Evelyn M: How do you judge a literary submission?

On Tuesday as we wrapped up our discussion on literary journals, we were asked to consider questions that remain and aspects of the publishing industry that we'd still like to explore. Throughout Hothouse and the literary journals (thinking about submissions to these journals in particular), I come back to question: How can you feel qualified to judge a submission?

I'm referring specifically to reader's reports. As an intern in publishing, as an editorial assistant, a large majority of your responsibility comes in the form of reading manuscripts and drafting reader's reports so that your editor doesn't have to read them. But how the heck are you supposed to know if a book hits the sweet spot of being both good and sellable? Is it a gut instinct? And how can those people feel confident enough to truly bash a book in their report. What if I say "This sucks balls" to the next Sylvia Plath — or (financially) worse, the next multi-million brand James Patterson? 

Moving forward in our class, I'd love to take a look at reader's reports and try to pick them apart — to see what makes them effective, and as close to truly representative of the book as possible.