How Many Books Have YOU Rejected?

Since starting here at Berrett-Koehler (a scant two weeks ago), I have informed 24 authors that we will not be publishing their books. As I'm writing this, I just received queries for three more books--a quick scan informs me that they will push the number up to 27.

Sometimes the decision making process is quick and easy. "No, I'm sorry, but Berrett-Koehler does not publish books on vampires and werewolves, try Little Brown Young Readers," or "Sorry, but you live in Antarctica...and we are in San Francisco."

But more often than not it involves a closer look into the proposal.

The proposal is the most important part of the package. If you include a manuscript or sample chapters, that's great, but I won't look at it unless you have other information.

The first thing I look for is the author platform. The sad reality is that books (especially non-fiction books in the ilk of Berrett-Koehler) are selling primarily to the author's immediate community. A lot of writers think that publishing a book will launch their careers, launch their movements, when in reality the opposite is true. The most successful books are those published by people who already have a solid reputation, a national platform on which to rely. You may have the most brilliant idea in the world, but people will be reluctant to buy it if they've never heard of you.

After that, I try to determine what the main focus of the book is--the longer it takes me to do that the worse. In this oversaturated market books need to have a instant hook, something that distinguishes them from the, literally, millions of other books against which they are competing. A lot of times there is nothing wrong a book, per se, it is just not a new or compelling idea. This is often the hardest news to break to an author, "I'm sorry, but there's no room for this kind of book," or worse, "There's no audience for this kind of book."

If all that looks good, then I may move on to looking at the actual manuscript. This starts with the table of contents. A good table of contents neatly summarizes the arc of the book and indicates where it begins and ends. If you have so many chapters that I get bored before even finishing the table of contents, you should hire an editor before submitting this proposal. Then I review chapter summaries and sample chapters.

Keep in mind that throughout this whole routine I am reviewing your writing. If nothing else, I'm a grammarian and if your writing is not up to par, I'm hesitant to consider your book for publication.

Right now, if you're an aspiring author, you're probably chaffing at the crass nature of this whole process. Well, join the club. It's almost as hard to get a book published as it is to get a book sold. If you keep in mind that book publishing is still a business--and a floundering one at that--you may have found the edge you need.