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

It’s a darn shame that some 4 million fiction manuscripts a year are rejected before the first few pages are even read. All that work on plot and characters and you can't get anyone in publishing to read past page 3, 2, or 1.



I’ve been a book editor working in publishing 44 years. Now that I’m retiring and have the time and means to travel the country, I'm sharing insider information about the manuscript submission process--including how to improve your own odds of surviving the 90… Continue