When I review a proposal from a new or experienced author, I use several informal “tests” to evaluate whether the concept might be of interest to publishers.

Remember, the agent’s role is to find books that might interest publishers. What we like doesn’t really matter. I’ve learned to like book proposals that sell. But that’s just me.

Some of my ad hoc “tests” are:

Editor Test: Can I think of specific acquiring editors who might like to see this? (If not, that’s a problem.)

Theology Test: “If you are saying something that no one else is saying, you are probably a heretic.” (Josh McDowell)

Legal Test: Could someone take legal action against the author? (Hint: You want the answer to be “no.”)

Seminar Test: For nonfiction works, imagine an in-person presentation of the content to a crowd of people who each paid $20.00 to hear you speak. (No free entries, you have to pay to attend.)

Interview Test: This would indicate the author’s authority. Imagine the author being interviewed on a major podcast and being introduced as having no formal theological training but still having an interesting “take” on the epistles to the Thessalonians.

Church Test: Would this book contribute to the conversation among Christians, help support church ministry, and disciple other believers?

There are probably some other ways I intuitively evaluate a proposed book, but those tests run in the background of my brain and are not immediately obvious. (Maybe call them the Sum of Life Test.)

One test I don’t use is “Would I Read This?”  Since most Christian books are targeting people who don’t look like me, the low-resolution thinking behind representing only my preferences for reading would be a quick path to failure. My personal preferences don’t matter.

But one of the most telling tests for any book, and, honestly, most books fail this one, is the Five-Year Test. Most books are irrelevant by the five-year mark, with very few (maybe 5-10%?) becoming perennial sellers.

If you self-publish, it will probably take a year to write a book, and a few months to get it prepared to be published.

For traditional publishing, you write the book, and then it takes 12-18 months after finishing the manuscript to be ready to publish.

In both cases, the clock started ticking when you finished writing, as all your insights, examples, and stories are frozen in time at that point.

Books are a unique medium. The very nature of them requires the message to be long-term; even those who might read it will likely take several weeks or months to get through it. If someone buys it three years from now, will it still resonate? This is why publishing created the Revised and Updated Edition for some of its bestselling books.

What things usually date a book and make it irrelevant either faster or slower?

• Current events used as examples.
• Critiques of anything current.
• Humor using actual people or events.
• Quotes from relatively recent sources. (Better to quote someone who has died.)
• Out-of-date phrases that don’t mean the same anymore. (Social media cycles through language at lightspeed. Books don’t.)

I am sure there are other things, but I don’t want someone to read this in 2031 and find it out of touch!