To all you delightful knowledgeable people,
I am a new author. For years I have been a devoted e-book reader and have watched as the movement grew, so when I decided to actually submit something it seemed only logical to go with one of the e-publishers. Several months ago one of my queries netted a request for a full manuscript. I was ecstatic. Per the advice of the editor I spent some time polishing the manuscript and returned it to her several weeks ago. She advised me that she had a six week read time, so I settled down to wait.
Imagine my surprise when a week ago I received a request for the full manuscript from a second publisher (lets call them publisher two). This same publishing house had repeatedly rejected other things from me and it had been a very long time since I submitted the query to them and had basically forgotten they had it.
In a panic I emailed the editor from the first publishing house (more on this bad idea later). I flat out told her that someone else had asked to see it and told her I was new to the game and had no idea how to respond. She was incredibly nice about the whole thing and advised me to ask if publisher two wanted exclusive read rights and all that other good stuff.
Publisher two said that they did not and so I sent the full manuscript off to them also. It was only later that it occurred to me that I could probably have figured out what to do if I looked around on-line instead of talking to the editor. When I did start looking around on-line I realized that I had named publisher two in my email to publisher one and that publisher one was actually started by someone from publisher two so possibly that was not a great idea to name names.
But now that I have two people with it I am panicking. First, I have no idea how many full manuscripts publishers ask for and what percentage of those they actually take. Second, if one wants it do I just snap up the contract? Do I wait to her from the other house? One editor has been much kinder but the other house is bigger, but the first one might publish it in print…
And then of course it could be that neither one will take it.
Basically I am making myself crazy.
Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.
Lila
I am a new author. For years I have been a devoted e-book reader and have watched as the movement grew, so when I decided to actually submit something it seemed only logical to go with one of the e-publishers. Several months ago one of my queries netted a request for a full manuscript. I was ecstatic. Per the advice of the editor I spent some time polishing the manuscript and returned it to her several weeks ago. She advised me that she had a six week read time, so I settled down to wait.
Imagine my surprise when a week ago I received a request for the full manuscript from a second publisher (lets call them publisher two). This same publishing house had repeatedly rejected other things from me and it had been a very long time since I submitted the query to them and had basically forgotten they had it.
In a panic I emailed the editor from the first publishing house (more on this bad idea later). I flat out told her that someone else had asked to see it and told her I was new to the game and had no idea how to respond. She was incredibly nice about the whole thing and advised me to ask if publisher two wanted exclusive read rights and all that other good stuff.
Publisher two said that they did not and so I sent the full manuscript off to them also. It was only later that it occurred to me that I could probably have figured out what to do if I looked around on-line instead of talking to the editor. When I did start looking around on-line I realized that I had named publisher two in my email to publisher one and that publisher one was actually started by someone from publisher two so possibly that was not a great idea to name names.
But now that I have two people with it I am panicking. First, I have no idea how many full manuscripts publishers ask for and what percentage of those they actually take. Second, if one wants it do I just snap up the contract? Do I wait to her from the other house? One editor has been much kinder but the other house is bigger, but the first one might publish it in print…
And then of course it could be that neither one will take it.
Basically I am making myself crazy.
Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.
Lila
