Read on Twitter
Hi! I just wrote an email to a prospective author about an understandable tactical error this person had made in the querying process. Because it's important that other authors not inadvertently make the same mistake, I'm going to share it here as a #pubtip.
(If you're the author in question and following me here, I hope you don't feel singled out! I'm sharing it precisely because I can see why this seems like a good idea and how smart first-time authors might inadvertently do the same.)
The first sentence of this author's query was that nine (!) editors at major houses had already expressed interest in seeing the project when there was an agent in place. They ticked off the editors, all of whom I knew and all of whom were *wildly* different people.
And so I asked, how did these editors find you?!, and the author responded, well, another agent told me they didn't think any editors would be interested, so I emailed a bunch of them myself, and nine of them and counting have responded and said please send when there's an agent.
Aaaand that made it a pass for me. I had no idea if this author's book is good or not, but I did know that with my current time limits, I didn't have the bandwidth to navigate the etiquette around this bizarro full sublist that had already been created without my input.
I'd feel obligated to send the project to these editors or at least ask them if it was OK to send to a colleague. Most editors say "just send to me!!," and I knew these were editors with diametrically opposite tastes, so there was no way the list wasn't burning opportunities.
And look: even when editors contact *you,* it's still highly unlikely that they're going to give you any book deal, let alone the best book deal for you. Editors sending you emails, following you on Twitter, liking your tweets, even befriending you IRL: all usually end in passes.
(Editors, I love you. I know this is more true for some of you than others, and FWIW I don't think there's a right or wrong amount to be contacting prospective authors on spec, as long as expectations on both sides are low and clear!)
When the contact with an editor is them responding to your query by saying "sure, send it when you have an agent?" That's less than nothing. (The sole redeeming thing: it was likely such a throwaway copypaste response that your eventual agent need not worry about noting it.)
A successful career in book publishing depends on the following 3 things:
1. You educate yourself about the roles of author, agent, and editor.
2. All parties respect the boundaries of each other's expertise--not bc it's polite, but because it results in a better book deal.
1. You educate yourself about the roles of author, agent, and editor.
2. All parties respect the boundaries of each other's expertise--not bc it's polite, but because it results in a better book deal.
(...not to mention a better book.)
Finally and most important, 3.: you do not give in to the many temptations presented by impatience in this process. Book deals are like fruit trees; most of them take many agonizing seasons and some intervention to bear fruit.
Finally and most important, 3.: you do not give in to the many temptations presented by impatience in this process. Book deals are like fruit trees; most of them take many agonizing seasons and some intervention to bear fruit.
They are also like evolved organisms in that their ultimate strength is reliant on failure. RELIANT. Fallow ends and "wasted" effort slowly mulch into more fertile soil and (hopefully) success. This usually can't be end run.
