Jon Yaged on How to Get Your Book Published in 2026

Jon Yaged runs Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers in the world. Under his leadership, the company recorded its highest revenue and operating income in history. He oversees the acquisition of thousands of books each year.

In a conversation on David Perell's How I Write podcast, plus interviews with Publishers Weekly and Holtzbrinck, Yaged explained how the publishing machine actually works. If you are writing a book, this is what you need to know.

How Books Actually Get Acquired

We generally don't accept submissions unless it's coming from an agent or someone we know already.

Two paths lead to a major publisher. An agent submits your manuscript. Or an editor pitches an idea to an author they already know. That is 99% of acquisitions at Macmillan. Unsolicited manuscripts almost never get read.

This means step one is getting an agent. Not querying publishers directly. The agent opens the door.

Rejection Reflects Fit, Not Quality

Macmillan publishes roughly 1 in every 20 to 30 books submitted to them. Harry Potter was rejected by nearly every major publisher. Rejection does not indicate quality. It reflects fit, timing, and current priorities.

If one publisher says no, another may say yes. The same manuscript. The same quality. Different priorities.

Comparable Titles Matter Most

When publishers evaluate a book, they look for "comps" - comparable titles already published. They reverse-engineer projections: "This book is going to behave like that book."

This means you should know your comps before you pitch. What published books does yours resemble? How did they sell? BookScan tracks 85% of physical book sales. Publishers use this data to inform every acquisition decision.

The Algorithm Cannot Find Outliers

I haven't seen the algorithm yet that can identify the outlier, and the biggest books we have are often the outliers.

Data informs decisions. It does not make them. Things Macmillan thinks will be slam dunk winners do not work. Things they think will be "nice" turn out to be huge successes. "It happens all the time."

This is why Yaged backs editors with taste. "I've had people ask, 'Why did you let her buy that book?' I'm like, you see the other hundred she's already bought that have been huge successes? Maybe this one won't be it. But her track record's great." The best editors have an innate ability to read through something and say, "That's the next thing." You give them the benefit of the doubt when they come asking for money, even when individual bets fail.

Word of Mouth Remains King

The best way to market a book is to read it.

Yaged's marketing philosophy is specific: identify the community you are trying to reach, find the connectors within it, and empower them to spread the word. "That's word of mouth. That's the twelve apostles." The tactics change with every book. The principle does not. If your best friend tells you to read a book, you will buy it faster than any ad on the side of a bus.

The book itself tells you how to market it. Read it. The hooks, the angles, the things that will interest that community - they are in the text. "The best way to figure out how to market a book is to read it."

Build Your Platform While Writing

Do both. Write the best book you could possibly do, but also build up your own channels.

Email lists. Social media. A genuine audience. Publishers look at this when evaluating acquisitions. A great manuscript with an existing audience is a stronger bet than a great manuscript from someone nobody has heard of. This is unfair. It is also reality.

The Economics of a Book

Retailers take over 50% of the cover price. Publishers receive less than 50 cents per dollar. Authors earn 10 to 15% of cover price. On a $30 hardcover, that is $3 to $4.50 per copy, paid after the advance earns out. The biggest single cost to the publisher is the author's cut. Then printing. Then freight. Then marketing. All of that comes before overhead - the editors, designers, and facilities.

Yaged notes that publishing is more creator-friendly than any other traditional media. "Having worked in the music industry, having worked in the film industry, there is no more creator-friendly business than the publishing industry." No Hollywood accounting. The contracts are straightforward.

Backlist books (over one year old) become more profitable because marketing costs decrease. Macmillan is roughly 50/50 backlist to frontlist. That backlist is the hedge against risk, functioning almost like an annuity. It is also why acquisitions in publishing are really about buying backlists and talent, not frontlist potential.

When Self-Publishing Makes Sense

Over 95% of self-published books are ebooks. Only about 30% of traditionally published bestsellers are ebooks. Getting physical books into retail stores is "not an easy thing."

