Entangled Publishing

Well, it's sort of both. Or halfway between. All the R&Rs I've had involved substantial feedback and back-and-forth with a specific editor; this is more generic than that. It's a rejection of the manuscript in its present form, but the door has been left open should you choose to make the changes they suggest. A further re-submission may well result in a final rejection--there are no guarantees offered.

I've just had an R&R from Entangled. The editor replied to my submission by saying she enjoyed the MS but would need to see changes made before she could consider going further with it and asked if I would be interested. I was, so she then replied with a list of things that weren't working for her. She told me I could resubmit at any time and to contact her if I had any questions in the meantime.

If you look on Query Tracker, it seems like the six month window is a common thing with Entangled, but perhaps slightly different to an R&R. If you're happy to make the changes suggested, then I'd go for it - I'd almost guarantee it will make your manuscript stronger, which will also help when you're submitting elsewhere so it seems like a win/win situation.

Good luck! (And if you're wondering, my R&R ended up as a rejection).

I submitted a novel in late Sept. Received a email 2 days ago asking for more time, that it is still in review. I hope that's a good sign. they also asked if I get another offer to let them know.

Does anyone know what's going on with the Entangled 'Ignite' line (category romantic suspense)? There are still submission guidelines on their website (https://entangledpublishing.com/entangled-suspense-submission-guidelines/), but no such category exists on the actual Submittable page (https://entangledpublishing.submittable.com/submit). It's been like that for a few months at least; I'm not sure whether it's a glitch in the system or they're not looking for Ignite submissions at the moment.

Ephiny0 said:

Does anyone know what's going on with the Entangled 'Ignite' line (category romantic suspense)? There are still submission guidelines on their website (https://entangledpublishing.com/entangled-suspense-submission-guidelines/), but no such category exists on the actual Submittable page (https://entangledpublishing.submittable.com/submit). It's been like that for a few months at least; I'm not sure whether it's a glitch in the system or they're not looking for Ignite submissions at the moment.

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Since you can't see it on Submittable, and it's not on their main submissions page here, and they haven't had any releases in the past couple of months (link)...I'm guessing they're closing the line. They did some restructuring about six months ago. I can't remember all the details.

Ephiny0 said:

Does anyone know what's going on with the Entangled 'Ignite' line (category romantic suspense)? There are still submission guidelines on their website (https://entangledpublishing.com/entangled-suspense-submission-guidelines/), but no such category exists on the actual Submittable page (https://entangledpublishing.submittable.com/submit). It's been like that for a few months at least; I'm not sure whether it's a glitch in the system or they're not looking for Ignite submissions at the moment.

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The Ignite imprint was closed this year. Romantic suspense manuscripts can be submitted to the Amara imprint if they fit the Amara guidelines for length and content. https://entangledpublishing.submittable.com/submit/19016/amara
We will get the website updated asap. Thank you, and sorry for the confusion!

I see, thanks for clarifying! Sadly I don't have any manuscript long enough for Amara at the moment, but will bear that in mind for the future.

To you new authors submitting to Entangled with stars in your eyes and your hopes high, I suggest you do your research on this house. And I don't mean on guidelines and rules or paying attention to the handful (literal handfuls) of authors who do well here. But go on their website, go through the authors' list and check all their books.

I sure wish I had.

I don't know what Entangled's goal is, but it def isn't SELLING books. More like amassing as many books and authors as possible, then spitting them out in careless bulks every week with NO marketing or focus.

I know some of you just want that "validation" from a traditional publishing house so you'll do anything, but sometimes it's just not worth all the blood, sweat and tears you've put into your art. They don't care. You're just another book title there. No matter how many exclamation points you see in that first email from your editor. Once you sign that contract...

Just saying, guys. In all those weeks/months you're sitting there waiting on an R&R, do your research. And be careful where you submit.

YA Fantasy authors can ignore this. They do take good care of YA Fantasy authors.

Nola D said:

I don't know what Entangled's goal is, but it def isn't SELLING books. More like amassing as many books and authors as possible, then spitting them out in careless bulks every week with NO marketing or focus.

