Behind the Book (Part 2)

The email that changed everything...

Last week, I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger.

After years of putting the dream of writing a book on the shelf, I got an email that changed everything.

Well...almost. Because I didn’t actually see the email at first.

Like many website owners, I get plenty of spam through the contact form on my website. Every so often, though, something legitimate sneaks in there, so every couple of weeks I’ll scroll through my spam folder just to make sure I didn’t miss anything important.

Good thing I did.

The email I almost missed

Buried in my spam folder was this message:

I still remember reading it, thinking, "There's no way this is real."

So I did what any mildly suspicious person would do…I looked the sender up on LinkedIn. She was real.

Every once in a while, I think about what would've happened if I hadn't checked my spam folder that week. It's kind of wild to think this entire book started because I have a slightly obsessive habit of cleaning out junk email. My type-A tendencies helped me out this time!

I wrote her back, and we set up a Zoom call. Going into that meeting, I really had no idea what to expect. I figured we’d chat about ideas, and maybe she’d tell me if they thought there was a book there.

Instead, I spent most of the conversation talking about my digital guide.

If you’ve been around for a while, you probably remember it. It was a digital home maintenance guide I’d created earlier that year, and thankfully, people really seemed to love it. Thousands of homeowners had purchased it, and I told her I thought there might be an opportunity to turn that concept into a traditional book.

The conversation went really well. She connected me with one of their editors.

And that’s when I got my first reminder that publishing doesn’t work quite the way I thought it did.

Not exactly a book deal

Even though the publisher had reached out to me, I still had to pitch the book.

My literary agent (Judy) explained that when authors have a proposal ready, agents usually send it to several publishers at the same time. Each gets a couple of weeks to review it and decide whether they want to make an offer. If multiple publishers are interested, the agent can compare offers and negotiate the best fit.

My situation was a little different.

Because Countryman had reached out to me first, we decided to give them the first opportunity to review the proposal. If we couldn’t come to terms or their offer wasn’t the right fit, Judy could always take the proposal to other publishers afterward. (Thankfully, we never had to.)

I knew what a proposal was because of my first attempt at writing a book years earlier (if you missed Part One, you’ll want to read that first), but I had forgotten just how much work goes into one.

Building the pitch

Because I already had the digital guide, I wasn’t starting from scratch, but putting the proposal together still took weeks.

One thing I probably spent too much time on? Making it pretty.

I built the whole thing in Canva because I wanted the proposal to reflect the vision I had for the finished book. Yes, I wanted it to be practical and packed with information, but from the very beginning, I also wanted it to be beautiful. I imagined gorgeous photography and something people would actually want to leave out on their coffee table.

The proposal was my first chance to communicate that vision.

Of course, it wasn't just about making it look nice. I had to map out the entire book, write a sample chapter, research comparable titles, explain why this book deserved a place on bookstore shelves, and share how I planned to help market it. I quickly realized I wasn't just pitching a book. I was pitching myself.

By early November, I had finished my draft and sent it to my literary agent, Judy.

She made some minor edits, and while I was recovering from my hip replacement surgery, we finished it up together.

On December 1, we officially submitted it to the publisher. Then we waited.

The waiting game

It actually didn’t take very long. On December 20, Judy called to tell me we had an offer.

I remember thinking, That’s it! I have a book deal! This is the best Christmas gift ever!

Except...I didn’t. At least not yet.

This was another part of publishing I knew absolutely nothing about. An offer is not the same thing as a signed contract. There were still months of negotiations ahead.

Judy negotiated the deal with the publisher, but I also hired my own attorney.

Not because I didn’t trust Judy, but I’d spent more than a decade building The DIY Playbook, and I wanted someone whose only job was making sure I was protecting everything I’d already built, too.

February 2025, taking a break from Zoom calls with my attorney for some Florida fun with my mom.

I remember being in Florida with my family in February, taking Zoom calls with my attorney as we worked through the contract line by line. It was overwhelming.

There were pages of legal language I didn’t understand. We went back and forth on different terms. More than once, I remember thinking, What am I doing? This feels way over my head.

Finally, it was official

After months of negotiations, we reached an agreement. In April 2025, I signed the contract.

After dreaming about writing a book for more than a decade, I officially had a book deal. It was exciting. It was surreal. And it also meant there was no turning back.

Because now, I actually had to write the thing. And it was due in six months…

Next Wednesday in Behind the Book...

• What it’s really like to write a book while running a business

• Why we photographed the book before it was written

• The giant spreadsheet that kept the whole thing organized

• And why writing the proposal was actually the easy part

P.S. If you’ve been enjoying these behind-the-scenes stories, I’d be so grateful if you’d preorder a copy of Your Home Playbook. Knowing what went into creating it makes finally getting to hold it feel even more special. ❤️