Committing a Cardinal Sin?

They probably won't remember it, but it's possible that they have your name/e-mail address or the title in a database as having already seen it.

Why would you go direct to a publisher?

Honestly? That's a form letter. If anyone read it at all, it was an intern; the editor never saw it.

Omnigon said:

From what I understand, getting an agent can be nearly, or just as, difficult as going directly to a publisher--not to say I have completely dismissed that route. Also, I write fantasy, and many fantasy publishers accept unsolicited submissions, so it seems a viable way to go about it. Of course it's not the only way.

But I couldn't help wondering if once is never again. I can definitely see the possibility of the database thing, Jamiekswriter. Anyone else also feel I've killed off my one chance?

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Getting an agent is nothing compared to trying to sub without one.

Omnigon said:

From what I understand, getting an agent can be nearly, or just as, difficult as going directly to a publisher--not to say I have completely dismissed that route. Also, I write fantasy, and many fantasy publishers accept unsolicited submissions, so it seems a viable way to go about it. Of course it's not the only way.

But I couldn't help wondering if once is never again. I can definitely see the possibility of the database thing, Jamiekswriter. Anyone else also feel I've killed off my one chance?

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Really?
I can only think of a couple and of far more that don't
(And I write fantasy)

My unagented manuscript sat unread for 15 months on the desk of an editor at a major publisher as a requested rewrite. There was always an agented manuscript ahead of it until I finally got an agent - then they rejected it.

If you know that this publisher routinely accepts unagented manuscripts, there's no harm in submitting a substantially revised version of an earlier submission to them after a year or more.

But your chances of being read by the right editor for your book are substantially increased if you have an agent.

I don't think you've killed off your one chance, so long as your book has been substantially rewritten since they saw it last, and a year or more has elapsed.

Many publishers do keep databases (Harlequin certainly does) but you said it's been significantly revised. I have no measure for what you consider significant, but if you feel you've basically rewritten it, edited out excess narrative, improved the plot and deepened the characters, it may be that you have a different book. Three years is long enough for editors to have come and gone, and it's possible if you resubmit, with an improved manuscript, it might get an even closer look than before (there's no way to tell how closely it was looked at, even with a form letter, despite what the poster I quoted below says.)

If you're determined not to go the agent route (agents can offer a lot of value in your publisher hunt) but have very specific publishers in mind that accept unagented manuscripts, then I think it can't hurt to resubmit it. This wouldn't always be my answer, but after three years and potentially significant revisions, yes.

However, one thing publishers are going to want to know is: have you written anything else in those three years? It's not actually a positive for many editors to hear that an author has been working on the same manuscript for that period of time. It makes us wonder how we're going to build an author that can only write a book every five or so years.

One last thing: if you later decide to go with an agent, you'd need to be totally honest with them about where you'd submitted previously, because it's not a nice surprise to them to find out the book they'd signed has already been rejected by the publishers they'd wanted to target.

Cyia said:

Honestly? That's a form letter. If anyone read it at all, it was an intern; the editor never saw it.

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Really? That's a broadly sweeping (and thus largely inaccurate) statement.

There are many excellent agents who represent fantasy writers.

Join query tracker.

Omnigon said:

From what I understand, getting an agent can be nearly, or just as, difficult as going directly to a publisher--not to say I have completely dismissed that route. Also, I write fantasy, and many fantasy publishers accept unsolicited submissions, so it seems a viable way to go about it. Of course it's not the only way.

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Well...if the manuscript is good enough to interest a publisher, it's good enough to interest an agent.

And an agent knows which editors are most likely to be a good match, knowledge that you don't have. If you submit to publishers on your own, you're shooting blind. And once you've shopped the manuscript around the publishing world, you can forget about getting an agent for it unless you get an actual offer from a publisher.

To answer your original question -- if it's been years and you've revised the manuscript, then I see no reason not to submit it again--except for the one I named above.

BethS said:

Well...if the manuscript is good enough to interest a publisher, it's good enough to interest an agent.

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Not necessarily true. It isn't really an inverse effect. There are plenty of books that agents like that publishers don't (agents don't sell everything they sign) and many books that are published that an agent isn't interested in.

jaksen said:

There are many excellent agents who represent fantasy writers.

Join query tracker.

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And look at our own AW SF/F agents thread