I know some of you just want that "validation" from a traditional publishing house so you'll do anything, but sometimes it's just not worth all the blood, sweat and tears you've put into your art. They don't care. You're just another book title there. No matter how many exclamation points you see in that first email from your editor. Once you sign that contract...

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Could you give some specific examples? I'm thinking of submitting to Entangled and I've looked EVERYWHERE, but all I can find are people happily announcing contracts and how pleased they are with the editing process. I really haven't found any negatives aside from their ridiculously long wait times.

To anyone reading this, if you've been contracted with them, could you share experiences after your title has been published?

tamir said:

Could you give some specific examples? I'm thinking of submitting to Entangled and I've looked EVERYWHERE, but all I can find are people happily announcing contracts and how pleased they are with the editing process. I really haven't found any negatives aside from their ridiculously long wait times.

To anyone reading this, if you've been contracted with them, could you share experiences after your title has been published?

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This is a thread with over 2000 posts. You could start by reading it.

AW Admin said:

This is a thread with over 2000 posts. You could start by reading it.

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I did. Since this thread was started in 2011, much of the information is old and outdated, and there are a lot of conflicts. For instance, the first several pages of the thread which discuss advances-- Entangled no longer offers them. I was looking specifically for relevant and current information, as all I could find in reference to the last few years of Entangled business (again, both in and out of this thread), was about wait times and editing. Nothing about the post-publication process. The last posts discussing that particular subject are from 2014. That's what I was asking about. Thanks.

tamir said:

Could you give some specific examples? I'm thinking of submitting to Entangled and I've looked EVERYWHERE, but all I can find are people happily announcing contracts and how pleased they are with the editing process. I really haven't found any negatives aside from their ridiculously long wait times.

To anyone reading this, if you've been contracted with them, could you share experiences after your title has been published?

Click to expand...

AW Admin said:

This is a thread with over 2000 posts. You could start by reading it.

Click to expand...

tamir said:

I did. Since this thread was started in 2011, much of the information is old and outdated, and there are a lot of conflicts. For instance, the first several pages of the thread which discuss advances-- Entangled no longer offers them. I was looking specifically for relevant and current information, as all I could find in reference to the last few years of Entangled business (again, both in and out of this thread), was about wait times and editing. Nothing about the post-publication process. The last posts discussing that particular subject are from 2014. That's what I was asking about. Thanks.

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Back up one, to the post just before yours. Dated 2017, it doesn't sound that encouraging:

Nola D said:

To you new authors submitting to Entangled with stars in your eyes and your hopes high, I suggest you do your research on this house. And I don't mean on guidelines and rules or paying attention to the handful (literal handfuls) of authors who do well here. But go on their website, go through the authors' list and check all their books.

I sure wish I had.

I don't know what Entangled's goal is, but it def isn't SELLING books. More like amassing as many books and authors as possible, then spitting them out in careless bulks every week with NO marketing or focus.

I know some of you just want that "validation" from a traditional publishing house so you'll do anything, but sometimes it's just not worth all the blood, sweat and tears you've put into your art. They don't care. You're just another book title there. No matter how many exclamation points you see in that first email from your editor. Once you sign that contract...

Just saying, guys. In all those weeks/months you're sitting there waiting on an R&R, do your research. And be careful where you submit.

YA Fantasy authors can ignore this. They do take good care of YA Fantasy authors.

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There are several others from 2017 that advise caution based on hearsay and personal experience, so take a moment and scroll upwards and go back through the thread.

BenPanced said:

Back up one, to the post just before yours. Dated 2017, it doesn't sound that encouraging:


There are several others from 2017 that advise caution based on hearsay and personal experience, so take a moment and scroll upwards and go back through the thread.

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I actually responded to the exact post you quoted, if you scroll up about half a page. I asked for some examples, because the post was a vague "I wish I'd done research." And I've been trying to do said research, but I, as stated, have found nothing recently relevant. That post from 2017 was the only recent post that had a full negative spin (some others from Feb 2017 were "My friend did very well with them" and "I know some mixed results, but that's the same with any publisher"), and, again, it was very vague. I'm just looking for a recent concrete example of their practices. All the personal experience posts are from several years ago, and a lot can change in that time.

