How to Aim for Publication with a Novel That Has No Awards or Ranking History
Saying "It's interesting" is not enough to pass a planning meeting
The "reasons to sell" that published novels have for publishers
"I'm confident in my work, but it just won't lead to publication"
"I make it to the final selection in public contests, but I never win"
"I'm serializing on a posting site, but I don't have the numbers to reach the top of the rankings"
When you aim for publication, you may hit these kinds of walls.
Is my writing not good enough?
Is it because it's not a trendy genre?
Do I need to keep posting more and increase my readership?
Of course, those things can have an impact.
However, there is one more important perspective when considering publication.
That is,
whether the selling side has a reason to sell the work
is the perspective.
In commercial publishing, the author does not hand the work directly to the reader.
First, an editor finds the work and explains its appeal within the company. If the project moves forward, sales, marketing, designers, bookstore staff, and others who have not yet read the entire text will also move to deliver the work to readers.
Along the way, the same question arises many times.
"What is interesting about this work?"
"What kind of readers can this be recommended to?"
What is the reason for publishing this, rather than a similar work?
What words should be used to sell it in bookstores?
No matter how interesting a work is, if the answer to these questions cannot be found, the sellers will be at a loss.
Conversely, what the author needs to consider is not just the 'correct answer for a work that sells'.
Is it a work that allows the seller to pass on its appeal to the next person?
It is necessary to design it with that in mind.
Awards and rankings are not 'interest' but 'explanatory material'
Won a grand prize in a public contest.
Reached number one in the overall ranking on a submission site.
Has tens of thousands of followers.
Has a large number of book pre-orders.
These figures and achievements are strong assets in commercial publishing.
However, winning an award does not make a work interesting, and being ranked number one does not suddenly improve the quality of the text.
The great power that awards and rankings possess lies in
'being able to explain the reason for publishing this work in a short amount of time'
.
'It is a grand prize winner of a new writer award.'
'It achieved number one for the year on a submission site.'
'It already has many readers from the time of serialization.'
With just this, you can at least convey that it is 'a work already evaluated by someone' and 'a work for which a certain level of demand has been confirmed'.
In short, awards and rankings are not the appeal of the work itself, but rather external proof that appeal and demand exist.
For those selling the work, these are very easy materials to work with.
So, does a work without awards or ranking achievements lack the elements needed to sell?
That is not the case.
If there is no externally provided proof, you must clarify the
“something that can only be obtained from this work”
that exists within the work itself.
Elements for selling exist both outside and inside the work
I think of the elements that sellers can use as being broadly divided into two types.
1. Selling points outside the work
・Awards from public submissions or contests
・Ranking achievements on posting sites
・View counts, follower counts, and rating counts
・Achievements such as existing publications or comic adaptations
・Reactions on social media
・Professional background or unique real-life experiences
・An existing reader base
These are strengths that can be confirmed even before reading the work.
“Many people are reading it”
“It was evaluated by selection committee members”
“The author has experiences only they can write about”
These forms of proof help support a publishing proposal.
2. Selling points inside the work
・A reading experience that cannot be found elsewhere
・Emotional impact that cannot be obtained elsewhere
・A unique lingering feeling after reading
・Mechanisms that make you want to read from the beginning after finishing
・A reading experience that flips your values
・A premise that grabs interest the moment it is explained
・Characters or relationships that are hard to forget once seen
・Scenes that make for a strong visual when used on a cover or obi strip
Rankings and awards are evidence that exists outside the work.
In contrast, the reading experience, emotional impact, lingering feeling, and the reading experience itself are evidence embedded within the work.
Ideally, you would have both, but they are not strictly necessary.
Even without major achievements,
if you can explain that "reading this book offers something you cannot experience in other works,"
you can create a reason for it to be published.
"Natsume Soseki Fantasia" shows you what to sell
An easy-to-understand example is "Natsume Soseki Fantasia" by Mukago-sensei.
This work is the Grand Prize winner of the 36th Fantasia Grand Prize.
However, the elements used to sell it are not limited to just the award history.
Natsume Soseki, who was assassinated by someone, is resurrected in the body of Ichiyo Higuchi through the forbidden medical arts of Ogai Mori.
Then, together with Hideyo Noguchi and others, they fight against conspiracies in the Imperial Capital and a murderer targeting writers.
Just hearing this explanation raises the question in your mind: "What on earth am I about to read?"
Natsume Soseki.
Ichiyo Higuchi.
Ogai Mori.
Hideyo Noguchi.
Brain transplant.
Meiji era.
Assassination case.
Literary master battle.
While it has an easy-to-understand entry point using famous historical figures, the combination itself cannot be easily replaced.
You can create other works featuring "literary masters in a fantasy setting."
Works featuring "gender-swapped historical figures" also exist.
