[Submission service] Authors.me

Denevius said:

I'm using Authors Me as another tool to submit my novel. It is free (I guess at one point it wasn't), so it doesn't hurt to use it. I originally joined it because Night Shade books had stated that they accepted unsolicited manuscripts on Authors Me. This proved inaccurate, as they don't. I submitted to two other publishers through them, and for four to five months my submissions has been listed as 'In Review', whatever that means. But again, it is free, and you never know what random attempt will be your breakthrough moment.

If anything positive comes from using this site, I'll post it here.

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You don't want to be published by Night Shade. They don't pay their authors.

Also, most SF/F publishers have slush piles where you can submit your work to them directly. Submission services don't add anything to your chances as they don't vet material, so it's basically another slush pile that someone from a publisher *might* look at. I cannot think of a good reason to have a third party handling your submissions (unless that third party is a good agent).

You don't want to be published by Night Shade. They don't pay their authors.

Also, most SF/F publishers have slush piles where you can submit your work to them directly. Submission services don't add anything to your chances as they don't vet material, so it's basically another slush pile that someone from a publisher *might* look at. I cannot think of a good reason to have a third party handling your submissions (unless that third party is a good agent).

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I won't argue with this one way or the other. Whatever works best for you, keep at it.

As always, best of luck on your writing!

Denevius said:

I won't argue with this one way or the other. Whatever works best for you, keep at it.

As always, best of luck on your writing!

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What works best for me is writing the best book I could and then signing with an agent. Then writing more books while he puts my work in front of specific editors whom he knows are looking for work like mine.

As far as Authors goes. At least three of the publishers on their list have threads here in BRBC that do not indicate they are folks you want to give your book to. (Including Night Shade. Seriously. If you haven't already, check Kameron Hurley's blog for info about Night Shade and how she's never been paid for any of the books she published with them.) And I'm still not seeing why you would want to use a submission service rather than querying an agent. Or publisher. As far as I can see there is not a distinct advantage here aside from "It's quick and easy."

Hi All,

I am noticing several major agencies beginning to accept through AUTHORS.ME, including Trident Media, Meredith Bernstein, and Lowenstein Associates. I began the FREE profile so I could submit to some of them (some say they strongly prefer Authors submissions). Looking through the "Submissions Recommendations" on the site, there are definitely some red flag small publishers like Pandamoon, but then there are legitimates as well endorsing it.

Anyone else encountering this with other agencies? I am submitting YA fantasy, so I am sure there are other agencies.

I know Janet Reid decried the site when it came out as a scam for inexperienced authors to fall prey to vanity publishers, but now it seems like people in the industry are embracing it.

Thoughts?

stephen andrew said:

Hi All,

I am noticing several major agencies beginning to accept through AUTHORS.ME, including Trident Media, Meredith Bernstein, and Lowenstein Associates. I began the FREE profile so I could submit to some of them (some say they strongly prefer Authors submissions). Looking through the "Submissions Recommendations" on the site, there are definitely some red flag small publishers like Pandamoon, but then there are legitimates as well endorsing it.

Anyone else encountering this with other agencies? I am submitting YA fantasy, so I am sure there are other agencies.

I know Janet Reid decried the site when it came out as a scam for inexperienced authors to fall prey to vanity publishers, but now it seems like people in the industry are embracing it.

Thoughts?

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Cite, please. Because honestly I don't believe this.

Here are a couple submissions pages I've encountered asking specifically for AUTHORS.ME:

http://www.lowensteinassociates.com/submission.html

http://lkgagency.com/submission-guidelines/

Trident and Bernstein don't have it on their site, but I can submit to them on Authors.Me, and they popped up in my suggested Submissions on the site.


Here is a list of agencies and publishers on the Authors.me site that they claim to work with:

It includes Trident, New Leaf, Fineprint, and many others...

https://www.authors.me/about-us/who-we-work-with/

Following the link above, they have listed "Morgan James" and "Black Rose Writing" as their 2 mid size publishers they work with. NO!!!

I know what your saying though Stephen, I do see a few decent agencies/pubs listed on that page but I'm wondering if they are using it as off line slush pile, a way to reduce direct email/mail.

ctripp said:

Following the link above, they have listed "Morgan James" and "Black Rose Writing" as their 2 mid size publishers they work with. NO!!!

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Definitely agree there are some on the list I would have no desire to work with!

I know that Lowenstein said they prefer submissions through the site, which is interesting.

I used Authors to submit to a few reputable agencies. One interesting feature is that you can see when someone has looked at the profile for your book or downloaded a sample. One agency already downloaded my sample. One day is pretty quick, considering I rarely hear back by email queries within two weeks. Often two months or more. So it will be interesting to see what happens.

So it will be interesting to see what happens.

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Agree and hope you'll let us know. Do you get to see who the agency (or publisher) is that downloads or just a notice of an action taken?

ctripp said:

Agree and hope you'll let us know. Do you get to see who the agency (or publisher) is that downloads or just a notice of an action taken?

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You get to see who is looking at it, and what they've looked at. Gandolfo Helin and Fountain looked at my book profile (hook, synopsis, and such) yesterday and downloaded my sample, and this morning LKG agency did the same and also downloaded (2 days after submission).

I saw multiple agencies requesting submission through this site so I started a profile. I have finally reached the point where I'd like to submit a specific book so I went back to the site to upload it and I can't seem to access the site from any browser. It says there is a privacy error. Is it down? Has it been hacked?

I created a free account on Authors.me about a year ago. I submitted to several publishers, but nothing came of it.

Since it's free, it doesn't hurt to submit through them. However, I seriously doubt anything will come of it, especially since I now see that their site is listed as 'Not Secure'. I don't see the site lasting much longer.

I'm guessing they were trying to do something similar to Submittable Submissions, except for novels. But the worthwhile publishers they have listed just aren't responsive, which makes the project pointless. And too many of the less desirable publishers are basically vanity publishers.

Overall, Authors.me is a decent idea, but if they can't get the better publishers to at least respond to author's submissions, then the site is kind of useless.

I'm here trying to figure out what "In Review' means too. I was about to withdraw my subs and hesitated. I contacted the Support link asking, and I await my answer.

I have been using this service as well. One thing I would like to ask about is the submission window when you submit a work and press Submit Now - it takes you to a separate screen where you can input a note to the recipient.

Is there any consensus on what to do with this note? I typically write a short mini-query in the window.

My concern is that it would seem to contradict with what the agency requests on its website. That each query is formatted in such and such a way etc.

Does anyone have experience with this?