Heads Up: Harper Voyager calls for unagented submissions

Michael Drakich said:

Remember our submissions had to include our best 1000 words. You can bet they only read that part and decided yea or nay on most of them.

Click to expand...

At the time I submitted (14th), the submission form asked for the first 1000 words. I submitted what they asked for, the first 1000, but had previously selected my best 1000 and was dismayed I couldn't use them. How will that be handled in looking over all the submissions? Some submitted their best and some submitted their first, which are not likely to be the best: if you've peaked by the first 1000 words, that can't bode well for the rest of the novel! I wonder how they will fairly use this part of the submission for judging who got the yea or nay. Maybe they tossed it out?

I agree.

The opening scene may not be the best scene in the book, and more than likely is not, but the words have to hold up just as well or better as the rest of the book.

That of course is a given; the first 1000 words should be a grabber. That isn't my point though. The first 1000 and the best 1000 don't seem quite parallel as criteria for judging what gets a closer look or not. If I read the "best" part of the book in the first 1000 words, I'm going to be very sad when that 1000 is over and I have another 90000 or so that isn't quite as "best." I'm guessing you probably can't reach a true peak, and what might be considered the "best," until the story has been brewing and building, even if it was a grabber at the start. So it seems to me there might be a bit of a discrepancy between the first 1000 and the best 1000. I was just wondering if that was a consideration for them since the submission form was changed midway through the submission period. Just a thought.

When I saw the "best 1000 words" section on the form, my first thought was

This is a trap.

I know a lot of people had the same thought. I'm pretty naive so I took them at their word. But they did change it so I wonder if it was a problem.

Look folks, what you or I consider our best 1000 words may not be equally viewed by the HV readers. Worrying about what 1000 words you submitted is sort of silly but understandable. The story is either ready, or not.

My personal opinion, many of those who submitted know their submissions were ready but submitted anyway. The HV readers will pick them out fairly easily and move on to submissions that are closer to what they are looking for...

Three years of revising editing and polishing, I sure hope mine was ready! But even so, HV alone knows exactly what they are looking for in terms of theme tone plot etc. so all we can do is wait and wonder. A last round of good luck to all who submitted.

Yes and yes...

Saw a update on the Harper Voyager site. They aren't going to make the 15 Jan completion date but changed their policy and are going to send notices out to everyone that submitted to let them know if their manuscript has been accepted or rejected.

From the Voyager website, statement...

http://harpervoyagerbooks.com/2012/12/20/digital-submission-update/

I think this is going to relieve a lot of people of their anxiety...

So, we are changing our policy and will indeed be responding to each and every submission. The first wave of responses will go out in January.

If you do not hear anything via email, your submission is still being considered, and is still in consideration until you receive a response. We will also do an update in mid January to let you know how far along we are in the process.

I think this is very classy of HV. They did not have to do this. Bravo, HV, Bravo...

thothguard51 said:

I think this is very classy of HV. They did not have to do this. Bravo, HV, Bravo...

Click to expand...

Ditto...and yippee!

Damn, my works are *only* in the 10k to 40k range.

That's good news. A definite yes or no.

Very classy indeed!

Oh. here I'd given up on them and gone on with my life. Now I find out that if you HAVEN'T heard from them they're still looking at it.

Too much stress.

Scotch and water helps calm the nerves...

The notices should start going out in about 8 days...

I have one in and will nail bite with you all

Yeah, I think in about a week we're going to start seeing some results. We better stock this place up on Scotch and chocolate, wot? Or aspirin and tranqs. Me, I'm gonna slam morphine 'cause I got three of those suckers with them. Three Rs will be genocide for me.

tri

Omnigon said:

That of course is a given; the first 1000 words should be a grabber. That isn't my point though. The first 1000 and the best 1000 don't seem quite parallel as criteria for judging what gets a closer look or not. If I read the "best" part of the book in the first 1000 words, I'm going to be very sad when that 1000 is over and I have another 90000 or so that isn't quite as "best." I'm guessing you probably can't reach a true peak, and what might be considered the "best," until the story has been brewing and building, even if it was a grabber at the start. So it seems to me there might be a bit of a discrepancy between the first 1000 and the best 1000. I was just wondering if that was a consideration for them since the submission form was changed midway through the submission period. Just a thought.

Click to expand...

Let me put it in consumer mindset: I pick up a book at the local bookstore, and it doesn't hook me in the first page or two? I'm putting it back down. I don't want and won't read an entire book to find the great 1,000 words.

thothguard51 said:

The notices should start going out in about 8 days...

Click to expand...

We can all concentrate really, really hard on Lindsay Lohan's probation hearing to distract ourselves.

Although Scotch and chocolate would be more entertaining and probably wouldn't kill as many brain cells.

jjdebenedictis said:

We can all concentrate really, really hard on Lindsay Lohan's probation hearing to distract ourselves.

Although Scotch and chocolate would be more entertaining and probably wouldn't kill as many brain cells.

Click to expand...

Lindsay Lohan? I've been pigging out on football and Celebrity Big Brother to try and take my mind off it. But I could add her to the list.

Though Scotch and chocolate sounds like a good idea. I still have a dribble of Royal Lochnagar (sp?) in the kitchen which I was saving for a special occasion. And loads of Christmas chocolate still.

I have a bottle of vanilla vodka in the kitchen - thank god!

Over Christmas I tried the weirdest vanilla vodka coke float - think I'll be hitting that bad boy again in a week or so

benluby said:

Let me put it in consumer mindset: I pick up a book at the local bookstore, and it doesn't hook me in the first page or two? I'm putting it back down. I don't want and won't read an entire book to find the great 1,000 words.

Click to expand...

That is assuming the first 1000 doesn't hook you. It only makes sense a great book will have a fantastic, hooky opener and then yes, get "better." if a novel has only one or the other, it's not likely a good candidate for publication, so I'm assuming we all believe our submissions have both.

That being established, I was merely wondering about the differences between the submissions that used the first 1000 and the best 1000 and how they would be judged against one another. It was just a bit of musing on the specifics, that's all. More so, I noticed the form was changed midway during the submission period, as if perhaps HV decided to judge only the first 1000 of everyone's submissions to make it fair. After all, they do seem to be willing to adjust their stances out of consideration and fairness.

Ultimately, my comment was just conversation on the dynamics of the submission form, not a question of the value of an outstanding opener, which is of course a given. That's all--no rocket science involved here. It is not a judgment call, nor has it anything to do with a manuscript being "ready" or not. Only musing, folks. I'm a philosopher like that. Now let's move on--the notices will likely start going out soon, which is a much cooler topic than my dumb comment, lol. It will be nice to hear of any AW members getting selected.