Hello.

For any of you who may have seen my earlier posting, you may know that I have been waiting for over 8 months for a decision from Hodder & Stoughton publishers.

They contacted me back in January after I submitted my first 3 chapters requesting the whole manuscript - which I duly submitted! I then received a number of emails from the submissions editor who explained that the manuscript had been passed on and up, and so on. This went on for a few months until I emailed them again and was told it had now been passed to someone for a decision. They gave me his email and told me to contact him once he had returned from holiday at the end of this month.

However - and I must now add that steam is coming out of my ears now - this morning I received my full manuscript back with standard photocopied letter saying that they no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts nor can they enter any correspondence about them!

I feel absolutely emotionally demolished. How dare they treat people like that! Surely, one would thought the decent thing to do was not to lead me on to believe that my manuscript had been not only read, but was being considered!

Now I dont know what to think! Was my manuscript ever read at all? I think it is shoddy and a horrible way to treat anyone.

I love writing but at this precise moment in time, I feel like jacking the whole bloody lot in.

I would be so grateful for any advice/comments that you guys could make. My whole life is on the line here!!

Thanks, Luci.

Hi Luci, I'm officially off the site at the moment, but saw this and thought I should say something. Firstly, you really have my sympathy for the way you have been treated. Getting someone's hopes up like that, making them wait for such a long time and then dashing them again in such an impersonal way is absolutely terrible. However, are you aware that after several months on the block, Hodder has just been sold by WH Smith to Hachette, and that there have been several redundancies as a result?

It looks like you may have been a victim of uncertainty over the company's own future, followed by a shift in policy. What I'm trying to say is this is probably not about you or your book, and therefore it would be best not to take it personally (easier said than done, I know). I think you should be really encouraged that they took an interest in your book, dust yourself down, and get it back out there.

Best of luck,

Adele.

<Added>

PS I would still get in touch with the man whose name you've been given. If he's on holiday this is unlikely to have been his doing, and it may simply have been a cock-up in his absence.

Luci don't give up persevere get published be a bigger success than Joanna Rowling and prove the person at Hodders very very wrong

as for the steam take the day off , throw a sicky or have a duvet day, go for a walk enjoy the sunshine , the birds singing and the sights of wherever you live, find your favourite coffee shop have a coffee and a huge cream cake and indulge your self even then after a further walk treat yourself to lunch, then go shopping and buy yourself a little luxury, need not breka the bank and adopt it a syour good luck charm and when you get home and your family, firend s ask you what you have doen to day you can tell them you hada gentle day enjoying yourself doing things just for you, and tomorrow the world will seem a better place

take care

I bet the idea of writing a fuming letter using strong words doesn't seem quite so outrageous now, does it? Customer feedback is the oil of the Service Industry machine, and without it, it cannot function in a satisfactory manner. Tell them how you feel, and they might see cause to change their behaviour.

Wow Adele - good to (kind of) hear your voice (I can imagine, right?) and know you're okay! Hope all is well mon amie.

Luci, this sounds like more than average treat yer writers like crap. I don't wanna say much, but I know someone, a writer, who is in contact with H & S, and has been treated very differently - with courtesy and patience - so am thinking this guy deserves an earful at least. I'm no expert (on much if you read my previous postings) but this seems way out of line to me and very unprofessional. Give them a ring and unload a harsh peice of your mind, and let 'em know you wouldn't want to bother with them anyway if that's how they treat potential, money making talent.

It pisses me off (sorry WW watchers, I know I, um, annoyed some people last week so will refrain from those 'orrid swear words) that these people treat unsigned (or whatever you call it) writers like dogs, just because they can.

I think the most important thing you MUST do is take Adele's advice and don't take it personally, focus on your next target, and don't hold out on them for so long. These rejections can really get you down if you let them, and these companies don't really give a toss about us. If you've got to the next level, remind yourself you WILL get published, as long as you NEVER give up, and don't let the buggers get you down.

Anyway, ask anyone here and you'll know my advice is best served with a huge dose of salt.

Good luck!

Luv


Dav

Dear Luci

I'm so very sorry to hear what you've had to go through, but I think a lot of this is par for the course for today's publishing world (which is very commercial & cut-throat) at the moment. If I can make an analogy, it's very much like applying for jobs. If they want you, they make contact and if they don't, they don't. Sometimes, in a job situation, even if they interview you and decide against you, they still don't make contact to let you know - my husband gave up waiting for a response from an interview he had last year after about a month and now has something far better anyway thank you!

