Submission Expectations
By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin
Last week I was speaking with a
novelist about her book. Toward the end of the conversation, she told me that
she had simultaneously submitted her
novel to another publisher. I thanked her for letting me know. While
publishing is part of the communication business, often the communication is
non-existent or takes months.
I explained to this author that
it's fine to simultaneously submit to different publishers. If you are going to
simultaneously submit, it's expected you will include this information in your
proposal or query letter. It can be a simple statement: “This submission is
simultaneous.” Simultaneous submissions are common in the magazine world and
book publishing—with queries and proposals.
If you submit to multiple places
at once, you are responsible to:
1. Keep track of the
various places you submitted simultaneously. You will want to do this
anyway to gently follow-up with them if you don't hear from them. A gentle
follow-up is sending a brief note asking if they received the submission. Email
doesn't always get from one place to another so the question is a good
one—especially if the
literary agent or publisher or magazine
received a high number of submissions.
2. When you sell
or place the book or magazine article, you are responsible to let
everyone else know this submission has been placed. This communication
is key and removes the submission from these other places considering
it.
Several months ago, an agent that
I occasionally work with had placed a book with Morgan James. He
simultaneously submitted the project to other places—but did not handle this
second step. He approached me because he wanted to accept the second deal and
cancel the contract with Morgan James. Such action was improper but eventually
we cancelled our contract and allowed the other publishing deal to go forward. I'm not speaking out of school to tell this story because I confronted the agent directly about his mistake and unprofessionalism. The second offer should have never been presented to his author--but he did. He also still wanted to cancel and move to the other publisher. We spoke with the author before the cancellation. This author believed this
second publisher was going to do 100% of the marketing for his book (a fantasy
for any publisher).
Also the agent through his
unprofessional actions jumped on a blacklist within our publishing house. Yes
such a list exists within publishers and magazines. These people have violated
the expected standards and practices. If this agent ever approaches me or
anyone else at the publisher, he will get a rapid but professional rejection
letter. We wasted valuable time and resources with such unprofessional actions and it will not be
forgotten.
Unfortunately because of the
volume of submissions, a number of publishing houses do not respond. That's a
key reason why you want to establish personal relationships with as many editors
and literary agents. Then when you submit something to them, in the first
paragraph, you remind the editor or agent of your connection to them (where you
met, at
which conference, etc.). This addition to your submission will help you get
much more traction than random unsolicited submissions.
I hope this article about
submission expectations has been helpful. Each side of the process has
expectations. If you have other experiences with submissions or something I've
left out, let me know in the comments below.
T weetable:
