Exclusives to Editors

I swear I searched for this answer! I didn't find it, and I'm sorry if it's already been answered!

An editor from a very reputable, typically closed house found my blog, saw that we had a lot in common, saw that I was writing in the genre she handles, and asked what the status was on my completed project. Long story short, she's interested in seeing my newer ms (she liked the older one well enough to discuss revision with me and an agent who's also interested in repping the project).

She's asked for an exclusive read on it, for a time limit as I see fit. I'm wondering what a fair time limit would be. She read and reported on the older ms within 6 weeks, so would 2 months be fair?

Thanks, guys!

CheshireCat said:

It is generally not to an author's advantage to take a project off the market so that one person, agent or editor, can take their time to consider it. Editors are fully accustomed to simultaneous submissions, even though some dislike them.

All that said, what concerns me is that this "reputable" editor contacted you after seeing something online. Every editor I know is simply too busy working with contracted and requested material to go trolling on the internet.

Mind naming the publisher?

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Hey, thank you -- she's with HarperCollins.

Karen Duvall said:

This is rare, but not that unusual. A good friend of mine, T.L. Hines, was discovered by his publisher through his blog. Bethany House editor Dave Long contacted him after reading a sample chapter of his manuscript online. It's worked out wonderful for T.L. (his name is Tony) and his third book is due out soon.

So it does happen. As for term of exclusivity? I don't know. If it were an agent, I'd give them a month, tops. But an editor from a reputable publisher? Two months sounds fair to me. Good luck!

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Yeah, Dave is an awesome guy! He actually looked at this ms first, after visiting my Web site (so, yeah, it happened twice with editors, and once with an agent), but ultimately passed. He's an all-around nice guy--I'd have loved to work with him.

So you know Tony? How's he doing? The last I'd heard, he'd been diagnosed with cancer -- bad stuff.

CheshireCat said:

That makes sense. There've been a lot of shakeups at HarperCollins in recent months, so editors could well be looking outside the usual channels for material that speaks to them.

Blogs have also been getting a lot of attention in and of themselves in the last year or so, and a number of authors have attracted interest because of unique or interesting blogs.

Still comparatively rare, though. It would be interesting to know what route led her to you.

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She said she found it by following a link from another writer's blog--I'm on LJ, and one of the imprint's writers is on my friends list--I'm thinking it's because of that, but I don't know for sure yet.

Thanks again for your replies, and the concern!