how annoying is Luke Bateman's book deal?

the unfairness (or otherwise) of the aussie booktok star's big news

I got sent Luke Bateman’s TikTok account a few weeks ago. He’s a former NRL rugby league player and contestant on dating show The Bachelor who suddenly started an account posting about his lifelong love of fantasy books.

Fantasy is having a big moment, particularly the smuttier sort, and BookTok is where it thrives. Predictably, people went gaga for the burly, mulleted, avuncular Australian chap sat on his tractor earnestly talking about Robin Hobb and dipping his toes into ACOTAR. Everyone seemed very happy with this whole setup until Bateman got a two book deal with Simon & Schuster. Now people are furious.

Some of that fury is justified. Some of it isn’t. Here’s why.

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Much of the fury, and a little of my own personal chagrin, stems from the reported fact that Bateman doesn’t have a manuscript, despite his book deal engaging him to write a fantasy series.

Famous (and normal) people often get book deals for concepts but these tend to be for nonfiction. Most novels are sold on the strength of a manuscript, or at least a large enough writing sample with an outline of where the draft is going. The idea that someone is skipping a very long, very hard-working queue with nothing in hand but an idea is galling.

Then, the purported early 2027 release date begs the question, who is going to write this? It’s probably not going to be some ex-rugby player who’s never written anything in his life. Fantasy books, particularly the kinds Bateman clearly loves and shares on his socials, are deep, complex worlds with big word counts. It’s hard for experienced fantasy writers to hit their deadlines, let alone someone who has never, ever done it.

what is fame worth?

Well it’s definitely worth a book deal. Publishers piggyback off existing audiences all the time.

Maybe a better question is, what is the work of fame in this instance?

Bateman is demonstrably someone who can do hard things. He became a professional rugby league player in the world’s toughest competition. This is not something that’s given to you – it’s earned and it’s extremely competitive.

Then he’s been on The Bachelor. This might not fit your definition of hard work but it’s certainly a brave thing to do. I absolutely wouldn’t do it! Would you?

There’s a general sense that this guy does not deserve this book deal, that he hasn’t ‘done the work’. The thing is, he has done some work and it’s the sort of work that appeals to a publisher’s marketing department. People know who he is, he can get on the news, and he has an audience who might buy his book. The work of his fame has involved literal blood, sweat and probably a few tears (I’ve not watched The Bachelor) and it’s work that many of the aggrieved writers won’t have had the opportunity to do themselves.

I was a struck a while ago by a comment on the How Long Gone podcast. The hosts were discussing Bret Easton Ellis, an all timer of an author, and how he still went on book tour, hanging around for hours after events to sign copies of his novels. When they asked him why he still did this despite his fame and financial success, he replied,

‘This is the job.’

Marketing is not just the job, as a creative and especially as an author, it is your job. Even Sally Rooney has to do press for her new books. A novelist of her renown and with her fandom still has to sell her work.

There seems to be an assumption that publishing houses will do this work for you, that if only one of them would take a chance on your work, your genius would spread far and wide without your involvement but that’s just not true.

Nat Eliason, an author and blogger with a large following across several platforms, said on a recent podcast that traditional publishing is great at making your book better, getting it into bookshops and can secure some legacy media interest but much of the marketing for his first book resulted from his own efforts. Even with Eliason’s large advance of $275,000, he felt that most of the marketing that worked was down to him. If you’re a debut author with no social following, what do you think your chances are of receiving a marketing push from a publisher?

They are close to zero.

Think of a publishing house like a venture capital firm. They take a series of bets across the market and while they’d love it if everything took off, they only need one or two big hits a year to make things work. If you have not received a large advance, clearly one larger than Eliason’s (which is pretty big!), the success of your book is not that important to the publisher.

Some rando on reddit sums it up well:

‘Publishing is a business. People forget this sometimes, and want it to be an engine for justice.’

— u/backlogtoolong

The business relies on making sales and people like Bateman and Eliason have clear audiences to sell to. From the publishing side, a friend of mine who works on this kind of thing thinks the whole thing is ‘very smart.’ I think perhaps it’s half smart and that what’s interesting and off putting about this story is the level of coordination.

Bateman started a TikTok account, quickly secured a book deal and his debut is meant to arrive in about 18 months time. It’s very fast as book release dates go, which is a feat given the machinery that needs to crank into gear, but it also suggests there may be some behind the scenes shenanigans and planning that we are not privy to. The fact that it feels so organised is in itself interesting and it’s this that’s resulted in a firestorm of negative publicity on the platform where Bateman’s audience exists.

The whole thing has almost gone too smoothly so along with a sense of unfairness, the audience have a lingering feeling, rightly or wrongly, that they’ve been manipulated. That’s not good.

winners and losers

I feel a bit of kinship with Luke Bateman. We both make BookTok content and while I would never go on The Bachelor, I also played professional rugby where my reading habits did make me a bit of a curiosity amongst the lads.

Nevertheless, that curiosity and love of books resulted in my first book Fringes - Life On The Edge of Professional Rugby. This book became an Amazon bestseller, got nominated for a major award and changed my life.

It was also self-published.

Unlike Bateman, I didn’t then have the bravery to post about my love of books online, nor did I have a large audience. My 2000 total followers were tentatively alerted I’d done something and I waited for nature to take its course. I was probably fortunate that the pandemic halted sport for a few weeks, enabling busy journalists to read the copies I’d badgered them to accept and the book achieved its own algorithmic velocity.

I had pitched the book to agents and publishers and was told that while my writing was pretty good and the perspective interesting, the rugby book market is reserved for famous rugby players. I was not a famous rugby player, so they told me they would pass. I chose to self-publish and rather than being chastened by that, I was empowered. I got to write the book I wanted to write and control every aspect of the process. For better or worse, that book was all my doing.

It also taught me that if you really believe in your writing, if you really think you have something to say but a publisher won’t listen, you should self-publish.

If you won’t do that, ask yourself why not. If the answer is that you don’t have enough followers or you think a publisher should do the marketing or you want the prestige of being picked then to be frank, your book doesn’t deserve to be read.

If you won’t release your own work, why should anyone read it?

this is not a meritocracy

Publishing is not a meritocracy; it’s a marketplace.

Luke Bateman’s book deal reveals what the system actually is. He has something that publishers value: an audience, an idea and a marketing plan. Like it or not this plan, allied with a fast-moving platform like TikTok, might be a window into the future of book projects. You can bet other publishers are watching it closely.

If you’re someone who’s spent years querying then yes, this feels unfair. It definitely is in some ways but Bateman is a symptom of the system and as many aspiring authors have said, they would take his deal if it was on offer. They just haven’t done the kind of work, like building the visibility publishing clearly rewards, to get it.

But the fact that this is not a meritocracy is a good thing because in a meritocracy like sport, someone comes last.

In books, just because one person wins doesn’t mean you have to lose.

In fact, if your writing is good enough, you might win by doing the work that Bateman hasn’t. No one cares who the author or the publishing house is if the writing is good and if we read a story that we care about.

So take something from Bateman’s playbook: step on the field, back yourself publicly and have the belief that your story deserves to be heard, whether you're invited to tell it or not.