How to Get a Traditional Publisher - When You Don’t Have a Huge Platform
A neuroscience-based coach with limited social following, no prior publications and a manuscript going nowhere - and then a deal with Hachette. Here's what actually changed.
"I was writing my book with a knot in my stomach. I didn't want to self-publish, but I had no real chance of getting a publisher interested in me, since I didn't have many followers and hadn't published anything yet." — Bruna De Palo, Author of The Brain Instruction Manual for Leaders (Hachette, June 2026)
When Bruna De Palo and I first crossed paths at a conference, she didn’t mention she was writing a book. When I later messaged to ask for reading recommendations on neuroscience and leadership, she sent me a generous list — and added, almost as an afterthought, that she was writing one herself.
She wasn't exactly bursting with confidence about it.
About eighteen months into the manuscript, Bruna was stuck. Disheartened, she told me later. She hadn't mentioned her book when we met because she didn't feel it was ready to mention. The problem wasn't the idea — the idea was genuinely brilliant: The Brain Instruction Manual for Leaders, bridging the gap between what neuroscience tells us about the brain and what leaders are actually supposed to do with that knowledge. Nobody had quite written that book yet. The problem was that Bruna couldn't see the path to a traditional publisher, and she didn't want to self-publish.
Her story — and how it ended up at Hachette, with an advance, a negotiated accelerated timeline and a book that her early readers say radiates personality from every page — is worth understanding if you have a commercial book idea and a business to match it.
Because Bruna is not an outlier. She's what happens when the right idea meets the right preparation.
Watch the Conversation
I sat down with Bruna shortly before her publication date to hear the story in her own words — from a manuscript going nowhere, through the proposal process, all the way to signing with Hachette and negotiating a timeline her publisher called a miracle.
If you prefer to read, everything below covers the key moments and what they mean for you. But if you have forty minutes and want to hear the full thing directly from someone who has just been through it, this is the place to start.
Part one covers the journey from stuck manuscript to signed contract. Part two — published separately — covers what happened next: PR strategy, publication planning, and what Bruna wished she'd known about the period between offer and launch.
The Two Myths That Stop Expert Authors Before They Start
Most experienced professionals I speak with carry some version of the same two beliefs:
Myth one: "I don't have enough of a platform." No large social following, no previous books, nothing that looks like the kind of author profile that gets commissioning editors excited.
Myth two: "Traditional publishers are impenetrable — or at the very least, impossibly slow and rigid." The industry has a reputation for being a closed shop that moves at its own pace, on its own terms, and there's nothing a first-time author can do about either.
Bruna held both of these beliefs. She'd bought books on how to write a book and how to self-publish. She'd decided self-publishing wasn't for her — not because she dismissed it, but because she was honest with herself: she wasn't a social media native, she didn't want to rebuild her business around content creation, and she knew her reach outside her existing client network was limited. Self-publishing without a large platform is essentially marketing without an engine.
So she was stuck between an option she didn't want and an industry that felt closed to her.
What she didn't yet understand was what she did have.
What Publishers Actually Want (That Most Authors Don't Know to Demonstrate)
There's a common misconception about what a business book proposal needs to do. Most first-time authors think it's primarily about the book — the idea, the structure, perhaps a sample chapter or two.
In reality, a proposal that commissioning editors can say yes to needs to make a commercial case, not just an intellectual one. That means platform and reach, yes — but it also means corporate buyers, speaking engagements, partnerships, marketing plans and a clear articulation of what gap in the market this book fills and why now is the right moment for it.
Bruna is a neuroscience-based executive coach. She works with senior leaders and their teams. She speaks at conferences and keynotes. She has a growing presence on LinkedIn and ambitions to expand her practice into Italy and Spain. None of that is obvious from a follower count. But all of it becomes a compelling commercial case when it's structured properly.
