Why do 90 percent of submissions land in the "no" pile almost immediately, without being read beyond the first few pages? Not counting the wrong genre for the agent or editor receiving the submission, or dumb mechanical mistakes, the #1 culprit is average voice. "Average" means the writer's voice sounds like everyone else's, smothered under layers of writing habits that the gatekeepers and first readers have learned to instantly recognize, habits that have spread to millions of writers as well… Continue