Well, to an extent, it's because these things *are* vague. That's part of the "joy" of publishing. You never know what's going to work out well or horribly, no matter the concrete actions of writer and publisher.

I'm currently under contract with them. I have not/will not investigate(d) my sales numbers. I'm a newbie nobody no one has heard of and I don't have FSOG-like expectations of a bajillion copies sold. (Dreams, yes, expectations? No. ) That said, Nola's experience is not quite mine. I was given a super-detailed publicity plan, an awesome cover, social media graphics and teasers, as well as their work behind-the-scenes to increase my exposure via romance blog sites and FB. It wasn't just them; I had to do a lot of work for it, myself. Blog posts for guest blogs, FB takeovers, etc, and I can't say I feel it helped a ton, insofar as I didn't get a slew of reviews or people signing up for my newsletter out of them. But I'm fine moving at more of a turtle pace, than hare, and the publicity team has been very supportive of me when I ask for help.

Entangled promo does move on week-to-week, so the intensive help does fall off 3-4 weeks after release, but I'm not sure that's atypical. They are still working in the background for me, because I have a second book in a duology coming out, and an unrelated novel contracted for ?? release. It's still in their interest to support my books if the idea of building a tail really is the way to bear fruit.

Maybe it's that my expectations were not as lofty as they might be if I had an agent and had signed with a Big 5 imprint, but I have been satisfied thus far. (And yes, my editor has been extremely professional and has let my work be my work (not hers), and the production team has been responsive and easy to work with.) It hasn't been all perfect, but I don't assume any writer/publisher relationship is. Consider that, with some publishers, writers don't see the warty moments because the pubs only work with agented authors. The agent gets the brunt, and tempers it as needed.

I've got two books published, a third in the series coming out at the end of this month and another trilogy under contract with the first going out in August of this year.

I'm *very* happy with Entangled. My agent made the sales, so that may have made a difference, I honestly don't know.

The promotion is good, the communication excellent - my editor an angel and my publicist always there for me.

After over two years with them, I am very happy.

Take it for what you want.

So I have different questions. My literary agent sent them my manuscript some five months ago. She tells me she's nudged several times with zero response. If any of the Entangled editors are reading, can you tell me if this is typical? Are some manuscripts never responded to at all? Or, am I being impatient?

tamir said:

And I've been trying to do said research, but I, as stated, have found nothing recently relevant.... I'm just looking for a recent concrete example of their practices.

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Perhaps if you had more specific questions, people would be able to help you out. Asking for "experiences" about "post-publication" is pretty broad.

And if writers are vague, it could be because this is a public forum and publishing is a very small industry. Only my very close friends in the business and my agent(s) know exactly what I've been through with different houses/ projects - the good and bad. If I (or others) come here to share carefully worded statements, it would serve people well to read them and know that even those "vague" posts can be a professional risk, and maybe people wouldn't risk their reputations to post things like "BUYER BEWARE" if it wasn't based on something real and weighty for them.

TL; DR: Read threads, take things with grains of salt, make author friends.

ElaineA said:

Consider that, with some publishers, writers don't see the warty moments because the pubs only work with agented authors. The agent gets the brunt, and tempers it as needed.

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I am agented and I have always worked directly with my teams at my publishers. Different agents do it differently I suppose, but I can't imagine one being your intermediary for every e-mail and phone call from the publisher. Editors wouldn't put up with it, unless you were some HUGE superstar but even then...? I'm the one they talk to and my agent gets CC'd. If anything, my agent tempers MY reactions for the publisher, not the other way around.

And I won't comment on how Entangled treats agented authors differently from non-agented because I'm sure someone will demand that I produce copies of signed contracts in triplicate to prove my assertions and I'm not in the mood to find a photo copier today.

NineLimes said:

If anything, my agent tempers MY reactions for the publisher, not the other way around.

