Rapid (and Questionable) Acceptance
Does a Literal Literary Loses Want To Join a Club That Would Have Me as a Member?
Earlier, I shared my rapid (and condescending) rejections.
Today, it’s time for a rapid (and questionable) acceptance.
Since losing both my editor and my agent, I made a vow to send out a minimum of three queries every morning. It’s the first thing I do before getting officially started with my day. Some were just query letters. Some were a 1 page synopsis. Some were sample chapters and an outline, and some were the complete manuscript. It all depended on what was asked for. (I make a point of following submission details to the letter. It’s the first test to seeing if you can follow instructions, and I’m not giving anyone the opportunity to easily cast me aside on a technicality.)
On October 28, I submitted the complete manuscript to a small publisher which specialized in various genres of romance e-books.
That afternoon, I received the following response:
Our editorial team was excited to read your submission and forwarded the story synopsis and MS to me. We are pleased to offer a contract. Is this the email address to where we should send the Author Agreement?
Well, I thought, that was fast.
I’m not saying it would be impossible to read my 100,000 word manuscript in a few hours. I’m just saying I wouldn’t expect anyone to do so.
Then again, would you even need to?
Fact is, I’m a pretty low risk investment at this point. The publisher in question doesn’t pay an advance. The only expense would come from editing the book and designing a cover for it, something I assume they have a stable of freelancers to do quickly and cheaply.
Since it’s an e-book/print on demand operation, they don’t have to physically produce the book or ship it to bookstores.
All they have to do is throw it up on their website in front of a presumably already romance loving audience and see what happens.
In addition, as I wrote earlier, the bulk of my query spoke not about the manuscript, but about all of the promotional efforts I made for my last historical fiction novel, “The Nesting Dolls,” and what I intended to do for this one.
So not only would my book cost the publisher nothing to promote, but I was the one committing to doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
There is very little downside for them in accepting me, and quite a bit of potential upside.
I wrote back the very same day (if they could be rapid, so could I!), confirming my email address.
And then I heard nothing back for two weeks.
I wrote to follow up and was advised: Please send us your physical street address and we'll send over the Agreement.
I did. And was forwarded the contract via email. (OK, that makes sense….)
I read over the contract. It was as expected. No advance, standard royalties, no commitment to promotion beyond presentation on their website.
Then again, they didn’t ask for any money from me which, as I’ve indicated, is the line I won’t cross.
The trade-off was clear: They would provide minimal editorial and cover art services, while everything else was up to me.
I wasn’t fundamentally against it. Even when published by Big 5 houses, I still felt like I did all of the promotional work myself, so I was open to doing it with a small, independent house and seeing what happened.
But then I asked a follow up question. I asked for the contact info of some of their previously published authors so I could find out more about what it was like to work with them.
That was exactly two months ago.
I haven’t heard a word back since.
Not to connect with any of their authors. Not to say that sorry, I couldn’t connect with any of their authors. Not to ask if I would be signing their contract. Not to ask if I was still alive, much less still interested in working with them.
I know it’s human nature to instinctively mistrust any club willing to have you as a member.
But, at this rate, I have to wonder how committed this house is to working with and developing their authors, if even getting a reply to a simple email is a challenge.
What do you think?