There’s no sense submitting your sci-fi odyssey to an agent who deals only in literary fiction, and you’re wasting your time submitting a graphic novel to a publisher who’s never touched one before. Submit to the right peopleīefore you send off any query letters or manuscript samples, make sure the publishing house or literary agent you’re approaching actually deals in your genre.
This could be due to the issues of timing I’ve already discussed, but it could also be that the publisher or agent you’ve chosen doesn’t work in that genre or can’t see a big enough return in its current audience. Sometimes, your submission will hit a wall due to your manuscript’s genre. Rejections based on timing can feel cruelly impersonal, but they’re also no comment on the quality of your work. Maybe your dark fantasy epic is great, but if the commissioning editor’s list already has three dark fantasy epics, they’re not going to have any space for you. It may simply be that, when you submit, the publisher already has a backlog of your particular genre to work through. A note from either of these entities to a commissioning editor – about how, for example, vampire YA just hasn’t been selling this quarter, or how sales of cookbooks are inexplicably way down in the Midwest – can pop your balloon before the editor’s even finished reading your query letter. Two more frustrating obstacles between you and sweet publication are publishing house sales departments and distributors. Often, the editor rejecting your book might not even know the reason for the slump – they’ll simply have been told not to take on any new books by the powers that be. Maybe the market’s in a bad place, maybe they’ve not met targets this year, maybe they’re laying off staff – publishers are businesses, remember, and operations are just as cutthroat at Lil’ Red Pine Books as they are at your archetypal American Psycho corporation. Put simply, the publisher doesn’t have cash to throw around at the moment. That said, being aware of how important timing is in the publishing journey can help you avoid (or at least understand) these most impersonal of rejections. This can be especially frustrating, since your submission isn’t to blame and, short of infiltrating the publishing house, there’s nothing you could have done. Often, the reason for a publisher or agent’s rejection has nothing to do with the quality of your writing – rather, it’s simply a case of bad timing. Knowing why manuscripts get rejected can make it easier to keep going and, eventually, to succeed. Armed with this information, you’ll stand the best possible chance. Many writers amass dozens or even hundreds of rejections before their book is eventually accepted, and while many factors influencing acceptance or rejection will be out of the author’s control, it’s important to know why manuscripts are rejected. This adds a new step in the process, but thankfully submitting to a literary agent is much like submitting straight to a publisher – you still need to wow them.Īs I’m sure you’re aware, getting published is far from easy. If the latter, you’ll need a literary agent, as there are very few big publishers who still accept manuscript submissions directly from authors.
The next step is to decide whether you’re going to try for a small press or a large publishing house. Maybe you’ve already had success self-publishing and are looking to tackle the mainstream, or maybe your brand of literary fiction isn’t especially suited to the cutthroat Amazon marketplace – whatever the reason, you’re now in an unenviable position: facing the stern gatekeepers of the literary establishment. So, you’ve chosen to pursue traditional publication. As an Amazon Affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases.
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