Ten queries. One agent. A book deal three months later — and every publisher who read it mentioned the proposal.
Mark Maynard spent three decades building and leading top restaurants in New York City. He had a book in him about all of it, and no clear path to selling it. Rather than teach himself proposal writing, he hired the coach he'd been working with to do it — then sent ten queries, signed with Stacey Glick at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, and sold WHY ARE YOU HERE? to Matt Holt Books, the business imprint of BenBella. Along the way, nearly every editor who read the proposal remarked on it, including the ones who passed.
📄 10 Queries Sent
⏱️ Same-Day First Response
🎉 Book Deal in ~3 Months on Submission
📚 Publishing Late 2027 with Matt Holt Books, the business imprint of BenBella
The Numbers:
The Backstory
Thirty Years of Material
Thirty years ago, Mark Maynard was working in a New York restaurant where literary agents and editors came to eat. He wasn't a writer then. He was near the start of a hospitality career that would span three decades and involve building and leading some of the city's best restaurants — learning, along the way, the thing his book is now about: how you build a place where the staff stay, the customers come back, and the success gets shared out rather than hoarded at the top.
He is a writer now. And the story of how that book got sold begins, improbably, at those same tables.
But that comes later. First there was a manuscript, and it had been sitting at the "almost" stage for about a year.
Finding His Voice
"My editor quickly got to know me, my writing style, and my values. When he edited my work, he gave my own words more meaning and impact. His encouragement motivated me to improve quality and increase quantity."
The manuscript got finished. And then Mark ran into the wall that stops most first-time nonfiction authors — a wall that has nothing to do with whether you can write.
Mark came to us in fall 2024, referred by another writer in our community, and began working with one of our editors, as a book coach and an accountability partner.
"I wondered how on earth I would write a proposal."
The Struggle
A nonfiction book proposal is a genuinely strange document: part argument, part market analysis, part sample material, part sustained case for why this author and no one else should write this book. Doing it well means knowing what an acquiring editor is scanning for in the first ninety seconds — which a first-time author has no particular reason to know, even one carrying thirty years of hard-won expertise in the subject itself.
Mark had a decision to make, and in August 2025 he made a crucial one:
"Since my editor and I had developed a relationship, and since he knew the book, it was only natural that I should have him write the proposal."
The Turning Point
Ten Queries, and a Table He'd Waited On
Mark started querying in early September 2025, just after Labor Day, and sent ten queries in a single week.
His list had a wrinkle most writers don't get. A couple of the names on it were people he'd known, in the loosest possible sense, from those restaurant years — agents who had once been diners.
"I got a reply from one of these agents on the same day I sent out the query, even though I hadn't seen her in 20 years. That was cool."
It would be easy to read that as an old connection doing the work. It wasn't. She told him exactly why she'd replied:
"The agent commented that she replied to my query on the strength of the proposal."
Two more requests arrived within two weeks, both from agents Mark found through QueryTracker, and both asked to see the proposal. He sent it immediately. Both eventually passed.
The one that came through was the agent from the restaurant. She takes on very few new clients now, so she did the next best thing and referred him to a colleague: Stacey Glick at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
It took about six weeks to finalize the agreement. By then it was early November — a famously bad moment to start pitching editors, with the industry drifting toward the holidays — so they made a deliberate choice to sit on the book until January.
What the Editors Kept Mentioning
The book went out in January 2026. Mark had a deal by spring.
The speed isn't the interesting part. What's interesting is what came back attached to the responses.
"Several of the publishers who received the proposal commented on the quality of the proposal. Even when I received rejections, several of the publishers mentioned that they enjoyed reading the proposal. They didn't have to say that."
An editor passing on a project has no incentive to compliment its packaging; there's nothing to be gained by it. And the publisher who did buy the book said the same thing from the other direction:
"That publisher also mentioned that the strength of the proposal was one of the reasons they wanted to meet me."
His agent's reaction pointed the same way. She had very few changes before they went out.
Final Edits
Ten Weeks to Write a Book
The deal came with a deadline attached: ten weeks to deliver a finished manuscript.
Mark wrote it in six, working five hours a day.
"By that time, I had learned so much from my editor that I was able to get a lot done in a relatively short amount of time."
A year of working closely with someone doesn't just produce a better book. It produces a writer who can move faster the next time there's a deadline — and in traditional publishing, there is always a next deadline.
"It has been an exciting journey, so far."
What’s Next?
The Next Chapter
Mark is now represented by Stacey Glick at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
His debut, WHY ARE YOU HERE?, is forthcoming from Matt Holt Books, the business imprint of BenBella, in late 2027.
About Why Are You Here?
WHY ARE YOU HERE? shares lessons learned from three decades building and leading top restaurants in New York City, offering a roadmap for leaders who want to build organizations where people stay, customers return, and success is shared at every level.
Mark's Reflection:
"Don't write your own proposal! Have a pro do it."
Follow Mark on Instagram: @themarkmaynard