There are as many different questions about book publishing as there are books on the bookstore shelves.

   But let’s go through the basics so you’ll have them in mind when your book is about to be published.

   To begin with, bookpublishing is a business. While others may treat it as more of a calling, and while every Hollywood movie that touches on the subject sees it as remarkably glamorous, the fact remains that book publishing is a business.

   When it gets right down to it, effective publishers don’t really care about the content of your book, they just want to know if it will sell. And they’d like to have some clues to the answers to that question before they sign a contract.

   

   Book publishers know that it’s a huge gamble to go simply with what they ‘think’ will be successful. They can use their experience, they can use their intuition, they can go on professional recommendations, but in the end it’s just an educated guess.

   It’s like that with movies as well. Ask an actor or a producer, or a director if they ‘know’ ahead of time which film will be the big success and they’ll tell you they never know for sure. It’s just an educated guess.

   All this preamble is just to set you up for the truth about book publishing. Books are not chosen on their merit. They are chosen for their market potential.

   To use a well worn phrase in our society, the publishing decision is not personal. It’s just business.

   So when you receive a rejection from anyone in the book publishing industry, agent, editor, or publisher, it has nothing to do with you personally. It has only to do with these folks being unable to see big sales for this book.

   

   If you can see the potential, great. You’ve got to do everything possible to ensure that these folks see it as well. Because if they can’t see it, they can’t possibly believe the market will see it.

   And even with all their experience, all their professional skills, all their numbers and all their consultants, the folks in the book publishing business rarely get it right.

   Out of every 10 books that are published, eight fail to make back their advance. They don’t even pay for themselves. The publishers actually lose money on their efforts.

   One of the 10 will break even. It wasn’t profitable, but it didn’t bash the publishers bank account, either.

   One out of 10 becomes a really big seller. Not necessarily a bestseller, but it becomes very profitable for the book publisher. Book publishers live on that 10% solution.

   So, how do you become part of that 10% solution?

   I’m going to assume you’ve got an agent, you’ve completed a few chapters of your manuscript, and you’ll have no trouble finishing it.

   Big assumptions, I know. But I’m making them so we can focus on the publisher.

   First, you’ve got to do everything possible to make the agent and the publisher realize that this book will be a sales success. The topic is right, the market is there, the competition doesn’t exist, the hunger for the book is obvious and unsatisfied.

   Sounds like just about any product that goes out to market, doesn’t it? Now you’re starting to get the idea.

   The folks in the book publishing industry don’t care about you, your hardships, your triumphs, your this or your that. Yes, they’ll be polite, in much the same way anyone is when you have a conversation with them. But all the while they’re evaluating the market potential for the book.

   In fact, many publishers, editors and agents will tell me this is precisely what goes through their mind when they’re approached at a dinner party, or social gathering. Everyone has a ‘book’ inside them and they’re always anxious to tell the book people about it.

   “You’re a publisher? Hey, I’ve this great idea for a book…”

   The publisher will listen intently to the next two sentences the prospective author utters. If there’s nothing there saying why the proposed book would be a big seller, their eyes glaze, the practiced half-smile appears and an exit strategy is quickly developed.

   Frankly, I think the publisher would be better served if they responded to the intial statement with: “Great! You’ve got 20 seconds to tell me why I should spend $30,000 of my kids inheritance on it. Go!”

   You’ve also got to make your book, and the author, appear as a marketing tour de force and that you’ll be doing everything you possibly can, personally, to make the book a success.

   If you’re going to simply write the book and think success or failure hinges on the book publisher’s subsequent actions, you’re going to get a lot of rejection.

   The more your agent and publisher believe (rightfully) that you’ll participate in the success of the book, the better your odds of getting a publisher interested.

   Here’s a list of what you can tell everyone you’re going to do.

   You’re a professional speaker and you’ll be telling all your audiences about the book and encouraging them to buy. You’re a killer radio interview, or television interview, and you’ll be getting millions of people excited about this book so they’ll go out and buy it. In fact, you’ve got a personal goal of getting on at least one radio show every day to promote this book. And you’ve got a marketing plan to make it happen.

   You’ve got an internet list of several thousand and each of them can be encouraged to buy the book.

   You’ll be spending your entire advance on a P.R. company to help promote the book in conjunction with whatever efforts the publisher makes.

   You’ve already contacted several major corporations who want to buy several thousand copies of your book as promotional tools for their business and their marketing.

   The long and the short of it, you’ve got to present a virtually no-risk case for the publisher. All they’ve got to do is take care of the printing and the book distribution and your efforts will take care of making sure the book is a marketing success.

   Okay, so maybe you can’t do all of these things. Most people can’t. But you’ve got to do some of them, if you want the decision to be easy for the publisher and positive for you.

    While we're on the topic of strategies, feel free to subscribe to my FREE on-line course, "How To Write A Book On Anything in 14 Days... or Less" it's packed with tips, techniques and tactics for writing your book faster than you ever thought possible! But ONLY if you're SERIOUS about writing a book NOW!

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