There are plenty of books and blogs with information about how to pitch your book idea to a a publisher. This one takes the opposite approach: it shows you what not to say to a publisher.

There's something strangely reassuring about reading a book like this, as long as you haven't made similar embarassing mistakes: no matter how bad you are at pitching, it could hardly be worse than this lot.

Some themes start to emerge as you wince your way through the pages. For example, many writers seem to think it's a selling point to say they have no experience of writing at all.

In other cases, what starts out sounding like an interesting idea ends up as some sort of all-embracing panacea for everything.

And other ideas are just plain weird.

After a while, I started to feel a bit guilty reading these valiant but ill-fated attempts to get published. I don't like the idea of laughing at people, and that's exactly what this book seems to do. On the other hand, there is enough advice out there for nobody to have to make such elementary errors.

If you're not sure about how to make a good impression on a would-be publisher, then this book will help you to avoid making a bad one. Regard it as fulfilling a similar function to How not to write a novel. (Affiliate link.)

To buy the book from Amazon, click the link below. Please note that this is an affiliate link.

Something nasty in the slush pile.

If you found this review useful, then please consider signing up for our newsletter, Reviews for Writers.