In my career, I’ve published 7 books: 2 were self-published and 5 were through traditional publishing houses. My 8th has been purchased and is in the editing stage and due for release Spring 2025. I was lucky enough to have been approached by the publishers to ask if I would write several of the books, so for these I didn’t have to promote my idea. But for a couple of my books, I experienced what many authors do when they work incredibly hard to share their concept with the world: the pain of rejection from agents and editors.

Getting the Rejection Letter

It's an all-too-common trope that writers send dozens of pitches and either hear crickets in return (i.e., nothing) or they receive standard form letters informing them that while the editors thank them for their submission, it’s not the right fit for them at this time.

I received scores of rejections, probably more than 40, for what is now my award-winning documentary book Women Healers of the World: The Geography, History and Traditions of Herbal Medicine. When the manuscript was in its infancy and I was interviewing women across the United States and researching etymology and world healing traditions, I sent an early draft of a proposal to a number of publishing houses. In my mind, I was deeply embedded in the manuscript writing itself and was not in the “sales pitch mentality,” and I was new to the world of pitching and selling. My early attempts at a book proposal were overly wordy and complex and verbose (see how I did that) with too much repetition and no clear description of my goal. I feel sorry for the editors who had to slog through these early proposals. With all of them, I either didn’t hear back or I got the dreaded form letters.

As my manuscript grew and I crystalized what I was trying to accomplish, my proposals got stronger. I began to receive better criticism and feedback from editors, including phrases such as, “This market is too narrow,” or “this topic won’t sell,” basically telling me that it wasn’t considered mainstream enough for a major publisher. In addition to the topic breadth, I began to home in on what my proposal was saying and how it appeared to editors. For example, one editor wrote me back to say she felt I was approaching the project from the wrong angle, and that instead of writing about other women and healers, it should be the story of my own journey through herbal medicine. This type of feedback at first flummoxed me—didn’t she understand what I was trying to do through this book? Of course, I finally realized that she didn’t understand because my proposal didn’t make it clear. It was my responsibility to clearly demonstrate the value and vision of the book through the sales pitch. If she didn’t understand, I needed to go back to my pitch.

Why Rejection is Valuable, and How to Use It

So many authors I’ve met are fantastic writers, real experts in their craft and in their topic. They can write a romance novel or a travel guide like nobody’s business. But when it comes time to write the proposal—the pitch that sells the manuscript—they lose confidence and feel out of their league. The proposal is the selling document, the sales pitch that promotes not only the book but also the author and his or her ability to capture an audience. It’s a completely different type of writing, and yet it’s exactly what an agent or editor sees first. Perhaps because I’ve been an entrepreneur for decades and have learned how to sell my products and services, I feel comfortable stepping out of my writing identity and entering my selling identity. It’s a skill that must be developed by authors whether you are pitching to traditional publishing houses, to Indie presses, or you plan to self-publish. You must master the art of selling.

It helps that the proposal is not a static document carved into cement that you simply mail out over and over. At every stage, you have the opportunity to improve your pitch. It’s a living, breathing document that is intended to change and morph as you learn and grow as a writer and as you receive feedback and rejections.

When you get feedback, be grateful. You’ll learn if your proposal indicates your book appears melodramatic when you’re really intending it to be edgy. If an editor dismisses it because they perceive it, through your pitch, to be dry when you actually meant it to come across as comedic and fun, you’ll know that the error is in your proposal. This gives you the chance to read your sales pitch with fresh eyes to determine where the glitches are, how your words come across to a new reader, and what phrases you are using that imply something you don’t intend.

You may get feedback that the manuscript is too short, or that the audience is wrong. These are straightforward messages that your proposal is pitching your book incorrectly. Fix these errors (both in the manuscript and the proposal) and resend it elsewhere.

If your feedback is about you as the author and that perhaps you are not the right fit, or not well-known enough, or your platform is too small, take it in stride. Develop your platform with blogging, social media, podcasting, in-person lectures, speaking engagements, attending conferences, and other ways to share yourself and your project with others and engage with a growing potential audience. This takes time. Meanwhile, continue to work on your manuscript and hone your proposal.

5 Tips to Upgrade and Revise Your Book Proposal

In my 30 years as an entrepreneur and author, I’ve learned to tackle these important things inside my book proposal before sending it out again:

1. Shrink it. Be more concise. Streamline. Edit out unnecessary or confusing words so that the core message of your manuscript shines through. In my own cases, my proposals have been wordy because there’s so much of the book’s value that I want to capture and convey to the editor. But upon re-reading these pitches, it’s obvious that I simply wrote too much.
2. Engage a friend or colleague to read it to you aloud. It’s not enough to ask someone to read your proposal and later tell you what they think. You need to ask them to read it out loud to you in real time so that you can hear where they stumble, what confuses them, and what lights them up. You’ll hear words that strike you as “off,” and you’ll hear the inflection in their voice where it didn’t appear  when you read it in your head. If possible, be in the same room so you can listen to them read it several times, each time with you taking notes and making edits. Determine where the gaps are, what’s missing, and how it can be streamlined.
3. Print the proposal, tuck it into a drawer for a few days, and then read it as if you were the agent or editor receiving it in the mail. Reading it on your computer screen is misleading—when you print it, you’ll recognize mistakes and turns of phrases that scream out at you. Screens are deceptive while paper never lies.
4. Get out of your manuscript head and get into your sales head. Think of yourself as your own business manager and write a sales pitch that is pure sales. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, your manuscript likely isn’t a sales document. But your book proposal certainly is. Write it (and revise it) as if you are an independently contracted salesperson three steps removed. Look at it subjectively and identify its golden features and key values—from a distance.
5. Lastly, think of your book and its potential future with a publisher as a project. Yes, you’ve put your heart and soul into your story or your research, creating a wonderful world of fantasy or history, but it’s time to think of it as a project and you are the project manager. How do you plan to co-manage this project with an editor? How will you communicate and be involved? How will you support the timeline and how does the publisher know she can trust you as a project partner, both during the editing phase and after publication? Are you a 1-Book-Jennie or do you envision working on future projects? In other words, are you a good investment for this publisher? Your book proposal should indicate this.

While no author wants to hear “no” from their submission to an editor or agent, it happens. It’s not the end of the world; in fact, getting rejections is a strong chance to re-evaluate your sales pitch to make sure it is the clearest, most accurate, and most compelling it can be.