However,
Natsume Soseki, whose brain has been transplanted into the body of Ichiyo Higuchi, pursues his own assassination case
—this reading experience can only be obtained by reading that specific work.
The author, Sensei Nereko, mentioned in an interview that they had been submitting works based on Natsume Soseki to public contests for about four years.
Faced with a situation where they would reach the higher selection stages but fail to win, they thought, "It's not that the subject of Natsume Soseki is wrong, but that I lack the breakthrough power."
So, in this work, they added two ideas:
・Making Natsume Soseki female
・Centering the work around the term "Shin-Natsume Soseki"
They added these two ideas.
This is a very practical point.
They did not discard the subject matter itself.
While keeping the core of what they wanted to write,
they increased the breakthrough power to the point where its appeal could be seen from the outside
as well.
As a result, the work won the grand prize, and the content became a hot topic on social media from the moment the award was announced. A comic adaptation also began in April 2026.
Of course, this does not mean that adding a bizarre setting will guarantee a win.
What is important is that the setting is not just a decoration for creating buzz, but is connected to the character's conflicts and the core of the story.
Because Natsume Soseki is resurrected in the body of Ichiyo Higuchi, it is not just a battle of historical figures, but a story about
"Who am I?"
You can develop it into questions such as, "Which defines a person: the body or the personality?"
"What is the freedom of an author?"
and so on.
A strong hook is connected to the theme that lies beneath it.
That is why you can get them to pick it up with a "What is that?" and then lead them to feel "I'm glad I read this."
Creating a "one-of-a-kind setting" is not enough
When trying to differentiate for the sake of book publication, one tends to think only about creating unusual settings.
However, an unusual setting is merely an entrance.
What is important is what the reader experiences through that work.
For example,
"A protagonist who runs a post office in another world"
Let's say there is a setting like this.
It is a bit unusual, but it is still just replacing the occupation.
What you should think about from here is:
・Who is delivering letters to whom? ・What is the significance of delivering letters in that world? ・What kind of emotions will the reader experience through the letters? ・What will be overturned when reading the final letter?
These are the parts to consider.
Is it a story about delivering letters from the dead to the living?
Is it a story about delivering letters between enemy countries during a war?
Is it a story about delivering letters sent from one's future self?
Is it a story about resolving a misunderstanding that lasted for decades through a letter that was never delivered?
Even with the same "Otherworldly Post Office," the reading experience changes completely.
What the seller needs is not just,
"It's a story about running a post office in another world."
It is also about,
"It's a story about delivering the final letters written by the deceased to those they left behind."
"It's a story about a single courier connecting two warring nations through letters."
This is an explanation that includes the emotions involved.
Dividing what can only be experienced in this work into four parts
When thinking about the non-substitutability of a work, it becomes easier to organize if you divide it into the following four parts.
1. Reading Style
Reading style is not just about what happens, but how you make the reader read it.
・Proceeds with lighthearted first-person retorts
・Depicts heavy incidents with dry humor
・Composed only of letters, reports, and audio records
・The narrator's true identity is revealed at the end
・The protagonist and the reader realize the truth at the same time
・At first glance it's a comedy, but it gradually turns into horror
Even with the same events, if the way of telling changes, the reading experience changes.
When aiming for publication,
"What happens in the story"
is not the only thing; try to verbalize
"what kind of sensation the reader feels as they turn the pages"
as well.
For example,
"While making the reader laugh with fast-paced banter, hide clues about the disappearance case in the edges of the conversation."
“Make the reader experience the terror of a cursed contract being formed bit by bit, just by reading the transaction screen of a flea market site.”
If you can say this much, you have taken a step beyond a mere genre description.
2. Emotional Impact
Saying “It’s a moving work” is rarely enough to make it a selling point.
There are different types of emotional impact.
・The emotion of seeing hard work pay off
・The emotion of realizing someone’s devotion
・The emotion of accepting what has been lost
・The emotion of understanding someone you couldn’t forgive
・The emotion of being saved in turn by the person you saved
・The emotion of feelings that didn’t reach someone finally arriving across time
Make it concrete what the reader will be moved by.
A particularly strong structure is one where the meaning is inverted between the beginning and the end of the story.
At first, it looked like “a story about a protagonist helping the weak.”
But in the end, it is revealed that “the person the protagonist saved was the one who had saved the protagonist in the past.”
At first, it looked like “a story about bringing back someone who passed away.”
But in the end, it is revealed to be “a story about accepting that they cannot be brought back, and passing on what was received from them to the future.”
If you can explain the structure of the emotional impact like this, the seller can say,
“It’s a tear-jerker.”
Instead of that, they can introduce it as,
“It’s a story about a protagonist who thought they were saving someone, only to realize they were the one being saved.”
This is how they can introduce it.
