Angry Robot Books 2 month open sub!!

Debeucci said:

I had someone say in a review that reading my book gave them Aids. AIDS!

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I'm going to start collecting reviews like this.

The funniest one I ever read was for a Terry Goodkind novel, and it went:

This is literally the worst book, and Goodkind is literally the worst man.

I hope seals eat him.

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Why seals?!

Bahaha.

lauralam said:

Why seals?!

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I don't know, but that's what makes it funny. I imagined a crowd of those adorable white baby seals, all macking on a hapless writer's corpse. Nom nom nom.

Duh....cause it would hurt more you twit!

it's the spoon rule.

I just loled so hard. They are brilliant. And now, I absolutely must watch that movie tonight.

File 1 should be three pages long.
Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. This is your synopsis file.

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Awesome news. I do have something ready to go, but another month or so of tinkering might be in order first. You only get one shot with these things, after all.

Queen of Swords said:

I don't know, but that's what makes it funny. I imagined a crowd of those adorable white baby seals, all macking on a hapless writer's corpse. Nom nom nom.

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Yes, but what if one of those cute little seals chokes on Goodkind's ponytail? It won't be so funny then. Poor little things...

I think I will make another cleanup sweep for a novel that was pretty much done. Hopefully it will generate interest that sticks this time. Yay for having a workable backlog.

I find it interesting that they're not ruling out this year's NaNo novels being ready by year's end ... I mean, they're not excited about that prospect, but they didn't rule it out ....

Maybe they just don't want that one lightning-paced writer/editor to get pubbed and be all, "Nyah, nyah." XD

Okay, I'm gonna sound like a total noob asking this.

I get that, for this open door, they don't want books that have been submitted to them before, even if through an agent. Makes sense.

But what about the other way around? What if I were to submit through the open door, get rejected, and then find an agent? Is the book I submitted direct "dead" to them?

i.e. would I be, by submitting through the open door, effectively crossing off Angry Robot as a publisher for that book? (assuming an unsuccessful outcome, that is.)

onesecondglance said:

Okay, I'm gonna sound like a total noob asking this.

I get that, for this open door, they don't want books that have been submitted to them before, even if through an agent. Makes sense.

But what about the other way around? What if I were to submit through the open door, get rejected, and then find an agent? Is the book I submitted direct "dead" to them?

i.e. would I be, by submitting through the open door, effectively crossing off Angry Robot as a publisher for that book? (assuming an unsuccessful outcome, that is.)

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Yeah, pretty much so. Unless you did a substantial rewrite for your new agent or enough time had elapsed that the market conditions had altered.

Quick etiquette question (I'm sorry if they addressed this and I missed it):


Is it a no-no to shop for agents (and only agents) while your MS is in an open call submission? I feel like it isn't, but I just wanted to double check with the more experienced and wiser.

Thinking about submitting to them. I have a book written and has been with a thorough beta, but since then I haven't worked on it. May have to open that file after ignoring it for the last four months and get to work on editing it using the beta's comments as a guide. I think my historical fantasy/horror mash-up may be something they'll be interested in, and it will be a trilogy, possible quadrilogy. I suppose I could put aside my Gothic romance or whatever it's going to be eventually aside for now, or work on it on the side, until I get my HFH all fixed up.

Debeucci said:

You can definitely shop for an agent while the MS is in submission with them. I signed with my agent during the acquisitions stage of the open sub.

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Thanks! I thought it would be (and I just saw the typo that makes it sound like I didn't...go me -_-), but just wanted to make sure!

Little Anonymous Me said:

Is it a no-no to shop for agents (and only agents) while your MS is in an open call submission? I feel like it is, but I just wanted to double check with the more experienced and wiser.

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Already answered, I know, but you don't stop querying for anything other than a contract or agent who asks for an exclusive (and only hand those out with reluctance and with a two week time limit. If they want your manuscript all to themselves, then they can pay for that right by lighting a fire under their own butt and reading your pages in a speedy fashion.)

jjdebenedictis said:

Already answered, I know, but you don't stop querying for anything other than a contract or agent who asks for an exclusive (and only hand those out with reluctance and with a two week time limit. If they want your manuscript all to themselves, then they can pay for that right by lighting a fire under their own butt and reading your pages in a speedy fashion.)

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Gah, forgot to fix that typo again! Now it's immortalized in two quotes.

That's great to know. I'd had this sudden moment of doubt where my brain said what I'd planned on was verboten, but my brain is silly and knows nothing. Getting my query up to snuff and bothering agents should make the wait go faster. (Right now, I'm more focused on polishing my manuscript and creating a synopsis that doesn't make someone homicidal.)

Little Anonymous Me said:

Quick etiquette question (I'm sorry if they addressed this and I missed it):


Is it a no-no to shop for agents (and only agents) while your MS is in an open call submission? I feel like it isn't, but I just wanted to double check with the more experienced and wiser.

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It is absolutely acceptable to shop for agents while your MS is abroad. If the publisher accepts you, you have every right to want an agent to help with negotiations and to play author-to-editor buffer. Often authors who get bought up without an agent will e-mail their agents of choice and offer them a short window in which to snatch them up. Agents may still pass, but that's why we keep lists!

Debeucci said:

Onesecondglance,

I can't definitively answer that question but assuming they've read the book, or a portion of it, I'd say yes it's dead to them. I don't think having an agent or not would affect their decision process once they're reading the manuscript.

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waylander said:

Yeah, pretty much so. Unless you did a substantial rewrite for your new agent or enough time had elapsed that the market conditions had altered.

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Thanks guys, that was pretty much my suspicion.

Debeucci said:

I had someone say in a review that reading my book gave them Aids. AIDS! And that was a 3 star review. Imagine what a 1 star looks like. =)

Such is life.

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I'm in the midst of a revision, but I think I can make the deadline. The submission is only the first 5 chapters, which I have gone through already. With the wait-time involved, I'll be able to further polish the remainder even if I don't finish by the end of the year.

Unless, of course, they read my submission immediately, are subsequently blown away and demand the full manuscript asap. Ha ha.

It should be totally ready to go by the time you submit, since you don't know how long it'll take before they call it in.