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Back to the Forum Archives In this essay I want to address the criteria involved in the decision to publish a particular book. I speak here of the publisher's decision, not the writer's. I presume the writer has already made that decision when he began to write the tome. This all came about because of a book I received from a person, Mr. X, who seemed to want my evaluation. You will have to ask him why? The fact is, the book had already been published by another firm that was owned by a person Mr. X described as a good friend of his. The question I perceived is, "If I were accepting manuscripts, would Wesoomi Publishing have accepted this book for publication?" The question is somewhat rhetorical since I am not accepting manuscripts at this time. However, the question is still legitimate. A more pointed way of stating it would be, "What are the criteria for making the publishing decision." In that sense, a editor's task, like that of any business management person or team, can be viewed as a decision making function. Each business is continuously faced with choices that must be resolved. For a publishing firm, perhaps the most important decision is whether or not to invest in and publish a particular book. All editors, even of the smallest publishing firm ,will be offered more manuscripts than they can possibly deal with. I know editors are called editors, but in this sense they are really purchasing agents. The task, stripped of all glamor, is to purchase manuscripts that will be profitable to the firm. It is the editor who will decide wether or not to accept a manuscript. As a first filter, most firms will establish a list of criterion they will use to reject many offerings out of hand. the first of those will be about genre. There is no such thing as an all genres book publisher. Each publisher has a list of ‘never here' genres. I have spelled my set out in my Message to Writers essay. I will not belabor it here. Since I am not seeking or accepting manuscripts, I am really just generalizing about the publish-or-not decision. This is a statement of how I would make that decision if I were looking at manuscripts. As I said this all came about because of a book I recently received. I looked at that book and I will avoid giving my opinion to Mr. X if at all possible. His book did make me think of some of the tests I would apply to the analysis. What I noticed is Mr. X's book failed a number of my tests. So, what are the tests, beyond the genre decision? These tests will all have to do with marketability. Like it or not, no publisher is in the business of philanthropy. They want to produce works that will sell. For sure, so does the author, so I believe what I lay out here will also be the criteria for writing a book. What makes a book marketable? I can only think of two things. Either it is entertaining or it contains useful information. If it does both, so much the better. The ones that do usually become classics. My first test is a generalized one about reader interest. If it is exposition, is the subject of interest to a large enough group of readers? If it is fiction, is it a good story? That good story notion gets me to the second test which is, does the work compel the reader? Everyone has heard a version the phrase, "A book I couldn't put down." It's, hooey of course. There is no such book for mentally competent people, but it does not have to be that dramatic. The idea is, will the reader, once they begin reading, finish the book? For exposition, that can happen if the subject is of interest and the work is logically structured from beginning to end. That means each development in the ideas presented must lead logically into the next development and finally to the conclusion. This next test is true of both fiction and exposition. It must have a strong enough beginning to compel a reader to continue reading beyond the first chapter or two. The days of the meandering introduction have passed, thank goodness. Most readers will give you one chapter of setup. Some will even give you two. None will give you more than that. Editors know that. That's why they will only ask for the first chapter and last chapter even if they are interested. If the first chapter dies the author will die with it. In fiction, there also has to be a plot and a fairly clear theme to draw the reader along. That was one problem with the aforesaid book. There was no plot revealed in the first three chapter. I know because I forced myself to read them. What I found was just a chronology of mundane events in the life of a person, sometimes a minute by minute chronology. I found nothing that would make me like the person or be interested in his life and problems. Mr X. failed to draw me in with his beginning. To be effective, a book must have a good beginning, a solid middle, and a satisfying end. These are distinctive parts of the book which have distinct functions. As I said, the function of the beginning is to draw the reader into the story or interest him in the subject. The function of the middle is to carry the reader along with logical progressions or drama toward the conclusion. The function of the end is to present a satisfying conclusion for the reader. I also forced myself to read the last three chapters of Mr. X's book. What I found was more chronology that just dibbled away. There was no forceful or satisfying conclusion. The central character did make a decision about his life, but it was not profound or particularly interesting to me. I confess I did not read any part of the middle. My time is too limited. Another problem I had with this particular book was about borrowing prose. Mr. X used a well known phrase from one of the great classics without acknowledging it. That is totally unacceptable and unnecessary. Technically, Mr. X need not have acknowledged the phrase because he suggested it as a title. Titles are not eligible for protection under copyright. However, it would have been more ethical to acknowledge the source. It would have been easy too. Now, I have not covered syntax, spelling, and usage. These are things we can learn in school or on our own. I have also not covered the concepts of good structure and good storytelling. These are things we learn and develop through experience. We can get the basics through education, but no one can teach writing because it is an art. Art cannot be taught. We learn it through developing our own self, our intellect and our spirit. We learn it by trying to express who and what we are. We keep doing it until we satisfy ourselves. We can help develop our own style by reading the work of the great authors. If we read enough, our own style will evolve. The point is, if you do not read, you will never be able to write well. Lest this be misunderstood, I do not want to discourage anyone from writing. I have said this before and I am saying it again. It bears repeating. I urge everyone to write at least one book. I especially urge that on people who are confused or in pain somehow. It could be the best catharsis and remedy that you or your shrink could ever devise. No matter what you chose to write or what you write about, when you finish you will find you have written about yourself. In truth, you cannot write about anyone else. I also urge people who write a book to not expect to get it published. It's okay to try, but don't expect it. It is really not even important. If you really feel you must have it published and no one else will publish it, publish it yourself. Doing that will be another education and possibly a catharsis. It is an experience you will remember the rest of your life. Be cautious here. Don't order more that 500 copies. Excess books can fill your garage in a big hurry. Besides, a large order is not necessary. If by some miracle you book does sell, you can order follow up print runs very quickly. This will also offer a chance to repair the errors you are sure to find. Also, please don't send your book to an editor and expect a free evaluation. An editor will not have the time or the inclination to perform that service. He is not a teacher. He is an editor and he has already read way too much bad stuff. His task is that of purchasing agent for the publisher. If he is a good editor, his work week will be 60 hours or more. Especially, don't send books to me. I did Mr. X's book as an exercise and used it to produce this essay. In short, I got some of my own work done. Once is enough. In addition, if you want a honest evaluation of your manuscript,
don't lay that trip on your best friend. Give it to a qualified
proof reader whom you do not know and pay them to do it. Realize
your best friend's job is to maintain the relationship with minimum
pain and friction. The proof reader's job is to be brutally honest.
In the case of Mr. X, I am not convinced his friend did him a
favor. In this case, brutal honesty might have been more useful.
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