My Book: How I Got A Book Deal With Simon and Schuster

I’m so excited to share that my first book, “What Next? Your Five-Year Guide to Life after College” will be out in April 2020! The book is being published by Adams Media, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, and I’m grateful for Leigh, my agent at MacKenzie Wolf, for helping me with the proposal, contract, and advice every step of the way. It was hard to keep it a secret until the cover was out, but I’m grateful for everyone who has followed along and encouraged me when I shared my word count on Instagram and Facebook. Writing the first draft of your manuscript in two months while working full-time is no easy feat, and I couldn’t have done it without the encouragement and support of my family, a few close friends, and coffee.

I handed in the first draft of the manuscript for “What Next: Your Five-Year Guide to Life after College” last week. Since I had to keep it a secret for a while, I thought it would be fun to share a little bit of the behind-the-scenes. I’ll also be sharing more on Elana Lyn, including a new series of advice for other people who want to land a book deal.

I was walking from work to the subway on July 19 when I saw an email from Julia, an acquisitions editor at Adams Media, asking if I’d be interested in writing a five-year guide for life after college. I immediately responded and said “YES” and we set up a call with Leigh. We aligned on the vision for the book right from the start and then I had about two weeks to send the first draft of the proposal which included a sample chapter and introduction and the table of contents. We went back and forth a bit to get it right and I got an offer on August 28 and the first draft of the contract on August 30.

I started writing on September 2 and handed in the first draft of the 60,000-ish word manuscript on October 23. It’s been a whirlwind filled with very early mornings and very late nights before and after work and many weekends that I started writing at 7 am and didn’t stop until at least 7 pm. I wasn’t sure if I could do it…but I did thanks to the encouragement of some friends and family and especially my mom who is the only person who has read the entire manuscript and provided meticulous edits.

“What Next: Your Five-Year Plan to Life after College” is a detailed guide to how to put together a five-year plan for life after college. It has the advice and tools people need to feel successful in all aspects of post-grad life, including work, finances, wellness, and relationships.

It is surreal, but the book is already available for pre-order on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Books-A-Million, and Indie Bound. I already bought a copy, and my mom proudly informed me that she bought 10!

P.S. This is what the writing process looked like — just like Carrie Bradshaw, right?!