel about it.

Literary agent Anna Sproul-Latimer asked Gerry Howard, a retired editor about the issue. The former Doubleday editor, who used to work with David Foster Wallace, Chuck Palahniuk, and Don DeLillo, says, “The variables that go into a failure or a success are so numerous and so interrelated that in most cases you can’t point to one thing—or one side of the equation—that led to the outcome.”

But he goes on to say, “The really naïve thing is to say authors shouldn’t be responsible for their track. In the first place, the author wrote the book.” But he also admits to some fiscal recklessness on the part of the editors who purchase the books.

I would also add that publishers tend to invest too much in trending genres, causing too many of those books to tank. When hundreds of rom-coms were rolling out, I said to myself, “How can an author possibly distinguish herself among hundreds of books that mostly all looked alike and have such similar tropes?”

Fisher the Bookseller, who wrote an illuminating article on his buying decisions, is now saying the same thing about romantasy covers: They all have a similar appearance.

Just one wall of several of similar romantasy covers in my B&N.

Author Vera Kurian covers similar territory in the piece about the gambling article: “There was a little boom of publishers wanting to acquire Black-authored books and books about racism surrounding 2020.”

Few would disagree that sometimes books are acquired to check boxes and thus get little marketing. Although, it’s somewhat comforting to to know that some publishers do a post-mortem on books to see why units failed to move.

But regardless of who’s to blame for a book’s poor performance, there’s one thing that most everyone can agree on: When a book doesn’t sell, the author pays the highest price.

Publishers recover from bad bets; they have their backlist to cushion blows. Editors, agents, and publicists aren’t fired after one bum book, but authors can get canceled after a single failure.

If you have a spotty track record—and most authors have a failed book at some point in their careers—there are a few things that help.

In the gambling article, literary agent Alia Hanna Habib says authors shouldn’t use pen names, and I respectfully disagree. I know many authors who have taken on a pen name, including myself, and many have revitalized their careers with a non de plume.

Speaking of agents, great representation can make a world of difference when it comes to helping an author deal with poor slaes. When researching agents, peruse their client list. Are there any career authors among them? That’s an excellent sign. A good agent will submit to editors who are advocates for their author’s books, and if a spotty track becomes an issue, they can help a writer overcome it.

But possibly the best advice is this: In addition to writing novels, we writers must find and connect with our readers, and the time to start was, well… yesterday. I talk to a lot of authors on sub, and the issue of a platfom comes up far more frequently. I strongly suspect that one day soon you’ll have to have a platform to get a fiction deal.

As Jane Friedman in her Bottom Line newsletter says about publishers, “They struggle with the same problems as the authors themselves: how to be visible amidst all the competition.”

I follow the new releases and see this all too clearly over and over again. Reviews don’t move copies the way they used to, and there are less review outlets. Co-op (paying for favorable real estate in bookstores) isn’t as available as it once was.

Cassie Mannes Murray says the scary part out loud:

“We are in a time in publishing where the formula no longer works. I’m talking formula for filling out a P&L sheet at the onset of proposing buying a book in an editorial meeting all the way to writing a spaghetti-thrown pitch to media editors, podcasters, creators, in hopes that something in that general email will convince them to request the book. Getting a New York Times book review is no longer going to move you out of ranking #11,687 on Amazon in your strongest keyword category.”

(Read Mannes Murray’s entire article for her spot-on marketing advice.)

Not to be an alarmist but a yellow light alert is flashing for writers, and the message is this: How many books you sell is largely up to you.

Instead of resisting that reality, think of it as an opportunity for empowerment. I know many writers hate marketing, but it’s not as if you’re selling alarm systems door-to-door. Instead you’re sharing your unique point-of-view and finding people who resonate with it. It can be a thrilling and immensely satisying experience.

I like the way GRETCHEN & NICOLE (Gretchen Schaffer and Nicole Meier), owner of Bookworks, reframe plaform, saying, “Your platform isn’t a stage where you perform. It’s a space where you get to explore.”

So true. Most of us feel our way into a platfom via curiosity, feedback and sometimes failure. It’s part of sharing who you are, and readers love that connection and you are the only one who can forge it.

In upcoming newsletters, platform building will play a bigger part. I’ve added a new weekly section to the paid portion called “The Thriving Author.”

Too many authors look toward agents and publisher to determine their value and that’s an unhealthy dynamic that leads to hand-wringing and angst.

As Vera Kurian says about authors, “We make the widgets. There’s no business without us. If the talent left, they’d have nothing.”

