Is this Kosher?

Maprilynne · May 14, 2006

I was reading some of Ray Wong's blog, and when he recieved his two offers from two publishers he mentioned that he was still waiting to hear back from a couple of agents who were reading his manuscript. So I got to thinking, is it okay to be submitting to agents and publishers at the same time? I always assumed that I would switch to submitting to publishers when I was done with my agent search. (Not when, if . . . if is good.

) I thought it was discouraged to submitt to both at the same time. Am I way off mark??? Maprilynne

Daughter of Faulkner · May 14, 2006

Why not ask Ray?

Ray's great. In fact, I believe he is one of the BEST authors on this board. PM him and ask him what he thinks... I always assumed he had an agent who submitted his mss to the publisher for him perhaps I am wrong.

Keep writing!
:e2BIC:

Popeyesays · May 14, 2006

You can send multiple queries to agents. If two of them bite on the project and neither cares if he has an exclusive on it - you can have TWO agents hawking the book. There's no violation of contract in that case.

If an agent asks you for a full, you should give him a few weeks to decide and refrain from sending a full to anyone else in the interim - that's just a rule of thumb.

Same with publishers if its just queries and partials. When one asks for a full, he should have a clear shot at offering a contract on the book. You should refrain from sending fulls to two different publishers at the same time because it will probably irritate BOTH publishers enough to turn you down cause you're a pain in the patoot.

Regards,
Scott

mistri · May 14, 2006

One problem that may come from tackling editors and agents at the same time is if all the publishers reject you, but an agent is interested. A good agent may be able to pitch a project again, but many may feel that there's no point taking it on if it's already been everywhere.

dantem42 · May 15, 2006

Popeyesays said:
When one asks for a full, he should have a clear shot at offering a contract on the book. You should refrain from sending fulls to two different publishers at the same time because it will probably irritate BOTH publishers enough to turn you down cause you're a pain in the patoot.

Regards,
Scott

Umm...I don't get this. Agents send out multiple submissions of manuscripts to a number of publishers all the time. No publisher assumes he's got an exclusive on a manuscript read unless the agent offers it to him/her so the agent is guaranteed a quick read.

Popeyesays · May 15, 2006

dantem42 said:
Umm...I don't get this. Agents send out multiple submissions of manuscripts to a number of publishers all the time. No publisher assumes he's got an exclusive on a manuscript read unless the agent offers it to him/her so the agent is guaranteed a quick read.

A lot of publishers feel that a writer who puts out fulls to more than one publisher at a time are trying to create a bidding situation. Let the agents do that, if you are without an agent and try to do it, you will irritate the publishers.

Regards,
Scott

Is this Kosher?

Maprilynne

Author Waiting in the Wings

Daughter of Faulkner

Always a writer

Popeyesays

Now departed. Rest in peace, Scott, from all of us

mistri

Sneezy Member

dantem42

Popeyesays

Now departed. Rest in peace, Scott, from all of us