Author Spotlight: Ricardo Valerdi’s Journey from Raw Idea to The Five-Tool Team

At Lucinda Literary, we often meet authors who have the pieces of a strong nonfiction book: a clear area of expertise, stories worth telling, and a point of view that can help readers see something differently.

But having the pieces is not the same as having the book.

A successful nonfiction proposal has to do more than explain an idea. It has to show the shape of the book, the audience it serves, the author’s credibility, and the reason a publisher should pay attention.

That was the work we had the pleasure of doing with Ricardo Valerdi, PhD, whose forthcoming book, The Five-Tool Team: Bringing Out the Best in People to Make Better Decisions, will be published by Regalo Press and distributed by Simon & Schuster.

Ricardo came to us with a strong mix of expertise, strategies, stories, and early signs that readers were interested in the book he wanted to write. As Craig Pyette, agent and book collaborator at Lucinda Literary, shared:

“Ricardo came to us with expertise, a suite of strategies and ideas, and evidence of an audience that was hungry for the book he was determined to write. It was fitting that a big thinker with a great love of sports and what they can teach us about navigating work and life just needed a coach, specifically one experienced in communicating across the book-publishing field.

I had a great time serving with Ricardo in that role, helping him develop and refine his toolkit into an appealing book proposal that shared his incredibly useful strategies and charismatic personality. I’m thrilled to see he has landed a publishing deal for The Five Tool Team.”

Ricardo first discovered Lucinda Literary while working on his query letters to agents. He picked up a copy of Get Signed, expecting guidance on how to approach the querying process.

But the book gave him something more useful than query advice alone.

“The book did a lot more for me than learning how to query agents,” Ricardo recalls. “It helped me refine my identity as an author by recognizing which category I naturally fit in and leaning into that strength. The takeaway: I’m a Storyteller and Domain Expert.”

That clarity became an important part of Ricardo’s author positioning. He was not only presenting credentials. He was learning how to understand the role he naturally played as an author: someone who could bring together lived experience, professional insight, and a strong sense of story.

For our team, that distinction matters. Strong author positioning is not just about visibility. It is about knowing what you bring to the conversation, who you are writing for, and how your book fits into the larger market.

When Ricardo first connected with Lucinda Literary, his book was still in the pre-proposal stage.

“It was raw,” he says. “I had only written a few sample chapters. The basic ingredients were there but they were not in the correct order and didn’t have a clear arc.”

This is a very common stage in nonfiction book development. Many authors come to the process with excellent stories, hard-earned expertise, and strong instincts about the subject, but the book itself still needs structure.

In Ricardo’s case, the first pitch included a collection of stories that were not yet fully connected. Through proposal development, editorial feedback, and strategic positioning, those stories became a clear five-tool framework for decision-making. That framework ultimately helped shape the title of the book: The Five-Tool Team.

The goal was not to change Ricardo’s voice or overwork the idea. It was to help identify the strongest organizing principle already inside the material and make it clear enough for agents, editors, publishers, and readers to understand quickly.

Ricardo appreciated Lucinda’s ability to simplify what had felt overwhelming and provide a clear way to move from one step to the next. Working with our team of publishing professionals, he completed important milestones, including his book proposal, which ultimately helped lead to agency representation.

For authors, this is often where the work becomes both practical and creative.

A nonfiction proposal needs to present the author’s credibility, define the readership, show the market opportunity, communicate the book’s promise, and give publishers confidence in the author and the idea.

Ricardo brought the expertise. Our role was to help him refine the structure, sharpen the positioning, and make sure the proposal captured both the usefulness of his strategies and the personality behind them.

One of the biggest surprises for Ricardo during the publishing process was how important it is for authors to engage their networks in a thoughtful way.

“One thing that Lucinda reinforced was that authors should activate their network in thoughtful ways,” he says. “This is not disingenuous ‘calling in favors’ but rather genuinely asking other authors, mentors, endorsers, and foreword writers for help contributing to the book in meaningful ways.”

This is an important lesson for nonfiction authors.

Writing may happen privately, but publishing rarely does. A strong book often benefits from the insight, encouragement, and support of people who understand the author’s work and can help strengthen the project.

For Ricardo, this meant thinking carefully about who could contribute in a meaningful way and how those relationships could support the book with integrity.

When asked for one word of advice for other authors, Ricardo’s answer was simple:

“Iterate!”

It is fitting advice from an author whose project evolved from early sample chapters and disconnected stories into a polished book proposal and publishing deal.

So much of the real work happens in revision. It happens when an author is willing to revisit the material, test the structure, rethink the pitch, and keep going until the book becomes clearer and stronger.

For authors at the beginning of the process, Ricardo’s journey is a useful reminder: your book does not need to arrive fully formed. What matters is being willing to refine the idea, listen to expert feedback, and keep shaping the project.

Ricardo already has an offer for a second book, but for now, his focus remains on The Five-Tool Team.

“I won’t be pursuing that yet since I intend to focus on promoting The Five-Tool Team and maximizing the opportunities that it creates,” he says. “Seeing how the book does in the wild will make the second book even better.”

It is a thoughtful approach. Rather than rushing into the next project, Ricardo is giving this book the time and attention it deserves, and allowing the response from readers to inform what may come next.

The Five-Tool Team: Bringing Out the Best in People to Make Better Decisions offers a practical framework for helping individuals and teams think more clearly, collaborate more effectively, and make better decisions under pressure.

Drawing from sports, business, engineering, and leadership, Ricardo shows that strong decision-making is not just an individual skill. It is something teams can build together.

For leaders, coaches, educators, and teams working through complexity, The Five-Tool Team offers a practical way to think about how better decisions get made, and how people can bring out the best in one another.

Learn more about The Five-Tool Team here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Five-Tool-Team/Ricardo-Valerdi/9798895657492

Ricardo Valerdi, PhD, is an engineer, social entrepreneur, sports scientist, and professor at the University of Arizona. His work focuses on helping teams think clearly and make better decisions, drawing on expertise in systems engineering, cost estimation, and sports analytics.

Ricardo has advised organizations including SpaceX, the U.S. Army, Major League Baseball, and the NCAA. He is the founder of the nonprofit Science of Sport, which brings STEM learning to life through athletics and has reached hundreds of thousands of students.

 Book: The Five-Tool Team
Publisher: Regalo Press
Distributed by: Simon & Schuster
Author: Ricardo Valerdi, PhD

https://www.ricardovalerdi.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerdi

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