If you landed here without reading my prior posts on the impetus for writing a book and the decision to self-publish or attempt to sell the manuscript to a publisher, go chase those links. If you want to see the entire blog series linked in one place, here you go.
Once I decided to make an effort to sell the manuscript for what became Never Ask for the Sale to a traditional publisher, I needed to face the fact that I had little to no idea how to do this. Like you, perhaps reading this blog series, I jumped into research mode. I could not believe how many great blogs there are on the publishing process. Incredible stuff. Jane Friedman’s blog was my most reliable resource. Thanks Jane!
First, I needed to get an agent. To get an agent, I needed to write query letters. I read up on how to write a proper query letter, finding Jane to be most helpful. I asked friends for their old query letters that had been successful.
I really don’t know if my query letter was any good. But it worked, so I’ll share it here in service of transparency.
SUBJ: Query – YOUmanship: Selling Yourself and Other Intangibles – Business Sales
Dear ____:
I am contacting you for representation of YOUMANSHIP: SELLING YOURSELF AND OTHER INTANGIBLES, a completed 55,000-word manuscript.
YOUMANSHIP sits at the intersection of coaching, personal growth, conscious leadership, and sales. It combines the financial savvy and relatability of RICH DAD POOR DAD with the humanity of DARE TO LEAD and the growth mindset of GRIT and POWERFUL to present an authentic and actionable guide for anyone looking to supercharge their selling prowess with heart, guts, and intention.
I have been selling since I was five years old, when I loaded up my Radio Flyer with books, marked the prices with crayon, and marched around my neighborhood, shilling. Later, I sold cases to juries as a prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice before pivoting to a series of sales and CEO roles in technology companies. I co-founded one of the first venture capital firms focused on companies with at least one woman in leadership. Then, I became a solopreneur, launching an executive coaching, facilitation, and speaking business at HeySue.com and growing it from zero revenue to $1 million in annual sales in six years. I’ve worked with leaders and teams at GoogleX, Meta, Apple, Salesforce, Techstars, YPO, G2, Teach for America, Kiva, and more.
Any successful seller, in any context, can and must be fantastic at selling herself. That’s the notion at the heart of YOUMANSHIP. I share decades of experience, tools, exercises, and powerful stories from founders and entrepreneurs to coach people to be more successful at achieving their goals by aligning their work with their greatest strengths—and by marketing that cohesive story with a winning sales strategy.
As a guidebook for being a successful seller or for advancing any personal goal, YOUMANSHIP promotes self-awareness about one’s gifts, rapid iteration on approaches to selling, flexibility to meet the market, and passionate ambivalence about whether any single effort results in a sale. These tangible takeaways will enable readers to build a financially successful business, doing work they love with people they admire.
I would be happy to provide sample chapters or additional materials upon request. Thank you for your consideration.
Best,
Sue Heilbronner
Armed with a query letter and a lot of advice about how to get this letter in the hands of as many agents who might consider my manuscript for representation as I could, I decided to step off the path. I knew I would only go through the traditional publishing process if I could sell my manuscript quickly. I wasn’t going to be a person who was going to write 60 query letters after doing extensive research on types of agents and their preferences. That is not my kind of approach to a task (and I understand that in some cases it may well be essential). I just figured the numbers would be against me as a cold email sender. So my first efforts were to use closer ties.
Fortunately, my book is about selling, and I didn’t leave everything I know about selling out of mind while I engaged in the steps required to sell a manuscript. No. That would be crazy. So I assumed that the best path was to try to get as many inside contacts to agents as possible.
I reached out to everyone I could think of who might be willing to introduce me to an agent. I looked for warm introductions from people who had recently published a non-fiction book. The list included people who were not really “close ties.” A couple were famous from my vantage point. One was the unbelievably generous and talented now-wife of a man I dated a couple decades ago. And, every…single…person…I…asked…said…”yes.” Like any good introducer, they pursued double opt-in introductions, asking their agent if they would be willing to be introduced to me. By this point, I had generated a query letter, so I supplied my willing contacts with that as a means of giving agents a sense of whether they would meet with me.
My most important ask for an introduction came from someone who was not a longtime friend or associate. Justin Evans, author of the 2025 brilliant book The Little Book of Data, had seen a post on LinkedIn for the very first cohort of people I took through my developmental workshop that covered the content of my book. He was a complete stranger. After that free workshop, he asked if I would coach him 1-1 on selling. I first said no because at that point, I wasn’t coaching anyone on selling. But then I had an idea. I offered Justin the option of doing 2 sessions with me at 25% of my regular coaching rate if he would agree to introduce me to his agent, Michael Signorelli at Aevitas. Justin said yes! We did our coaching sessions. When the time came, Justin sent my query letter to Michael, and Michael agreed to meet me!
For context, I want to share that I realize this was incredibly lucky. It was also scrappy in a way I feel great about. I ended up connecting with eight or so other agents before inking an agreement with Michael. A few declined pre-calls based on my query. A close tie introduced me to an agent, who took the opportunity during our call to hammer me. I don’t know quite what she was up to. Maybe it was just a bad day, but she made it seem that my query letter and draft proposal (which was in process by this time) was on par with generic dog food. It was brutal. She told me to come back after I’d totally retooled it. I was injured. She wasn’t that pleasant, but oh my, was she right. In the end, with Michael, we massively retooled that proposal ahead of going to publishers.
In the end, I found the perfect person for this book through an extremely unusual path, and I was all set on the agent front. At the time I had no idea if I was 20% of the way to selling my manuscript or 50%. But I conquered one part of the process, fast. I was psyched.
Tune in for the next post, Pitching Publishers: Writing a Promising Proposal. See the whole series here.
Any thoughts, feelings, or blurts? Share them here.
More Never Ask for the Sale Happenings
Book launch events are coming up in Colorado and Chicago (so far!) and I’d love for you to join me IRL. Keep an eye on heysue.com/events for details and registration.
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