These 8 Questions Will Get You Published Faster

I recently finished reading Write Is a Verb by Bill O’Hanlon. O’Hanlon talks about how writers need to emotionally distance themselves from their work and view it through a stranger’s eyes (particularly the eyes of someone who can accept or reject it, like an agent or editor).

Here are eight of O’Hanlon’s hard-nosed questions:

1. How is my approach in this work different from anything else I have seen or heard?
2. My book reaches a narrowly targeted audience because _______.
3. My writing or content is unique because _______.
4. I know there are no books out there like mine because _______.
5. What will surprise people about my book or my approach is _______.
6. The shortest description I can give of my book is ______.
7. If I could make a visual image of my book, it would look like _______.
8. My book is like [a soothing balm on a painful sunburn; a map to a lost traveler, etc.] _______.