I've been offered a one-book deal for my first novel by a small publisher but I'm not in a hurry to sign with them. I currently seeking an agent and I'd also like to see if any of the bigger publishing houses would be interested in my story.

I don't want to completely turn down this small publisher because for all I know they may turn out to be the only one's who are interested. However I'm cluess as how to word my response to the publisher without coming across as impolite. Any ideas on what I could say to them? I want to just put them on hold for the time being. I don't feel ready to make a decision. And they've also requested that I make some changes to my story, and I need some more time to think about this.

Also, do you think I should mention in my letters to agents that I've been offered a deal? I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about doing this in case the agents advise me to accept the deal so they don't have to bother finding out if another publisher would be interested in my novel.

Your thoughts please.


Thanks again

Remy x

I suppose in part it depends on who the small publisher is - if it was someone like Tindal Street Press I'd be snapping their arm off to sign.

Tricky - but great news!

Absolutely, certainly tell the agent that you've been offered a deal: it says a lot about what you're submitting. It also means you can hope they'll get back to you quickly. If it's a small publisher, I assume it's a small advance, in which case the agent's very unlikely to want to stop there. More likely - if they want to take you on - that they'll want to hold off on the small publisher while they submit to the big boys, who may offer enough money for the agent's 15% to be worth bothering with. The risk, of course, is that you lose the small publisher...

I think it would be perfectly fair to say you'll need some time to think about the deal and the revisions. Then you could use that to try to get an agent to give you a quick answer. One thing you could consider is asking the Society of Authors the best way to handle this - for example how long it would be reasonable to tell the publisher you need to decide. They should also give you an idea how good a publisher they are. Publishers take forever to decide: you don't have to get back to them tomorrow.

Emma