Keller Media: Our Philosophy

Hi there!

Wel­come to my agency and thanks for tak­ing time to read my philosophy.

When I began this agency in 1989, I already was an award-winning print jour­nal­ist.  I’d worked for news­pa­pers, mag­a­zines, and for PRNewswire.  I learned about com­mu­ni­cat­ing, writ­ing and edit­ing from the per­spec­tive of “What does the reader want?” and “What will they pay for?”  If the copy in a news­pa­per wasn’t good, sub­scrip­tions would go down and adver­tis­ers would evaporate.

While the whole world of com­mu­ni­ca­tion has changed a lot since then, I believe the same prin­ci­ple applies to you:  Will some­one pay $20 hard earned bucks to buy your book?  Why? Can you prove it?

Any New York edi­tor will ask me about your plat­form if I even begin to pitch your book.  This is because their jobs depend on find­ing books that will make money.  You show­ing up with a plat­form means your book won’t flop.  A “plat­form” means there are peo­ple out there who already like what you’re writ­ing (in social media); say­ing (on YouTube or TV or in paid speeches); and think­ing. The advan­tages of going with a major New York house are far beyond what you may think — it’s not sim­ply “should I self-publish or go with a “real” pub­lisher?” — if you even have that option. (Most would-be authors do not — they must self-publish because of their lack of plat­form, need for speed or lack of qual­ity con­tent.)   But to get those edi­tors to pay atten­tion to you, you must first show up with enough going on that there is a real rea­son to believe you know what you’re talk­ing about and you are say­ing it in a way that makes the world lis­ten. THEN the power of the pub­lish­ing house can help you expo­nen­tially expand your reach and your platform.

If you don’t have a plat­form and refuse to build one, there’s lit­tle any­one can do for you now.  You could be the world’s great­est writer, but if you’re try­ing to sell non­fic­tion in this brave new pub­lish­ing world, you won’t get a deal with­out a plat­form. The solu­tion? Build a plat­form!  Even a small one is bet­ter than nothing. 

The major­ity of agents my age and with my expe­ri­ence rest on their lau­rels. By now, we all make most of our money on resid­u­als from all the books we’ve sold in our careers, and books our biggest clients will write next year.  But I believe in new tal­ent.  I believe in new writ­ers.  I believe the next great­est thing really IS around the next corner. 

So I do two things:

First, I actively attract high qual­ity new tal­ent.  I pre­fer work­ing for excep­tional peo­ple with huge plat­forms (lots of paid speeches, media — maybe even their own TV show, huge social media fol­low­ings, etc.) I under­stand and admire what it took for you to get where you are today.  I love to sup­port, enhance, and expand the brand iden­tity of bril­liant, accom­plished Big Thinkers of the World  like you, peo­ple who are ready to be sold with maybe just a lit­tle tweak­ing here and there.  Your books are pre­cious to the world and the indus­try.  I wel­come you with open arms.

Sec­ond, I nur­ture promis­ing new tal­ent.  The biggest dis­tance between you and a big con­tract is your plat­form.  Your plat­form on the out­side is your social media, your speak­ing, your media appear­ances, your rep­u­ta­tion, yeah.  But even more, plat­form is built by what’s on the inside.  The peo­ple who come with a plat­form in place already Think Big.  Huge plat­forms are achieved by set­ting goals, tak­ing mas­sive action, see­ing if it is work­ing, mak­ing mod­i­fi­ca­tions, learn­ing, learn­ing, learn­ing the craft, get­ting help, chang­ing, grow­ing.  The biggest, most tal­ented peo­ple I rep­re­sent are such active, eager learn­ers!  They are striv­ing daily to make their books, their busi­nesses and the world a bet­ter place!

If you’ve got an open mind and you’re eager to learn how to grow big­ger, there are all kinds of prod­ucts and ser­vices for you on this web­site.  You’re best advised to start off with a con­ver­sa­tion with me to cre­ate a cus­tomized suc­cess strat­egy for you to fol­low.  In the world of pub­lish­ing, you will get as much suc­cess as you earn — and 90% of that starts and ends with build­ing and grow­ing your plat­form. Begin today.

If you’re already on top of your game, please let us know about your book!  Read the sub­mis­sion guide­lines and if your project matches, please fill out the query form and you’ll be expertly han­dled by my effi­cient, com­pe­tent, car­ing team.

Here’s wish­ing you all the best.