If you consistently believe in the value of your authentic perspective and share that perspective, the sales will eventually take care of themselves. Ultimately, writers are the ones with the magic. Time for us to embrace it. ❤️

FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS:

• How to Make Your Pitching Mash-Ups Fresh (And a press release that shows how publicists use them)

• The Single Element That Will Instantly Elevate Your Pitch

• Exploring dark romance: popular titles, tropes and more

• Some new titles on the bestselling list including a surprising snub and in new releases, there’s finally a novel I’m eager to read. (Not much out there for a craggy female like me.)

• Read the query lettter that led to 14 agent offers. (In “News You Can Use.”)

Thanks to all my paid subscribers! If you want a newsletter that focuses solely on your author success, gives you actionable advice. and the most up-to-date publishing news and trends, you’re in the right place! Consider upgrading to paid. At the yearly rate, that’s only $.60 a week.

THE THRIVING AUTHOR

Making Mash-Ups Fresh

In 2023, Breanne Randall, author of The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic promoted her book months before publication with this mash-up: Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic.

Readers knew what to expect: small town, witty banter, and magic. Her spot-on pitch resulted in thousands of pre-orders that landed her a place on the New York Times bestselling list.

It’s unlikely that mash-up would work now because it’s too familiar. In fact, the whole BLANK meets BLANK could use some shaking up. That’s why I’m always alert to fresh ways to convey the vibes of your book.

Recently I got a press release for a March 2026 release called The Secret Lives of Murder’s Wives. While I think it’s best to stick with one mash-up, I was impressed with the fresh mash-ups included in the release:

• Lessons in Chemistry with a body count.

• If Taylor Jenkins Reid wrote a crime novel.

• Madmen with murders.

Here’s a link to that press release so you can see how publicists pitch novels.

THIS WEEK IN PITCHING

Where I talk about select pitches from Publishers Marketplace.

DIRTY MAGIC, pitched as PRACTICAL MAGIC meets Magic Mike, a paranormal romance following a group of male witches who form a male revue, and when their tour bus gets stranded in a small town, they begin to discover the town—and its residents—are more magical than meets the eye.

I like the fresh mash-up, although I can’t tell you how often I see Practical Magic used as a vibes comp. (Almost as much as Gilmore Girls.) But I’m not crazy about rest of the pitch. It describes a situation instead of a story, something I see often in pitches. Also in romances, it’s best to focus on the couple’s journey.

THE VALENCIA EXPAT CLUB, in which food, romantic adventures, and the magic of starting over in Spain leads a woman to uncover family, friendship, self-discovery, and an unexpected new beginnings.

I adore the title but this pitch suffers from a common problem. It’s too general and doesn’t hint at story. What sets this apart from hundreds of other “woman discovers herself through travel” tales?

A PINCH OF MAGIC, in which a timid cookbook ghostwriter must save her grandmother’s house, a mission that involves returning to her quirky hometown, taking on a nightmare celebrity client, and encountering an actual ghost who helps her summon the courage to write her own recipe for happiness.

This pitch does a good job of giving us the vibes of the piece but it’s a little muddy when it comes to elements. Her desire is to save the house. (From what, I wonder and why does she have to return home to do it?) Is the nightmare celebrity an obstacle to saving the house? Or just a sub plot? What is meant by “own recipe for happiness?” This is a romance, so who is the MMC? (male main character)

A FASCINATING WOMAN, in which a journalist secretly agrees to live by the rules of a handbook to submissive wifeliness, which at first seems to solve all her problems, only to spiral quickly out of her control, pitched as BIG SWISS meets THE WEDDING PEOPLE.

The above pitch appeared in Publishers Marketplace and while, it’s interesting, it didn’t bowl me over me. Also the comp, particularly The Wedding People feels like a miss. But my opinion completely changed for the better when I saw a revised pitch for Frankfurt.

When a feminist writer starts living life according to a 1960s anti-feminist guidebook, she’s shocked to find her life improves…until she discovers that her experiment in submission is anything but under her control.

The above pitch has the added element of irony ironic, which can elevate a premise. How ironic that a feminist lives as a non-feminist, and it improves her life, likely causing her all kinds of cognitive dissonance, until it doesn’t.

Let’s look at some more examples of irony in a premise

In Silence of the Lambs, an FBI agent seeks the assitance of a a serial killer to catch a serial killer.

Also Script Shadow had a contest for ironic premises, and here were two of the winners.

NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED: A trip to Eastern Europe goes horribly wrong for a group of PETA employees when they find themselves being hunted down by blood-thirsty animals.

