Once I began my employment as an acquisitions editor, and let my friends, family, and extended network know I was actively seeking manuscripts, I’ve had my inbox flooded with requests to evaluate their ideas and completed (and half-finished) proposals and books. I try to look at each one fairly and objectively and with the same set of criteria.

It’s that last part we’re going to talk about today.

Now, please bear in mind that these are simply my criteria for evaluating a manuscript. It’s my mental checklist and not necessarily the same as another acquisitions editor. But, at the very least, it’ll help point you in a direction and give you a sense of what your manuscript should look like before you send it off to someone like me (or an agent, but query letters are a completely different topic). 

 

That said, here’s what I look for:

• An engaging read. Does it capture my attention? Does it make me want to keep reading? Do I care about what happens next? Am I learning something (for nonfiction)? Is the information easily digested but lessons or characters that will stick with me after the book is done?
• Writing quality. Is the book well written? Is it full of jargon and industry terms, or can anyone understand what you’re saying? Is is passive or active voice? Is the vocabulary varied?
• Flow. Does the book flow naturally or is it forced? Do the chapters connect to each other or are they disjointed? It is organized logically?
• Structure. For nonfiction, coaching type books–are the exercises or chapter summaries or workplans easy to use? Is there a table of contents and index? If not, does the book work fine without them? For fiction, how is the story broken up?
• Editing. Have you gone over it for major grammatical problems? Is it riddled with spelling mistakes and sentence structure problems? Are quotes properly cited?
• Market. Not your marketing but audience market. Is there a need for your book? Does it fill a gap in information or add something different or unique to a saturated market? Does it offer a new perspective on an old topic?
• Passion for the topic. It’s not necessarily about my passion for the topic; it’s about yours. Does it come through in how you’ve written the story? Can I tell that you’ve done your research or carefully planned the characters and plot? For fiction, can I tell that you love your characters? For nonfiction, does it make me feel enthusiastic for the topic, even if this is the first I’ve heard of it?

It’s really that simple. A book doesn’t have to be perfect for me to love it but it has to have potential. It has to grab me. It has to make me want to learn or read more. And if your book has that, you’re definitely ready to submit it!

But you might be concerned that your platform or social media isn’t big enough. We’ll address that in depth another day but in short, I’ll just say that don’t let how small your platform might be be a detractor. If your book is good, it can get published! It can do well! Because you can fix a small platform. You can’t always fix a bad book.