Dear Geist,

was turned down by eighteen publishers before finding a home! I bet they’re all kicking themselves now.

Dear Johnny,

is a good read, an important work and a deserving winner. Marketability is an important criterion in accepting any manuscript for publication, but the book has to be compatible with the publisher’s overall vision and marketing channels. The formula for success is a publishing team that is excited about a book, confident about the potential audience and connected to marketing networks that will reach that audience. All publishers have stories about the one that got away (some quite gripping!), but few of them would make a different decision.