How do you avoid the slush pile?

If you write a brilliant book, attach a witty and incisive cover letter to the manuscript, and send if off to a reputable publisher, your work will end up in what the trade calls a 'slush pile', a pile of similar manuscripts that an intern is slowly working his or her way through, 10,000 high. 

The odds of being published from that pile?  Pretty bad.  Once in a great while a gem is found, vetted all the way up to the decision-makers, and published to glowing reviews.  But it's exceedingly rare. 

How can you avoid the usual slush pile treatment and become one of the 100,000 books published every year?  (Some say 200,000, but either way, it's a huge number. So why not you?)  Here's a counter-intuitive tip:

Don't write the book. 

Instead, write a proposal, or a treatment, or a concept, and get it in the hands of a good agent.  Get that agent excited about the idea, and let him/her sell the book to the publisher.  That's what agents do. 

Some people sell their own houses, but most people involve a real estate agent, because it's only an occasional thing for most of us, and we want the help.  Same with selling your own book.  Get help.

Getting an agent is, of course, almost as hard as finding a publisher.  But not as hard as writing a book and having it sit unpublished.  The way to an agent's heart is through buzz.  Write an op-ed piece, get in the news for your expertise, publish an article.  Give speeches.  Build up a resume and publications list that offers evidence that you can do it.  Then agents will take notice. 

The rest is comparatively easy....