(I said I'd be blogging the book publication process, so here goes. Abundant minutiae ahead.)
Three weeks ago, I sent a book proposal and a couple of sample chapters to three university presses. They were three of my top four choices, which I consider basically equally desirable; I'd decided to hold the fourth in reserve.
To my surprise, I heard back from two of them within days: first, a nice, personalized rejection email from one press (I used to work in academic publishing, and I wrote a lot of rejection letters, so I have a pretty good sense of how to read their relative degrees of niceness), and an expression of interest from the second: they'd like to see the full manuscript when it's ready.
I still haven't heard from the third publisher, which was originally my favorite of the three. This may mean that they've sent a rejection letter by post to my campus address, or it may simply mean that they've got a bit of a backlog.
In any case, I'm not inclined to wait around to hear back from them; I've told the press that expressed interest that I'll be sending the manuscript within the next few weeks, and I've exchanged some pleasant, chatty emails with the head literature editor. I'm impressed by their efficiency and friendliness, and they publish top-notch books. I'd be thrilled to have them publish me.
But at the same time, I'm not assuming they'll publish me: the reviewers could hate it, and I might have to send the thing out to multiple additional presses. I figure I'll get useful feedback one way or the other, though, and that any forward momentum is good, even if the process winds up being a long one.
5 comments:
Congratulations!
What turned out to be my publisher contacted me really fast--like it must have been within 24 hours of receiving the proposal. So, because obviously my experience is a precise template for yours, I'm confident that you will have a contract within 12 months! Good luck--!
Congrats! I hope this turns out to be a good home for your work.
When I was shopping my mss around, I hit the same obstacles you did. Then a colleague chatted up one of the editors and got mine to the "front of the line" and they ended up publishing it. Do you have any contacts or anyone you could lean on, to give you an inside edge? It's tough to do on your own. Good luck. You WILL publish it somewhere!!!
Anon: I wasn't aware that I'd hit any obstacles yet (though I do expect to)! Thanks for your concern.
Awesome! A MS bite!! One of our mutual, already-book-published friends here at the Dream Academy said that getting the MS in the door is the hardest (she got several "no thank yous") and then it's much much better chances. After all, what reader could read your MS and not want it!! ;-)
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