“My job isn’t to predict what titles will work but rather to find authors who want to create books through insight and spread their message with conviction.”

I am borrowing heavily from Mark Suster for this one. He recently wrote a post about how entrepreneurs can rely on venture capitalists to make their hardest decisions.

Sister says the job is to:

…find great entrepreneurs who are passionate about solving a problem. They become obsessed with why the problem exists and they start chipping away at ideas for solving the problem. They develop so much conviction that they can solve it that they do the most difficult thing one can do with one’s ego. They tell the world publicly that they not only are going to solve the problem but they’re going to do it better than anybody else in the market.

I want the same kind of authors—the ones with a clear idea of the problem and the solution AND the drive to get that book into the hand of every person who can be helped.

Also see: Paul Graham on being relentlessly resourceful.