The work we did together followed four distinct stages:
Publisher-grade positioning. Before a word of the proposal was written, we worked on the one-line hook, the core promise, the "why now" — and a rigorous gap analysis that showed precisely what Bruna's book offered that existing books on neuroscience and leadership didn't. That gap analysis mattered enormously. The market isn't short of books on either topic. A book that bridges them intelligently, accessibly and practically? That was a genuine white space.
A proposal that editors can actually say yes to. This is where most authors lose their shot — not because the idea is weak, but because the commercial sections are either missing or unconvincing. We worked on the full structure and drafting together: the platform and reach sections done honestly but strategically, the marketing plan, the corporate buyer case, the comparable titles. Refinement continued until it was genuinely submission-ready.
Pitch and meeting readiness. Getting in front of a publisher isn't enough. Bruna needed to be able to communicate the idea in a way that sounded commercially sellable, not just intellectually exciting. We worked on how to handle publisher conversations, what to say, what not to say, and how to handle objections.
Submission strategy and warm introductions. This is where real access matters. Not cold submissions to a generic inbox. A targeted approach, built around genuine fit, with introductions that carry credibility behind them.
The result: Bruna sat down with her publisher at John Murray Press (part of Hachette UK) and walked out with an offer.
The Moment That Changed Everything
Bruna describes receiving that offer as a shift in spirit — not just a business outcome.
Before the contract, she told me, she had been writing with what she called a "disheartened spirit." She could feel it in the pages. Afterwards, she reshaped almost everything she'd written — not a full rewrite, but a transformation in the energy behind it. Her book coach, Roberta, still laughs about the contrast: the Bruna who came to her first describing a "small, simple instruction manual" versus the Bruna who effectively wrote the bible on the topic.
That transformation is real, and it matters. A book written by someone who knows a serious publisher has backed them reads differently to one written in uncertainty.
"He Called It a Miracle" - And Why It Wasn't Really
There's one part of Bruna's story that particularly illustrates the value of understanding the publishing industry from the inside.
Standard turnaround from manuscript delivery to publication at a major house runs to a year, sometimes longer. For Bruna, this was a genuine problem — not impatience, but professional necessity. Neuroscience moves fast. A book delivered in January and published eighteen months later risks arriving with outdated references in a fast-moving field.
She had the courage to tell her publisher she couldn't wait. He initially said no. There was a real moment where the deal might have collapsed.
What turned it around was being able to understand — and articulate — the specific production and logistical factors behind the delay, and which of those actually applied to this book and which didn't. Bruna's multilingual ambitions (she's expanding into Italy and Spain), her speaking schedule, her publishing timeline relative to the market — all of that became part of a strategic conversation about why it was, in fact, in everyone's interest to move faster. The publisher called the outcome a miracle. It doesn't happen often. But it happens when someone who knows both sides of the table can broker the conversation.
Bruna got her book to publication within six months of manuscript delivery.
What This Looks Like for You
Bruna is not a celebrity author. She had no prior publications, a modest social following and a business that, while excellent, was not yet a household name in her sector.
What she had was a genuinely commercial idea, a real audience — even if that audience wasn't yet following her online — and the willingness to treat the book as a strategic investment in her business rather than a vanity project or a box to tick.
If you're a consultant, coach, speaker or senior practitioner with a book idea that connects to your commercial work — and if you've been telling yourself that you don't have the platform or the access to make a traditional deal happen — it may be worth examining whether you actually know what you have.
Because if Bruna's story is anything to go by, you may have more than you think.
Ready to find out?
The Publisher-Ready Pathway is a hands-on partnership for a small number of authors each year. It covers positioning, proposal development, pitch readiness and warm introductions — everything between a strong idea and a credible shot at a traditional deal.
If you'd like to explore whether it's right for you, the first step is a conversation.
Ben Slight is an ex-Big Four strategist and publishing industry insider. He works with a small number of business authors each year to help them secure traditional publishing deals and use their books to grow their businesses. Learn more →