I know this might be a 'piece of string' type question but wondered if there was an average 'ball park' number of pubs an agent will generally approach with a client's ms. Is it approx 5 or 10 or 20 or will it depend on type of work etc?

Derek, I think it is a bit stringy, because it depends so much on what kind of thing it is. I'm not sure agents think much in terms of 'how many publishers' as 'who will love this as much as I do?' It's such a personal thing, and the scale of the whole industry's too small for numbers to make much sense. With something which will seems fit nicely into any mainstream publisher's list, an agent will have the right editor in mind at each of the 8 big houses, but even then it's not quite as simple as that: agents spend lots of time having arcane conversations about, 'I don't think it's quite Sceptre, more like Hodder, definitely not John Murray, only I know that X at Hodder thinks that fantasy's on the way out, though Orion still seem to be doing well with it, so how about Y at Orion?', when in fact Sceptre is an imprint of Hodder who also own John Murray, and is half of Hodder Headline, which along with Orion are all owned by Hachette Livre. Alternatively they may send to both, if both are right, and Hodder will be bidding against Headline.

Then there are the independents, and it would depend even more directly on whether there was an editor at any of those who would like this particular thing. Agents are interested in money, so they'll go after the big boys first because they have big money, but that doesn't preclude independents; Bloomsbury have a Potter-fed chest. On the other hand they'll probably only go to, say, Constable Robinson, who have less to spend, later.

One other thing to remember is that an agent will be looking very hard at the kind of feedback they get from the first few submissions. There's nothing to stop them sending out ten or fifteen (except the time it takes to pitch on the phone and the copying and postage, and following up, which can all add up substantially), and if they know they've got a winner and it may go to auction, they will. But if they're not quite sure of how to pitch it, or who's going to be interested, they may well send out two or three to good contacts, and then fine-tune their submission list and their pitch according to what they hear back; they may even come back to the author and talk about revisions.

Emma

Thanks Emma. Appreciate such a quick very informative reply. Really learnt something here.
'Potter-fed chest.' -chuckled at this.

D

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that's... and very informative

the copying and postage

Only thing I would add to this is that these days, most editors accept email submissions of manuscripts.

most editors accept email submissions of manuscripts

If only... They may once you're 'their' author, but in my experience it's a rare bird who'll accept sample chapters that way, or the full ms if they ask for it, whether they're getting it from an agent or direct from a writer. There was a thread which included this issue fairly recently. Some will accept e-queries, I think.

Emma

Thanks, Traveller & Emma.
Think I saw that thread Emma. I notice Macmillan New Writing accept email subs but not sure if there are too many more.

Snow books which I consider to be a cutting edge publisher also only take email submissions. S

Yes, true of both of those. Certainly it seems to be more common among new (not surprisingly) and (more surprisingly, perhaps) small publishers. Maybe they're less likely to have to hand it round lots of people while they decide.

I notice the admirable Canongate have closed to unsolicited submissions. Seems to happen to so many publishers once they reach a certain level of public visibility.

Emma

I should have said, 'the otherwise admirable Canongate' of course!

Well my MS went (via my agent) to about 12 publishers by email: Headline, Sceptre, Weidenfeld, S&S, Portobello, Review, 4th estate, Hamish Hamilton, Bloomsbury to name a few. An editor at Penguin was the only one who asked for a hard-copy. Maybe it's just my agent that has this unique position in the publishing world eh Emma?

I was thinking of direct submissions by an author in saying they don't accept email, which I think is generally true. I don't know how my agent submitted TMOL - never thought to ask her - though for the US rights it was hard copy. But that was at Frankfurt, which might make a difference.

Emma



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Looking at your list, Traveller, just shows how the number of publishers in Derek's original question isn't a straightforward calculation; Review is an imprint of Headline, for instance, so I don't know if you'd count that as one or two.

Derek, my agent has sent my first children's novel to 18 publishers at the present time. Not all at once, and I think he tried for an auction to start with but it fell flat as no-one wanted it. He started feeding out then, a few publishers at a time.

There are some children's publishers he hasn't approached. However he asked for the second book so trying a different tack, although he says the first is still not without hope.

Thanks, Issy. Wow 18, that is interesting, you'd think there would be a fairly good chance (odds wise) of one of them picking it up, wouldn't you? It can be a disheartening ol' business most of the time. I'll not say I wonder why I bother coz I know exactly why- I LOVE IT!

I know Derek, just obsessed. I can actually see things that could be improved now with the first novel, but it is disheartening as it was apparently good enough to impress an agent, and the writer who recommended me to him.