This year I will review well over a hundred book proposals, and my personal goal is to acquire at least fifteen high-quality original books within the year.

Just because I present a book in pub board does not mean I’ll acquire it because other publishers will also be pursuing it. Assuming a 50 percent success rate, I need to pick about 30 books to bring to pub board. Other editors may review hundreds of book proposals and have a goal of acquiring more or fewer books, but at least in trade publishing I doubt the math I’ve laid out here changes much from house to house or editor to editor.

We review a humongous number of book proposals and try to acquire a fraction of them.

So how can a writer make sure their book proposal rises to the top of the stack?…

What you’ve just read is the beginning of a guest post I recently wrote for literary agent Maria Ribas of Stonesong. To keep reading, click here.