The #1 Way To Kill Your Publishing Potential

When you were writing your manuscript, you thought it was pretty good.  A masterpiece, in fact.

Your ideas were original.  You really made people think.  You used a unique writing style.  What was there to not like?

Little did you know you’d annihilated your chances of ever being published, long before your submission hit the editor’s desk.

What went wrong?

Let’s go back in time for a moment.  If you’re looking to be published, we’ll be brave and assume you’ve gotten past the bare essentials:

• A complete manuscript
• Excellent editing and proofreading
• Solid ideas
• Well put-together submission package

It goes without saying that without any of these elements, you don’t stand a chance.  What we’re talking about here is something beyond the basics.

Publishers know there’s only one real reason to offer you a book contract: they think a lot of people will buy it. Publishing is a game of numbers.  The more books they sell, the more money that comes in.

What’s the #1 way to destroy your publishing potential?

Kill Off Your Readers

“What?” you say.  “Kill my readers?  But I love my readers!  I wouldn’t do anything of the sort!  I want to sign books and shake hands and host workshops!”

Shocking, isn’t it, to discover your guilt?  You should be ashamed of yourself.

Here are some ways to commit this heinous crime without ever knowing it:

Appeal To A Very Limited Audience

Dating For Grannies could have a few curiosity seekers flipping through it, but how many people would rush out to buy a copy for themselves?

First of all, grannies are generally old.  They are also generally married to your grandpa. There might be a few widowed, divorced or otherwise single elderly ladies who could use some romantic advice, but it would be difficult to market such a book.

Before you start writing, make sure your work will potentially have a wide audience.  While it certainly won’t suit everyone, there needs to be a significant enough readership to make the cost worth while.

If you’ve already written a book and no editor will give it a second look, you’ll have to consider revising it to suit more people’s tastes.

Offend A Lot of People

Sorry, but The Toddler’s Complete Illustrated Guide to Illicit Drugs (“M is for Marijuana!) isn’t going sell very many copies, no matter how original the idea. Legions of mothers would line up to be the first ones to see your book burned.

It’s okay to ask questions or to shake up common ideas, but writing something that will clearly offend the majority of your readers is suicide.

How can you avoid turning off people from your work?

• Consider your target audience and what would be appropriate for them
• Don’t use gratuitous profanity, sex or violence
• When being deliberately controversial, ensure you have a solid argument to back up your opinions

Ask yourself, “Does my book really need to be this shocking?”  Why?

Write In An Experimental Or Highly Unusual Style

Perhaps you’ve come up with a brilliant poetic metaphor for life by stringing together seemingly unrelated ideas:

“She smiled at the sunset, while screaming seagulls soared over flushing toilets, deep in the heart of her auntie’s basement.  It was a good day.”

It might make perfect sense to you,  but the rest of us (narrow-minded people that we are) probably won’t get it.

Again, you need to consider your audience.  Having a unique writing style is desirable, but making your work so labyrinthine that no one will want to read it won’t do your publishing odds any favours.

How To Turn Yourself In

If you’re looking in the mirror right now and saying, “Yep, that’s me.  I’m a reader killer,”  then you must turn yourself in.

You have two choices:

1. Revise
2. Start over

Sometimes it just seems too late to revise–there isn’t any possible way you could make your manuscript more reader-friendly.  In this case, you might be able to take just a few core ideas and rewrite them into something better.

If not, looks like you’ll have to start from scratch.

Save yourself the hassle and heartache of writing something no one will publish:  from the very outset, make sure you keep your readers at the forefront of your mind.