Having Our Say?

Absolutely, any good agent will tell you which editors/publishers they plan to submit your manuscript to. They should also accept feedback from you regarding the publishers they want to target. For example, I had some concerns about a certain publisher's limited distribution capabilities, so my agent made them a "second tier" submission target, meaning we would submit to them if our first round of publishers didn't respond favorably.

Here's how it worked for me. I signed with my agent. We talked about what kind of publishers might like my work and the materials she would need to pitch my book, i.e. a bio, a photo, and the first chapter of the second book. She put together a submission package and sent it to seven houses she thought would fit with my style. I sat in the fetal position in a corner, compulsively chewing my nails and wondering what was happening to my book. She called me around two weeks later to tell me we had an offer.

Your mileage may vary

My agent sends me a report once a month with who she's subbed me to, with updates when pubs request more. She has my bio, the first 3 chapters of the next book in the series, and my writing credits.

I've suggested 2 places to her and she's agreed, other than that, I leave her alone to do her job. Results so far: Full at one house, partials at 3 others.

Same here - my agent was the expert and she sent me the list of who she was subbing to- before and during the auction she told me details about each house...I would never presume to tell her who would be best - we don't know the background of the editors and houses i.e. who does the best marketing job and who supports their authors...

I just trusted my agent to know who was best. She sent me a submission list both times and it looked good to me, but I didn't recognize any of the actual editor names. Our submission package actually didn't have anything but the manuscript in it. When a publisher expressed interest in the series I sent a synopsis of the four books that was less than two pages long. That's all it took.

What else? . . . Oh, she sent my first book to six editors and my second book to ten. (The difference is because they were different genres.)

HTH!

My agent also asked me if there were any houses/editors that I was specifically interested in. I pretty much put it all in his hands, but asked questions because (a) it's ultimately my career and (b) I was curious. Otherwise, he came up with the submission list (and explained for a lot of them why he chose them).

Don't be afraid to talk to your agent about all of this stuff -- you should both be comfortable talking about submissions and how it works. Remember that you're both on the same team

My agent sent me the list of who she was subbing too as well as CCd me on several emails back and forth pre-submission. As the rejections and signs of interest came in she forward those to me with comments along the way. She had a good idea of who wanted it most and sure enough they ended up the high bidder when we went to auction.

I second everyone else's call to be involved in the choice of publishers. If you have contacts in the industry, now's the time to say so. "Oh, I went to college with So-and-so at ____," or maybe you know someone from a different context. (I added a couple of houses to the list that way.) Or just plain preferences. You've always liked and respected a certain house; ask whether that place would be a good fit. But keep in mind that an agent has a group of contacts to whom he or she sells regularly, and that even within a given house may know one or two people but not the others. That doesn't mean an agent can't sell to someone s/he doesn't know, only that s/he may not know what the others really like to buy.

But, as always, it never hurts to ask.

The sorely missed Miss Snark posted on this at many points, and she seemed to make a lot of sense. If I can summarize from her scattered gems:

1) You can expect your agent to tell you what the overall strategy is and to keep you informed as to what is happening.

2) Any tips or special insights you might have are welcome, as you are in this together.

3) If you think you know better than your agent, why not sell the damn thing yourself?

When I signed with my agent he asked me if I had any "dream" houses where I wanted to publish my book, and we then talked about the pros and cons of some of the different houses and editors. I left it to him to make the final decision of which editors/publishers to submit to, and merely asked that I be kept informed of all passes (with copies of the pass letters/emails) and which editors he was submitting to.

Also, while my book was on submission I attended a conference and had the great fortune to have two different editors express interest in the book and both asked me to ask my agent to send it to them. I then called my agent and told him about the two requests. One he was in full agreement with. The other he had hesitations about and was quite open about discussing them with me.

In my opinion, your relationship with your agent should be a partnership. Your agent works for you, but at the same time you signed with your agent because of their expertise and connections within the field. Before you sign with an agent you need to discuss how much input you will have and how informed he will keep you concerning submission and passes. My agent basically will work however the client wants as far as how informed they want to be. Not all of his clients want to know about all of the submissions and passes.

As far as getting an offer, the client Always has the right to say yes or no.

Redhedd said:

As far as getting an offer, the client Always has the right to say yes or no.

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I can't imagine saying no unless they were offering me five bucks and a kick in the ass. If you don't have an other offers, what other considerations besides money should an author take into account?

Prawn said:

I can't imagine saying no unless they were offering me five bucks and a kick in the ass.

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Dude. That would be the worst offer ever.

There are some authors who might not want to publish with a house that had an erotica imprint or maybe they were nervous about the house's ability to deliver the book to the right stores/locations. (Not in my personal experience, but it could happen.)

LordDelusions said:

Hi Again.
This question can be answered by anyone who knows what they are talking about, but more specifically by someone who this happened to.

Do authors have a say in which publishers they would like to submit to? After you sign on with your agent, how does the process into getting published work?

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Yes, you do. Although I didn't tell my agent which publishers I wanted him to contact, expecting he was the best one to make the right choices, I did tell him which publisher I didn't want him contacting. It was no problem.
Linnea

bluemoonscribe said:

Dude. That would be the worst offer ever.

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No, $1 and you have to sell your books to your relatives would be the worst offer ever.

willietheshakes said:

No, $1 and you have to sell your books to your relatives would be the worst offer ever.

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Yeah, but, your relatives wouldn't kick you.

(My relatives might, but your relatives, probably not.)

I can't name names, but my agent told me that he and another client of his (whose book has done extreeeeeemely well, btw) received an offer from a publisher, and ended up rejecting it in favor of another offer that was for less money up front. I wish I could more provide details, but just remember that money is only one consideration. There are also issues with rights, options for future books, timing of the release and deadlines for furutre books, how many books are contracted for, etc.

These are all things that a good agent will discuss with you if/when an offer comes in.

Money is definitely only one consideration. Whether you can work with your editor is another, and for my second book, I made sure to have a long talk with my prospective editor before I signed the contract. I was too scared to insist on that the first time, but that may have been just as well, because that editor left the company shortly afterward. Which brings up another point. You want someone who's passionate about your book and will stick up for it at sales meetings and with the company bigwigs. If s/he moves on to another publishing house before the book sees print, you've lost someone important. That doesn't mean whoever takes over won't do right by you, but it won't belong to her in quite the same way. So you'd want to know that whoever acquired your book intends to stick around . . . a ticklish question.