Submissions

Good morning and welcome to Monday Blogs. Today, we’ll be talking about submissions. Oh, yes, this subject has come up again, but only because I’ve noticed a trend that’s troubling.
You’ve written your book. It’s taken you quite a long time, but you finally feel it’s ready for to submit to a publisher. But, you’re read all these blog posts about how you should use a critique group or beta readers to make sure you didn’t miss any important plot points. There has also been a lot made of the fact that you need an editor, to work the kinks out or identify missing or misspelled words.
You check out critique groups first. Sure, you could go to the one at the local library. They have a couple of openings, but you don’t like that you have to print out your work and can only have a chapter at a time critiqued—and your turn won’t even come up for a couple of months. Impatient, you turn to online critique groups. A couple catch your eye, but again there’s that one chapter at a time thing, even though you can do this every week. Still too long for you—you’re ready to submit now.
After looking over the cost of an editor on Fiverr, you decide that you might just be able to afford that, if no one charges you more than their advertised price. After putting your plea up, you find someone who can help and come to an agreement. After what seems like forever, the person sends back your work and they’re using Track Changes. Sure looks like an awful lot to clear and now that your book is in great shape, you figure the publisher will be so happy to give you a contract that they won’t mind all this editing stuff.
You submit your work and receive a very fast, “Thank you for submitting to XYZ Publishing. We do not feel your book, Title, is right for us.”
Well, damn, you think. That was a total waste of time. So, you go onto the next publisher on your list, without accepting those Track Changes. Get the same response, almost immediately.
Hold on before you submit to any other publishers. Learn this lesson fast. When you send your work to a publisher, you need to put your very best foot forward. That means if you’ve hired an editor to look over your work, you need to clear the Track Changes, and don’t take the shortcut of “Accept All Changes.” You’ll not get all of  them accepted. There’s a well-known Word Glitch that will ignore more than half the changes. You need to literally go through and accept those changes one at a time. I’d advise reading the comments, in case they’re telling you that you need to rework certain sections.  You need to proofread the work once that is done and only then are you ready to submit.
The whole “put your best foot forward” thing really is the difference between a contract and constant rejection.



About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.   Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
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