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I never said the tempering went one direction. I also said "some" publishers.

NineLimes said:

And I won't comment on how Entangled treats agented authors differently from non-agented because I'm sure someone will demand that I produce copies of signed contracts in triplicate to prove my assertions and I'm not in the mood to find a photo copier today.

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Then why are you bringing it up? No one else did.

I think it's pretty much always true that agented authors are treated differently/get different contracts than the non-agented ones. My publisher will negotiate with anyone on their contract, but I know that the things my agent and I negotiated were different than what another author negotiated because the contract came with "show changes" still turned on. I could see the things they'd asked for, things that they had left alone, places where they had actually made the language worse.

I'm fine with publishers who will work directly with authors. Not so fine with those who don't like working with agents. (Not helped by the fact that the one I have worked with who really didn't want my agent involved had a really author *un*friendly contract.) But for folks who doubt that the end result between unagented and agented author contracts is different... it is. Sometimes significantly so.

[ETA: No publisher is perfect, btw. And different authors will have different expectations. Talking about the things that didn't work for one person doesn't, by default, make the publisher a "bad" publisher. There are things with all the publishers I've worked with that I really wish they'd done differently because I feel they inadvertently hindered promotion and sales - mostly through lack of communication or by rushing release. That doesn't mean they are predatory or careless, just that I need certain things if I'm to do promotion in an organized fashion. Other folks might be able to roll with the punches, so to speak, better than I do and not have any issues there.

Which is to say, I like my current publisher. I still wouldn't recommend them without detailed caveats on things they do that don't work as well for me. I'm pretty sure if we're honest with ourselves, most of us would be in the same boat there. But also, talking in public can be risky. So do what you are comfortable with.]

I had a rejection for the novel I sent, but Lydia, the editor, gave it a very good report and asked me to revise and send it back in 6 months. She also asked for any other work I have to offer, so I submitted another novel.
Sounded good to me.

Jennifer Robins

ElaineA said:

Then why are you bringing it up? No one else did.

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Because both you and Sheryl Nantus said something about agented vs. unagented experiences.

Aggy B. said:

[ETA: No publisher is perfect, btw. And different authors will have different expectations. Talking about the things that didn't work for one person doesn't, by default, make the publisher a "bad" publisher. There are things with all the publishers I've worked with that I really wish they'd done differently because I feel they inadvertently hindered promotion and sales - mostly through lack of communication or by rushing release. That doesn't mean they are predatory or careless, just that I need certain things if I'm to do promotion in an organized fashion. Other folks might be able to roll with the punches, so to speak, better than I do and not have any issues there.

Which is to say, I like my current publisher. I still wouldn't recommend them without detailed caveats on things they do that don't work as well for me. I'm pretty sure if we're honest with ourselves, most of us would be in the same boat there. But also, talking in public can be risky. So do what you are comfortable with.]

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I think this is really important, especially when it comes to Entangled. They have their certain ways of doing promotions and marketing. And when they have so many debut author or newer authors or unagented authors, those authors aren't going to know whether Blog Tour X or Facebook Party Y are going to help them. So they do those things, because their publisher says so and when it's ineffective, they blame the publisher. But it could also be because no one knows them or one size doesn't fit all, or that subgenre was flooded that week. Or it could be the publisher didn't know how to market a single title Ethiopian vampire romantic comedy. Or all of the above. Who knows.

Further, such authors may not know how to push back to an editor's demands or a horrible release date or inappropriate cover. Or they might like dates and schedules all laid out, twelve months in advance, and Entangled has been well known to be more... flexible... with such things.

Which again leads me to my continued broader point to writers who are here to research. Take recommendations with a grain of salt. Add another grain of salt for the warnings. Do research. Buy other authors drinks and get their unvarnished lowdown... OFFLINE.

NineLimes said:

Because both you and Sheryl Nantus said something about agented vs. unagented experiences.

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All I said was that my agent made the sales. Up to that point I'd sold ten books to different publishers without an agent.

That's all I got.

Hi Jennifer, I got the same response about a month ago... was wondering if they got back to you already?