3. Lingering Effect
A lingering effect does not simply mean leaving the ending ambiguous.
It is a state where emotions and questions continue to persist within the reader even after the story has ended.
・A happy ending, but one where the magnitude of what was lost remains
・The truth is revealed, but whether it was the right choice is left ambiguous
・The romance did not come to fruition, but the time spent loving the other person is affirmed
・The supernatural mystery seems solved, yet the final sentence creates a different possibility
・The narrator's true identity is revealed, changing the meaning of everything written before
If you want to sell the lingering impression,
summarize "what remains after reading"
into a single sentence.
"A lingering impression that makes you cherish the time spent with that person, rather than feeling the sadness of loss"
"A lingering impression that doesn't end with just hating the culprit, but makes you wonder if you would have made the same choice"
"A lingering impression that makes you want to check the opening sentence again after closing the book"
The feeling after reading becomes the words used when recommending the work to others.
Readers don't need to explain the entire detailed plot,
"I couldn't do anything for a while after finishing it"
"When you read to the end, the meaning of the first page changes"
"It's painful to think about the time those two spent together"
is how they share their impressions.
Those words are exactly what the selling side wants.
4. Reading Experience
A reading experience is a combination of setting, structure, style, and emotion.
For example,
・The reader pieces together the truth as if they were researching the documents themselves
・Readers who trusted the narrator are deceived along with the characters
・The positions of the protagonist and the antagonist are reversed in the middle of the story
・As you read on, what you thought was a romance novel turns into a story of mourning
・The final line reveals that the third-person narration up to that point was actually the voice of a specific character
This is a part that cannot be fully explained by a "synopsis" alone.
However, if you are considering publication, the author must be able to put it into words.
What order of emotions will readers be put through by reading this book?
For example,
"At first, they laugh while reading the eccentric premise, then halfway through they realize the protagonist's loneliness, and finally, they cry at the meaning of the title."
"A reader who started reading it as a mystery about chasing a suspicious seller realizes that they themselves have become a party to the transaction."
Explaining the reading experience through the flow of time in this way makes the uniqueness of the work easier to see.
Five steps to create elements for selling
From here on, I will explain how to actually review your project.
Step 1: Determine a familiar entry point
A completely unknown work is difficult to explain to readers.
First, use a genre or relationship that the reader already knows as an entry point.
・Isekai fantasy
・Villainess
・Fake engagement
・Buddy story
・Workplace novel
・Mansion mystery
・Mockumentary horror
・Reversal after exile
It doesn't matter if this isn't rare.
Rather, it becomes a foothold for the reader to understand,
"This is a work that is enjoyed in this way."
as they read.
Step 2: Insert a foreign element unique to that work
Next, insert an element into the known mold that can only exist in that work.
・She is a villainess, but the prince who condemns her also remembers his past life
・It is a fake engagement, but if the engagement is broken, both of their memories will disappear
・It is a mansion mystery, but the narrator is the mansion itself
・It is an exile story, but the protagonist has been waiting ten years to be exiled
・It is an otherworld travel story, but they are forbidden from intervening in the world they are visiting
This foreign element creates the "What is that?" factor at the entrance of the work.
Step 3: Connect to emotions
Once you have established an unusual setting, think about how it connects to the protagonist's emotions.
If it is a "fake engagement where memories disappear," why do the two still try to break up?
If the "narrator is a mansion," why does the mansion keep observing the residents?
If it is a "protagonist who was waiting to be exiled," what are they trying to achieve by being exiled?
Only when the setting connects to the protagonist's wounds, wishes, and choices does it become a unique emotional experience for the work.
Step 4: Prove it early in the main text
It is not enough to just write the selling points in a proposal or synopsis.
In the first chapter, or at the very latest in the early stages,
you need to prove that
"this work truly delivers this kind of entertainment."
If it is a story where letters arrive from the dead, deliver the first one in the early stages.
If it is a buddy story between a protagonist and their nemesis, have them team up early on.
If the narrator's identity is a plot twist, place sentences from the beginning that change their meaning when reread.
Do not hold back on the entertainment you promised in the package within the main text.
Step 5: Create words for readers to recommend it to others
Finally,
think about "how would a reader introduce this work to a friend?"
Thinking
"It was an interesting fantasy"
might be a weak reason for a recommendation.
If it's "a story where Natsume Soseki is resurrected in the body of Ichiyo Higuchi and fights alongside Hideyo Noguchi,"
then it's hard to forget once you hear it.
"A romance novel where the meaning of the title completely changes when you finish reading it"
"I thought it was a story about the protagonist saving someone they helped, but it was actually the other way around"
"A scary story that makes you want to meet the deceased after you finish reading it"
Works that naturally evoke such descriptions have the core of word-of-mouth potential.