Self-publishing works best for ebook and audio-only releases. It gives authors flexibility and higher royalty percentages. Many authors start in self-publishing and find their way to traditional publishing later. Yaged calls this a legitimate path.

What Traditional Publishing Offers

An advance that might let you leave your day job. Professional editing. Cover design. Distribution to physical bookstores. Retail placement. Marketing expertise. "When you add all that up, I think it's a lot of value."

The tradeoff: lower royalty percentages, less control, and timelines of one to two years from acquisition to publication.

Creating the Environment for Creativity

Yaged says his biggest job is creating an atmosphere where creativity can thrive. When he started at Macmillan 15 years ago, the owner asked him what he would do first. "I'm going to create an environment where creativity can thrive." The owner gave him a look, but it worked. Macmillan has since recorded its best financial results in company history.

His model is Pixar. He visited their campus while working at Disney and watched John Lasseter talk about upcoming projects. "It was 100% about what would end up on the screen. They got it right." His other model is his grandfather, a professional jazz musician. "He wanted perfection, and perfection wasn't getting every note right. Perfection was getting the vibe right."

The grandfather had another lesson. He would come off the bandstand and say, "You see that drummer? You see him looking at his watch? If you got to look at your watch and you're playing music, you need another job."

AI in Publishing

Yaged sees AI as a tool, not a replacement. Practical uses at Macmillan: metadata optimization, demand forecasting (they estimate printing one million fewer copies last year through better AI predictions), and first-draft tip sheets that humans then refine.

But there is a hard legal constraint. US copyright law does not protect works created by AI. If a book is deemed not substantially created by a human, nobody owns it. No copyright protection means no barrier to entry. "Am I going to invest in something that has zero barrier to entry?" Yaged asks. If Macmillan published an AI-generated book tomorrow, anyone else could publish a different version of it. The line between human-assisted and AI-created is not bright, and the test - "substantially created by a human" - has no clear threshold.

His sharpest observation: "There's a better chance you'll lose your job to someone who understands AI than to AI."

For authors, AI as a research assistant or editing tool is fair game. AI as co-author is a legal and commercial minefield. Use it to edit your work, not to generate it.

The Publishing Landscape in 2026

Print still dominates at 65% of sales. Ebooks hold at 20%. Audio is the fastest-growing segment at 15%. Genre fiction, particularly romantasy, is booming. And despite decades of predictions about its demise, publishing keeps growing.

One threat Yaged watches closely: children's literacy. Both boys and girls are reading less than they used to. "We're getting kids in that third and fourth grade age saying they don't like reading. Stereotypically, that used to be boys. Now we're getting it with girls, too." If kids do not read today, the chance of them becoming adult readers drops sharply. Yaged calls this existential for the industry.

Macmillan has eight publishing divisions, each with a distinct personality. Sometimes four or five imprints compete for the same book. Yaged sees pitches for the same manuscript that sound completely different depending on which editor wrote them. "I'll read through the emails and it is the same book, but the pitch is so different." They value books differently too. One publisher might offer $300,000 while another offers $500,000. "Our people have the strength of their convictions."

What This Means for You

• Get an agent before approaching publishers.
• Know your comparable titles and how they sold.
• Build your platform while writing, not after.
• Expect rejection. It reflects fit, not quality.
• Self-publishing is legitimate, especially for ebooks.
• Traditional publishing offers distribution and editing you cannot easily replicate.
• Word of mouth sells books. Write something people want to talk about.
• Use AI to edit, not to generate. Publishers and readers can tell the difference.

Whatever path you choose, the writing itself is the foundation. A well-edited manuscript with a clear voice stands out in every slush pile. Write your book yourself. Use AI to make it sharper. Then find the right home for it.

This post draws from Yaged's appearance on David Perell's How I Write podcast, his Publishers Weekly interview, and the Holtzbrinck leadership profile. Athens is an AI writing editor that helps you polish your manuscript with inline diffs you accept or reject.