Top Ten Reasons Your Story Isn't Selling

1)      Not enough happens.

2)      There’s nothing unique enough about your premise, plot, or protagonist to set your story apart from what's already out there.

3)      The prose is dense and inaccessible.

4)      Your story is not grounded in setting.

5)      The protagonist is not likable or admirable and readers can’t relate to him/her.

6)      You don’t show, you tell.

7)      The beginning is too slow, the middle is too boring, and the ending is too rushed.

8)      The dialogue doesn’t sound like real people.

9)       The story is not told in a strong voice.

10)   The protagonist does not drive the action and/or change enough over the course of the story.