A publisher's guide for authors
Why books get rejected
Publishers turn down about 98% of book proposals and manuscripts. The statistic sounds brutal. A great many of those nos never needed to happen.
98%
of proposals are rejected
It sounds almost impossible to get published with statistics like that. Actually, things are not so bleak. Many of the rejections will be for reasons that are entirely avoidable.
Earlier in How to Get Published I mentioned that publishers reject about 98% of book proposals and manuscripts. This guide is the list of reasons for rejection that need not happen — plus the harder truths about quality, mistakes on the publisher's side, and when a book simply has no market.
by Stewart Ferris, author and publisher. Extracted from the book How to Get Published.
Read the guide
See the odds chart- 01Avoidable reasonsPublishers reject about 98% of proposals. A surprising number of those nos are for mistakes you can simply not make.Read
- 02QualityEven if every manuscript sparkled, publishers still could not sign them all. Quality is only one of the reasons books are turned down.Read
- 03OddsA 98% rejection rate is not a 2% chance of being published. Each suitable publisher is another roll of the dice.Read
- 04Automatic rejectionThe wrong genre, sent to the wrong house, is not a literary judgement. It is a filing decision.Read
- 05MistakesJunior staff, lost envelopes, and overloaded desks mean good books are sometimes overlooked. Here is what you can actually do about it.Read
- 06Rejection lettersSome letters are templates. Some are a free editorial report. Knowing the difference saves you from rewriting the wrong book.Read
- 07Dealing with itThey rejected the book, not you. Here is how to take useful feedback, ignore the rest, and keep the work moving.Read
- 08Giving upSome books have no commercial market. That is not the end of writing — it is a reason to choose a different book, or a different route to print.Read
- 09ChecklistTick off the sixteen avoidable mistakes before you put a stamp on anything — or hit send.Read