Don't ask beta readers, "Was it interesting?"
When having acquaintances or readers read your manuscript,
"Was it interesting?"
Even if you ask that, in most cases, the answer you get back is, "Yes, it was interesting."
If you are looking for a selling point for a book deal, change your questions.
・If you were to introduce this work to someone, how would you describe the story?
・What part did you feel was most different from other works?
・What kind of emotion remained immediately after you finished reading it?
・Where was the scene that left the most lasting impression?
・What question made you want to read the continuation?
・Is there anything whose impression changed from before you read it to after?
If multiple people mention the same scene or the same emotion, that may be the strength of the work.
Conversely, if no one touches on the elements the author thought were the selling points, they might not be sufficiently expressed in the text.
Reader feedback is not just an evaluation.
It is a mirror that tells you what is visible when looking at the work from the outside.
Try a "relay of sellers"
Assume the following four people each describe the work.
From author to editor
"What is this work?"
Can you answer in under a minute?
From editor to planning meeting
"Why are you publishing this work?"
Can you explain the genre, target audience, and uniqueness?
From sales to bookstores
"Which shelf should it be placed on, and what kind of reader would you recommend it to?"
Is there an entry point that existing readers can understand?
From bookstores and advertisements to readers
"What will readers experience when they read this book?"
Can you convey it through just the title, cover, obi, and synopsis?
If the appeal disappears during this relay, it may not be that the work is bad, but that the translation of its appeal is insufficient.
Even if only the author knows a hundred charms, if not even one can be passed on to the next person, it becomes a box whose contents cannot be seen from the outside.
Conversely, if one strong appeal is passed on accurately, an opportunity is created for readers to experience the remaining ninety-nine charms hidden within.
A template for summarizing a publication proposal in one sentence
When organizing your proposal, try fitting it into the following format:
"This is a work for readers who like [XX], which enters through an easy-to-understand gateway called [YY], provides a unique experience specific to this work called [ZZ], and leaves the reader with the emotion of [XX] after reading."
For example,
"For readers who like historical fantasy where historical figures play an active role, this work enters through the gateway of Natsume Soseki being resurrected in the body of Ichiyo Higuchi, and lets them experience a literary master battle where historical facts and bold fiction intersect."
"For readers who like contract marriage stories, this work enters through the gateway of a time-limited fake engagement, and leaves the reader with the value of the time spent together through the choices of two people who will lose each other's memories if they part."
"For readers who like mockumentary horror, this work enters through the gateway of transaction records on a flea market site, and gives the reader the sensation of being drawn into the contract themselves as they read the records."
When crafting this single sentence, the important thing is not to end it with just an explanation of the setting.
Always include the following at the end:
“What experience will you provide to the reader?”
“What will you leave with the reader after they finish?”
Include these.
A checklist to confirm your selling points
Before finalizing your proposal, check the following items:
・There is an entry point that can be explained in one sentence
・It connects to a genre or relationship that readers are familiar with
・There are elements that cannot be replaced by similar works
・The unique setting connects to the protagonist's emotions and choices
・There is a strong scene that can be used for the cover or obi strip
・The selling point of the work is actually shown in the first chapter
・There is a question that makes the reader want to know what happens next
・The emotion you want to leave the reader with can be explained in one sentence
・You can imagine the words a reader would use to recommend it to others
・You can explain the reason for publishing this work, even without track records
You do not need to check off every single item.
However, the fewer external proofs like awards or rankings a work has, the more you need to clarify the selling points within it.
Not being published does not mean the work has no value
Publication is not a test that perfectly measures the value of a work.
There are conditions that the author cannot control, such as publication slots, label policies, trends, the existence of similar projects, and timing.
Therefore, you do not need to think,
“This work has no value”
based solely on the result of not being published.
On the other hand,
“Waiting until someone appears who understands the value of the work”
only places the burden on the side that has to sell it.
What an author can do is dig out the charm within their own work and process it into a form that others can grasp.
If you have awards, use them.
If you have ranking achievements, use them.
If you have specialized knowledge or a unique background, use them.
If you lack such external proof,
polish your writing style.
Build a structure of emotional impact.
Design the lingering impression after reading.
Articulate the reading experience that can only be gained from that work.
Even without numbers, you can create reasons for it to sell.
However, those reasons must not be 'I think it's interesting myself,' but rather,
who the work is for, what it offers, and how it will be delivered
must be concretized into that form.
It is impossible to perfectly predict whether something will sell.
However, you can create a work that those selling it will have no trouble with.
From author to editor.
From editor to planning meeting.
From sales to bookstores.
From bookstores to readers.
Ensure the appeal of the work is passed along without being lost along the way.
What is necessary to aim for publication is not just writing an interesting work.
It is about shaping its appeal into a form that someone can pass on to the next person.