An Acceptance... and a Rejection... In One!

A Literal Literary Loser Is Confused

Earlier I wrote about the patronizing rejection I received from one house… and the suspicious acceptance I received from another.

But did I let that stop me? I did not!

The beauty of setting a goal of sending out three queries every morning, first thing, is that it gives you something to focus on as you just file away the latest rejection and keep going.

My queries come in different formats, depending on what’s requested by the publisher.

I have the complete manuscript available, I have three chapters and/or the first 50 pages and a detailed outline available, I have a detailed outline - running 15 pages, I have a two page synopsis, and I have a one page synopsis. I am ready for anything!

This particular publisher asked for a detailed synopsis. I sent it in. They asked me how long the finished work was. I told them it was 100,000 words. They said that was too long for them.

I put it into my handy-dandy spreadsheet o’rejection, and moved on.

But then, a couple of days later, I received the following e-mail:

I have a question for you.  This  last manuscript – does it require a lot of editing?  I’m considering putting it in a program where you would only receive light edits and then you would go directly out for distribution.  There would not be heavy edits done to it.  However, this means it would have to be “clean” coming in with very few mistakes.  Can you tell me how your writing is?  Do you usually require a lot of editing?

The editor is asking ME how my writing is? Isn’t that their job to evaluate? She wants ME to assess whether I require a lot of editing?

I replied:

Thank you for your offer, but even after 17 traditionally published books I’m not confident that my manuscript is clean enough to be published unedited. A second pair of eyes is what I most need from an editor.

I got back:

I understand.  At this point in time, I do not have an editor who is willing to work on such large books. 

For the record, their website says: We only accept manuscripts between 7,500 and 100,000 words. I wouldn’t have bothered otherwise. As I’ve written before, I follow submission instructions to the letter. Not only is it the first hoop you need to jump through, failing to do so is also a waste of both their and my time.

Their website stresses that they are “a traditional royalty paying publisher”… who also “offer a Comprehensive Book Publishing Service to authors in the United States who wish to publish their book while maintaining their publishing rights and more control. It's all up to you!” I.e. they charge you to publish your book with them. While supposedly being a “traditional royalty paying publisher.” Uh-ha….

Searching their website for the “Fast Track” program brought up no results. Either it’s brand new, which I suppose is possible, or it’s a hook they use to bring in authors not likely to fall for a straight “hybrid” publishing scam.

As I observed when I was offered a contract for this same 100,000 word manuscript within hours of submitting it, I am a low-risk investment.

In my query letter, I go into great detail about the tireless promotion I will embark on for this book. All the publisher needs to do is format it for electronic and print on demand distribution, commission a cover, then throw it up on their website and see what happens.

This is especially true if they don’t intend to do much editing on it, merely sending it out as is. (The fact that she wrote: At this point in time, I do not have an editor who is willing to work on such large books… makes me think they don’t have editors on staff, but work with a stable of freelancers in some sort of profit-sharing agreement, and it’s not worth any editor’s time to work on a 100,000 word book when they stand to make the same amount of money as they would on one that’s 50,000 words long.)

The entire reason that I am looking for a publisher and not going the self-publishing route is because I don’t think any book I’ve ever written couldn’t use another pass, not just for copy-editing purposes, but to determine whether what I’ve written even makes sense.

I want a partner. I want someone who’s success - i.e. profits - depends on my success, not someone who sits back, lets me do all the work, then takes a cut of whatever profits I may generate.

I want an editor… who doesn’t trust my opinion on whether or not I need editing.