BORDER PATROL: A tough and remorseless US Border Patrol Agent is kidnapped by a lower class Mexican family and forced to lead them safely on the other side of the Rio Grande.

Speaking of pitches, I ran across a really good article on the topic this month from the The Not-So-Secret Agents.

MEME OF THE WEEK

THIS WEEK IN BESTSELLING BOOKS

As Dylan famously crooned, “The times they are a’changing.” Alchemised by debut novelist SenLinYu a dark fantasy that’s Dramoine fanfic moved 146,000 print copies and bested Dan Brown. (50,000.) But don’t cry for Brown who has sold 275,000 plus since publication.

Speaking of darkness, dark fantasies and romances dominated the bestselling lists. Seven of them appeared on the NY Times hardcover fiction bestselling list. Two were special editions of older novels by Rachel Gillig.

With all this darkness, it’s fitting that a dark title should be in this week’s spotlight.

Brynne Weaver’s Tourist Season (38,000 print copies sold)

Author’s description:

“My new book, “Tourist Season,” lives at the crossroads of dark romance, thriller and romantic comedy. Its serial killer protagonists are monsters shaped by suffering and grief, yet there are moments of absurdist humor and swoony romance to balance out the heavier, twisted parts.”

TAGLINE: You can hide in the farthest reaches of the deepest hell, and I will still drag you out. Even the devil can’t save you from me.

Don’t let the seemingly light-hearted cover fool you. Trigger warnings include: wood chippers, eyeballs, eyesockets, lawn aerators and brat/brat tamer kink. There’s also a playlist for chapters

First line: “I’M SURE NOBODY GOES ON vacation expecting to be dismembered and put through a woodchipper, but some tourists are just a**holes and deserve their fate.”

The author discusses her favorite dark reads in a NY Times article. (Gift link.)

If you’re curious about the appeals of dark romance the Coversation digs in. Also a piece on the sub-genres’ common tropes, and one author wonders if publishers are in denial about the genre.

Other bestselling titles this week include Ken Follet’s latest, Circle of Days (22,000),Ian McEwan’s new novel, What We Can Know (9700), The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny (9000) by Kiran Desai, and We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad (5800).

Patricia’s Lockwood’s newest Will There Ever Be Another You didn’t chart on the Times list, despite extensive and prestigious pre-pub coverage. (It did make the IndieBound Next list.) It’s a Covid novel so maybe that’s why.

As usual, USA Today has several books on the bestselling list that aren’t selling. Beginning to think it’s a co-op program. Although, it doesn’t appear to help the sales.

BOOK RELEASES THIS WEEK

Confession: Most weeks I look over the new book offerings and feel like a vegan at a Brazilian steakhouse. But this week there’s final something on the menu for me!

Lily King’s Writers and Lovers is one of my favorite novels and now she’s written a new novel with a writer protagonist, Heart the Lover. Booklist in a starred review says, “King’s swoony story of love and literature, of paths taken and not taken, of the past selves we never truly leave behind, is quietly robust and nearly impossible to put down.”

Best premise: The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee

Single mother Alice Chow can never get everything done in a day but one one morning, she wakes up and the counters are clear, the kids’ rooms are tidy, orders are neatly packed and labeled. No one confesses they’ve helped, and Alice doesn’t remember staying up late. Someone–or something–has been doing her chores for her.

( Scary but might be worth it to have a creepy helpmate.)

Best mashup:

The Hating Game meets Legends & Latte. Brilliant! And the cover below has the right vibe.

Wildest idea: The Shocking Experiments of Miss Mary Bennet by Melinda Taub

A queer melding of Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein that recasts Mary Bennet as an insatiable scientist, one who creates a monster in an attempt to save herself from spinsterdom. (Resourceful!)

Best Opening Lines: Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa

“Everyone is ugly. I should know. I look at people all day.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Read the author interview and query letter that led to fourteen agents offering representation.

Great list of October book releases. (NY Times gift link.)

You can look up your books to see if your books were involved in the Anthropic lawsuit. I claimed my books, and it was easy.

Substack’s own Andrea Bartz led the fight to compensate authors whose books were stolen by A.I. (Gift link.)

The Cut’s Book Gossip shares the reading habits of critics, Substackers, actresses and more.

Simon and Schuster has launched a new adult imprint called Scarlett Press, following in Berkley’s footsteps with XO and Macmillan’s Saturday Books. New adult is a genre that’s been around since 2009 when St. Martin’s coined the term it but didn’t gain a foothold until BookTok became so important to the marketplace.

Blackstone announces a new military thriller imprint called AWE

Platform links:

BadRedheadMedia, LLC discusses marketing misconceptions.