In this instructional video, Julie Broad, founder of Book Launchers, explains that traditional publishers reject manuscripts not because of lack of quality but because the books don’t fit their existing sales models, internal processes, or projected author sell‑through. She contrasts the risk‑averse, profit‑driven logic of editors with the author‑entrepreneur’s goals of control, speed, intellectual‑property ownership, and audience momentum. Julie shares three concrete examples – her own experience, tennis hall‑of‑famer Jack Roppel, and author Judy Haller – to illustrate how self‑publishing allowed them to retain creative control, accelerate release, and achieve commercial success (e.g., topping Amazon’s print list and making the USA Today bestseller list). The video concludes with a call to join her free Skool community, The Author Lab, where authors can learn to build their own publishing systems, position their audience, and monetize their work without relying on traditional gatekeepers.
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If you think traditional publishing has rejected or will reject your book because it's not good enough, it's probably not what's going to happen. Editors don't buy books based on merit, storyline or quality. Most of the time they buy books based on another thing. So if you're wondering what gets a book rejected or accepted by a publisher. Oh, good news. This video is for you. Hi, I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and your host here at Book Launchers tv. Book Launchers is your first choice for all things related to writing, publishing and promoting a nonfiction book. My first book was rejected by a publisher, a publisher that approached me to write the book and gave me the idea that they wanted written. And after that they still rejected me. Now you can't tell me they are rejecting me because the book idea wasn't good enough. Because it was their idea. They said it was because I wouldn't sell enough books to make it viable. Well, guess what? I self published my own idea and took it to number one in print books on Amazon, outselling Game of Thrones and so many other books and stayed in the top 100 books for almost 200 and some days. So publishers don't always know what's going to sell, do they? So this is a topic I'm pretty passionate about. And when I recently read an article written by a publishing insider talking about editorial rejections, I thought this was a great thing to talk about. Editors are reading hundreds of submissions a year. They have stacks of manuscripts to go through. They're overwhelmed. So when they evaluate a book, the real questions aren't whether the book is good, it is, can we slot this into something we already know how to sell? Will this create any friction internally? And the big one, can the author sell a lot of books? That is just the operational reality. Now here's the mistake authors make. They might hear this and they go, okay, well how do I make my book easier for the editors to say yes to? But only if your goals are in alignment with the publishing house that you're talking to. Your goal is to build an author empire. Editor logic doesn't apply to you because your goal is probably control, speed, revenue influence, long term intellectual property ownership. And the traditional publishing decision making process is not relevant because it's designed to manage risk at scale. Editors are optimizing for ease, profit, potential, proven systems over experimentation and internal alignment over speed. Author entrepreneurs are going to optimize for reader clarity, distribution, ownership and momentum. Once you see the difference, you may find yourself stopping and not Asking for an editor to say yes. I'll give you a real example. Jack Roppel. He could have traditionally published. He has traditionally published. He's credible, he has results. I mean, he's a tennis hall of famer. He has a message publishers want. But Jack knew something. He knew he wanted control over this story. He wanted flexibility in how the book was used, and he wanted this work to be part of his larger ecosystem. Traditional publishing would have slowed that down and he couldn't have told the story exactly like he wanted to tell it. Self publishing let him design the book around his goals and not someone else's system. That was strategy. Judy Haller. Judy wanted speed. She wanted her brand front and center. And she wanted to build momentum while her message was hot. Waiting 18 to 24 months for traditional publisher to release it made no sense. She didn't need a publisher's logo to validate her message. She needed reach, clarity and alignment. And she could do that very effectively, efficiently and successfully. She made the USA Today bestsellers list. Self publishing gave her all that. And myself, I am glad I was rejected because it opened up this world to me. And I discovered not only do I not need a publisher, I don't want one. I care deeply about owning my intellectual property. I love controlling my work. I want flexibility and I want the ability to evolve my content as the market changes. I don't want my ideas locked into someone else's system. For me, self publishing is the only plan that makes sense. So if you've been rejected or you're waiting for an answer, here's the truth. It doesn't mean your book failed or that it's not any good. It just means your book didn't fit someone else's model. And that is only a problem if you believe the machine is the only thing that gets to decide. The most successful authors I know, they didn't wait to be chosen. They built systems that made choosing them unnecessary. Make your book an asset. You control it's intellectual property. And if you want help building that kind of system, audience positioning and monetization, join us inside our free community over on Skool, the author lab. That's where we help authors stop asking to be chosen and start building something they own. I'll see you there.
