This is my situation and it is sending me a bit mad.
I have a well respected agent and this is my second book. I am a journalist and make a living for my family but am not very high powered.
My second novel with the same agent and the first got rejected by everyone - in the end I sort of understood because I didn't think it was that great. I had rewritten it so many times I didn't know what I had written in the end.
This one I feel quite proud of though ... and the agent has high hopes. She has sent it to sixteen publishers- does that seem loads? Six have turned it down. They seem to be the biggest ones - I don't blame her for wanting to make some money out of me after all this time.
I suppose I would love to hear from anyone who has had a simular situation...Stop me going mad

Hello Sophie, and welcome to WW

I think the answer to your question depends on the size of the publisher. Small independents can often make a decision pretty quickly (but, there again, it depends on how you define ‘quickly’). With the larger ones, you have several possibilities – it’s sitting in a slush pile (unlikely, as you have an agent), they are so overwhelmed they also have an agented slush pile, or someone likes it and has passed it on to the next stage in the chain. This can take months. How long is it since your agent submitted it?

Incidentally, if you need any help finding your way around the site, just give me or Nik a shout, or post a question in whatever forum you think most appropriate.

Dee

Hi, Sophie, and welcome to WW.

I think Dee's right, but also that apart from the large-small distinction there's no rhyme or reason to it that you'll be able to discern. Add in how much time they've got, whether the weekend's free for reading or their mother-in-law's coming to stay, whether you've just missed an acquisitions meeting or it's nice timing - a week or two - which will give a keen editor time to make the case. You can go mad trying to second guess it all (most of us have at one time or another). You'll go mad anyway, but there's really not much to be read into longer or shorter apart from the fact that, well, some take longer than others to decide. You could ask your agent how long she's expecting it to take, and when she'd start asking for answers, but she may not be able to give you a very clear idea either.

I should think sixteen is perhaps all the people she's got strongest hopes of at once - some seem to do it in stages, some do it that way. There's no blanket right or wrong way (which is what agents are for, knowing this stuff, whereas we only write the darned things...)

Very good luck with it, and in the interim, WW's as good a place to do your nail-biting as any, because most of us have been at various versions of this place in our time.

Emma

Hello, Sophie, welcome to the site.

Have any of the sixteen askd for the full muscript? My novel was turned down by a dozen or so publishers, all without seeing the full, and all within about two to three months, as I recall - some by return of post, more or less! But the publisher l've ended up with called in the full (about six weeks after recieving th submission) and then sat on it from October to March before I eventually heard a positive decsision. In that time we had some communication - the odd positive comment and news that it was being passed along to such-and-such a person, etc. But it was still a long wait - much longer than for the rejections!

Rosy



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What kind of thing do you write?

Thanks so much for coming back to me. I have never joined anything like this before and am really heartened by the responses to my rising anxiety. It really helps because my family just give me this pitiful look and friends don't really know what to say.
This book is a meant to be a bit scarey but not a thriller - the rejections have all said good but strange which is a bit worrying.
My agent has sent it to big publishers first ---- it was sent out a month ago now.........six rejections as I said. Ten more to go.
Blimey, you had to wait October to March.
I will be a gibbering idiot by then.

Thanks so much

Sophie

I had to wait October until April this year for one big publisher to make their mind up. Drove me demented. But the one after that took only a month.

I wonder if rejections are often quicker because people haven't followed the publisher's guidelines for submitting stories.For instance, most publishers ask for a synopsis of each chapter but how many prospective authors still send their full manuscript?

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So the morale is: to give yourself the best chance possible then follow the guidelines publishers set out, you should find all you need to know on the publishers' or literary agents' websites.

Oh, and I know this is seems obvious (but I have had a client that slipped up with this), make sure the publisher/lit. agent actually deals with the type of subject of your manuscript.

most publishers ask for a synopsis of each chapter

I assume you meant: a synopsis of the manuscript, and 3 chapters.

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Of course that should be 'first 3 chapters'.

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And the most common mistake on a synopsis is not including the ending.

I assume you meant: a synopsis of the manuscript, and 3 chapters.

Well, it doesn't have to be three and it doesn't have to include the first chapter either. I think most are most interested in three chapters that best show your style.

Of course, the synopsis should ideally be chapter by chapter (although brief) and yes should include the end.

Another tip is to make sure all of your submissions should have page numbers and include your name and address - in case any enclosures become separated from your cover letter. After all, how can they contact you if they can't find your address?

We work for many publishers (including John Blake - we worked on the Pete Burns book Freak Unique, and are the 2nd, 3rd and 4th names mentioned in the acknowledgements) and it is amazing how stuff can get mislaid (although NOT the experience I had with John Blake).





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Grrr!! Why can't I edit my original text if I've spotted a big mistake???

I meant to say "I think most are interested in a few [not three] chapters that best show your style. But I would say certainly no more than five.

I have yet to meet a fiction editor who isn't driven nuts by people who include anything other than the first three chapters. It's different for non-fiction, I gather, because the sample's more about whether you can write decently about your subject, and particularly for scholarly non-fiction the first chapter is the introduction which a) you probably haven't written yet and b) is untypical. But for fiction later chapters won't make any sense - if they do, then why do the first three exist? If the first three aren't the best then you should make them the best.

Emma

"I think most are interested in a few [not three] chapters that best show your style. But I would say certainly no more than five.

Interesting.
I checked on PFD's website and their submissions criteria stated:

and two or three sample chapters (the first two or three chapters are preferable)

Just pipped me to the post, Emma. I agree, and would say only ever send the opening chapters. If they're not strong enough to impress, rewrite them.

And, sorry to disagree, Raziel, but a synopsis is not the same as a chapter breakdown. A synopsis should show the full story arc, the character development, and the denouement; this doesn’t always fit comfortably with the way the story is structured across the chapters.

I spotted this on your website:

We can also liase [sic] between you and publishers or literary agents if required.

Could you give us a few more details? It might be of interest to some of the members here.

Dee

Crossed with Naomi.

that best show your style

Can't say this often enough or strongly enough – ALL the chapters should best show your style!

Dee

Chapter by chapter breakdowns are more for non-fiction book proposals.
I've just googled it and found a fiction editor quoting it for fiction submissions and providing a link to the original submission guidelines which were specificaly for non-fiction. Lol! no wonder people get confused.

Just goes to show you must always double check submission guidelines on individual Agents websites.

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We do seem to be crossing Dee :)

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Dee's already made the point very well, but I was going to say that Agents get the style in the first couple of paragraphs and won't bother reading the rest, however many chapters you send in, or from where ever in the ms, if the opening ones disappoint.

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always double check submission guidelines on individual Agents websites.

Especially for childrens fiction, which is different again.

Mind you, of course, I think a lot of publishers nowadays don't accept fiction directly.

Checking my (admittedly old) copy of Writers and Artists Yearbook they state "...many publishers, particularly of fiction, will only see material submitted through a literary agent."

I must admit, however, to slipping up slightly and, yes you are right, fiction submissions should include the first three chapters - sorry.