If it helps, my own approach to submissions is this: if I hear nothing after 3 months, I strike that company off the list for whatever I've sent them (though of course I may well try again with them for future work!). If I've sent them (on request) a full MS, then I send one polite email only after 3 months, and then strike them off after four months. And I always multi-submit on the grounds that if, by some miracle, more than one person wants it, then hey it's a good problem to have! After all, why just send to one if they're going to keep you waiting so long? We only have finite lives!! And always, always, always be working on something even more exciting while you're waiting!

Good luck, have a soothing glass of wine and keep on trucking ...

With lots of love

A
xxx

Thanks for the info. I suspected something had gone on when I telephoned this morning. I knew that Betty S. would never had treated me or anyone else in this way. She was totally supportive and informative. That is why I was so shocked this morning.

Anyway, when I telephoned her this morning, I got a recorded answer message saying Betty had now retired...and to get in touch with her at home!

This is a long shot, but if anyone out there in knows Betty Schwartz, then I would really like to get in touch, at least to thank her for professionalism and support. I will not give up but I swear, I will never work with the people who have bought out H&S.

Thanks again for your kind words - it means alot.

Hello. The problem is that no-one that I dealt with previously seems to be working there anymore! Betty Schwartz has gone, Nick Sayers apparently has also gone. The last thing I knew was about 4 weeks ago, that my script had been passed through to him for a decision!

Mind you, I did ring up and get through to someone at reception. I asked to speak to someone, she put me on hold and then told me there was no-one there who could help me!

I am still smarting and I think its a disgusting way to treat people, however, I doubt if I am the only one who has been stung!

No doubt I shall brush myself off and try again, but my heart is weary...

Thanks again.

Hi Luci,

What a raw deal. But it's their loss. If they're behaving like a corporate people-crusher, they're not going to be publishing anything special in the near future.

If they've messed you around, which it sounds like they have, and you believe that the new boys haven't even read your manuscript, why don't you beat them at their own game? - Submit the first few chapters of your book again, under a pseudonym, maybe even a new title and different contact details - you could fox them and see what happens.

Grit your teeth and curse and sigh, but remember that you're the writer. They may send out pre-printed rejection letters but everything you write is original and new. Whatever happens, just keep on writing.

Ste
x

Loo

These people are a bunch of tossers. There's nothing wrong with feeling like you want to give it all up (And you probably know you won't) so just be angry and lick your wounds. Then WHEN you get your resolve back, investigate all avenues how you can make them pay, never forget the feeling of anger you had and use that memory to inspire you to great things.

I reckon inner strength comes from adversity.

These Mofu's should suffer.

Dave

Hi there,

Don't EVER let these goons crush your sense of creativity and your will to succeed. I had two similiar experiences before I hit the spot, and yes, it is a hair tearing experience.

Chin up!

JB

Hi,Luci

I'm sorry to hear the way you've been treated by Hodder. I wish I'd known about this a few months ago. It might have saved me a lot of pain.

I sent Hodder three chapters and a synopsis of a thriller a year ago. Betty Schwartz phoned me and said she loved the writing and the idea but it was too short. She said if I could up the word count to between 120-150k, she'd look at the first eighty pages. I've just spent the last year doing this. I put it in the post last week with a note to Betty reminding her she had phoned me and agreed to look at the first eighty pages.

I got it back this morning - a typed standard letter saying Hodder don't take unsolicited mss anymore. Luckily, someone had taken the time to hand-write on that Betty had left and that they weren't allowed to consider it despite the fact she'd shown interest, but it's still hard to accept that even though one of their employees encouraged me to work on something, they still won't even glance at it after a year's hard work. I won't ever buy a Hodder book again, that's for sure. I could have taken a straight rejection - that's the way it goes - but to just have it sent back like that, unread, is just too much. At the moment I'm trying to tell myself to just get over it and that the new version's better than the old version and I'd have still taken a year to do that, with or without thinking I had someone in Hodder ready to look at it, but no matter how rational I'm trying to be,I know exactly how you must have been feeling when you typed out your original message. Writing's hard enough as it is without clowns like the current Hodder crowd treating us like this.

I was wondering if there was a happy end to your situation, though, as your posting was back in August, or if you ever got hold of Betty?

Hope it all worked out for you anyway. I'll be sending mine off again tomorrow. What else can you do?

Take care

Nigel

Wel, this exchange was a LONG time ago and i wonder how it all ended up?
The reason for my interest is that Hodder Headline has my ms. I had personally met Nick Sayers on one occasion and so I wrote him and asked if he was interested, and he asked to see the full ms. That was almost 6 weeks ago and I have heard from an agent that Nick is VERY slow.

Goodness - 6 weeks is nothing!! Allow at least 4 months for publishers to open the envelope! But well done on having it out with someone - the trick now is patience, patience, patience ...

LoL

A
xxx