Hatrack River Writers Workshop: submitting a novel

This is topic submitting a novel in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

I already have my goal for 2010. Start trying to sell this novel! So we all have fantasies that our novels rocket us to super-star status, right? Well, I also have this perfect little daydream where I sell this book to this one relatively small publishing company that I really like. They are small, but many of their authors have become nationally well-known. They specialize in exactly the kind of books I write...It's not such a such a ridiculous day dream is it?

So, I'm wondering. And imagining. So I send them my baby--this amazing manuscript. And no one really reads it. I just get a form rejection. Does this mean that I can't ever send them my baby again? 1 shot and you're out?

I'd love to have an agent. But I don't. And frankly, it seems like just another impossible step on an already impossibly high ladder.

Love some advice!

Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :

quote:
So I send them my baby--this amazing manuscript. And no one really reads it. I just get a form rejection. Does this mean that I can't ever send them my baby again? 1 shot and you're out?

As far as I know, as work creator you retain all rights and privileges to your work until you sign on a dotted line selling it to a publisher or other third-party entity. You can sell a work multiple times, provided you do not violate a contract with a given publisher specifying that once they give you cash it's theirs.

Likewise, a denial does not mean your work is unsubmittable. Quite the contrary. It will likely take many, many, MANY submissions before you get a publisher to bite.

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

From someone else on that impossible ladder.

The advice I got was to look for an agent first. Yes, it's hard. I'm on 21 rejections and counting.

But yes, you do only get one shot with that manuscript with any given publisher or agent. If you send it to the publisher and it gets rejected, when you get an agent, even the agent won't send it back there. You, or your agent, can submit another manuscript, but not the one that was rejected. Since there're a lot more agents than publishers, and most publishers, especially now, are using agents to filter the submissions for them, your odds are better submitting to agents. Besides, you're going to want an agent when it comes time to negotiate anyway.

Nathan Bransford had an interesting blog on this last week. He said that it might make sense to submit directly to the publisher after you've tried 50 to 100 agents without success.

[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited October 06, 2009).]

Posted by Crank (Member # 7354) on :

quote:
I'd love to have an agent. But I don't. And frankly, it seems like just another impossible step on an already impossibly high ladder.

This is a non-issue for me. Literary agents know the market side of the publishing landscape infinitely better than I do, so it makes perfect sense I would solicit their expertise...especially since I'm still a novel rookie. Eventually, I might keep the 15% and solicit my novels myself, but not at this early stage of my career.

The ladder is only impossibly high if you stop climbing.

S!
S!

Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :

There's a Mike and Paddy joke that to me reflects the catch-22 of piercing the publishing transom, if a writer's not already in, he/she can't get in.

Mike asks Paddy for directions from Kinsale to Sligo. Paddy doffs his caubeen, scratches his head, then replies, "I don't know how to get there from here."

It's a Muddle

As I stew here
Brokenhearted,
Hardly started,
I dip in once again,
Study, wonder, ponder,
What it takes to fit in
Over yonder.

Nicholas Sparks wrote and repeatedly submitted two novels before an agent discovered him through his third novel she found in her slush pile. He got a million dollar advance from the book rights auction.

Niffenegger and Meyers broke out on their first novels but after repeatedly submitting to agents.

[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited October 06, 2009).]

Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :

Oh. Misunderstood the question. One shot with that singular agent/publisher. Sigh. One of those days.

*Goes back to work*

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

That's so funny, because I have a running joke with my in-person writer's group that I want my book/books to make me so famous that I have to move, because my fans have found where I live and are camping on the front lawn!

We can have our ridiculous dreams together, it's fun.

Meanwhile - unless this particular publishing house is just really well known for taking unagented ms, I would go the agent route. Another option is to try to ... well, stalk the publishing house by attending a con or two where they have a presence, so that hopefully you can meet a rep or two and make some kind of in-person pitch or at least a connection that allows you to send your ms knowing that someone will at least read the front page, know what i mean?

Best of luck for you. I have the same goal you have, but mine was for 2009 and I'm going to fail to meet my goal. But alas, we always get overtaken by events. And I'm already excited about my Nanowrimo project for this year, which will certainly be better than the MS I'm still working on...

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

An agent might submit to the same publisher, especially if your novel only got as far as a first reader. Some publishers have more than one acquiring editor, and an agent can make a direct contact and find the editor in the publishing house who might be most receptive to your novel.

Just be sure you've got a good agent. Anyone can write "Literary Agent" on their letterhead.

Posted by Heresy (Member # 1629) on :

Boy, are you ever right on there, KDW. A friend of mine got an agent briefly then basically fired him (she was nice about it). This agent didn't seem to understand that it wasn't his job to completely rewrite her book as he would have written it. She was so discouraged by the experience that she didn't write at all for the next year.

The moral of this story? Pick your agent carefully. I think they're like doctors, you have to find the one that's most compatible with you, with your writing style and subject.

Heresy

Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :

OSC mentioned that a first-timer didn't need an agent, especially submitting a genre novel. Did I mishear/misunderstand/just get it wrong?

Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :

The fantastical genres are still mostly accepting unsolicited submissions from unagented authors. The Big Six don't. Middle tier publishers are following suit.

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

quote:
OSC mentioned that a first-timer didn't need an agent, especially submitting a genre novel. Did I mishear/misunderstand/just get it wrong?

I can't find the discussion right now. I asked a very similar question when I got ready to start submitting. The crux of the answer was that things have changed in the industry since OSC broke into it. A better model to follow might be those that are breaking into it now. Almost all are represented by agents.

Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :

Donald Maass Literary Agency "What we're looking for this month; September/October 2009, Writers we've rejected."

http://www.maassagency.com/thismonth.html

Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

Thanks everyone!
@KayTi: I am happily making plans to set all this aside for the month of November and write something fresh and exciting. I'm with you!