Never Win Recommended Reading Playing in the Big Leagues Getting published by a large commercial publisher is similar to getting drafted to play on a professional sports team. As in professional sports, big league publishers have scouts, try outs, and coaches. They call their scouts - agents or editors. Try outs are given whenever and wherever you can get an agent or editor to read your book proposal. Editors double as writing coaches plus play a major leadership role of the whole product development team.
All games require a way to keep score and determine who has won the contest.
In the game of book publishing, score is kept by the number of books sold or profits earned, whereas winning is determined by the overall effect the book has upon the lives of those who used the information contained within the book. In other words, the most important reason for wanting to get drafted by a big league publishing team is doing so will allow you to reach out and touch a larger audience than is possible via minor league publishing. Once you've been drafted you will be expected to help the publisher's product development team create and market a series of profitable books. You will be financially rewarded with advances and royalties. If you're lucky and can keep producing big league caliber material you'll earn enough to live on.