Best/worst time of the year to submit

I'm not sure about the summer months, but the six weeks between mid-November and the end of the year may be another time to avoid.

I just find it odd that someone would admit they don't do their job in the summer because it's nice outside. This isn't grade school. You don't get 3 months off. You work. You put in full hours no matter what the season is. I think if I ran an agency and found out someone in my employ had such a lackadaisical attitude, I'd fire them.

I do sort of agree with rac. Submitting novels right after Nanowrimo might not be good timing, for several reasons.

I have done a lot of research and I seem to come across Kristin Nelson all the time. She has a lot of helpful tips out there, both on her blog and her videos.

So...agents are incapable of reading outdoors or on the beach, then?

I'm not sure I'd want to sub to someone who freely admitted to not wanting to do her job just because it was nice out. Join the club, mate. Some of us have bills to pay.

And if someone isn't fussed about working, say, Jun-Aug, what good are they going to be when it comes to selling your book to a publisher?

Shadow_Ferret said:

I just find it odd that someone would admit they don't do their job in the summer because it's nice outside. This isn't grade school. You don't get 3 months off. You work. You put in full hours no matter what the season is.

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To be fair, from the blog she is working, she's just disinclined to take on a huge amount of extra work. Which I get. I still put in my hours at my job over the summer, but I'll admit that I am a bit more inclined to leave at 6 vs. 7 and play on weekends vs. work.

Publishing also slows down in summer not because people are slacking -- but because they choose to take their vacation time then. I wish I could, but I'm stuck working a job where the busiest time of year is the summer

There's a widespread theory that publishing almost shuts down over the summer and between Thanksgiving and New Year's. This is basically untrue, although I think that August is probably the slowest month.

I used to work at a small Canadian book publisher. August was slow but December was one of our busiest months. The schedule was based on the catalogues and the publishing seasons. We weren't allowed to take vacations during December or July, which were our *busiest* months. I remember working overtime on Christmas day and Boxing Day--at home.

KN, like any other editor or agent, may choose to work in a way to suit him/her self.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I just find it odd that someone would admit they don't do their job in the summer because it's nice outside. This isn't grade school. You don't get 3 months off. You work. You put in full hours no matter what the season is. I think if I ran an agency and found out someone in my employ had such a lackadaisical attitude, I'd fire them.

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The blog entry does say this was Sunday evening...personally I wouldn't fire anyone who wanted Sunday evening off, if their normally work day was M-F

My agent tends to agree with Nelson's attitude and schedule, but only because of the vacation aspect of it.

tri

Shadow_Ferret said:

I just find it odd that someone would admit they don't do their job in the summer because it's nice outside. This isn't grade school. You don't get 3 months off. You work. You put in full hours no matter what the season is. I think if I ran an agency and found out someone in my employ had such a lackadaisical attitude, I'd fire them.

I do sort of agree with rac. Submitting novels right after Nanowrimo might not be good timing, for several reasons.

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I haven't seen any agents or editors claim they don't work...but most people in full-time jobs are commonly entitled to 2 weeks' vacation. (Just like, if I remember correctly, lots of agents close to queries around the winter holidays, even though they still tend to work for their existing client list...taking a little time off during the holidays is pretty common for non-agents as well.)

And, from what I've seen on Twitter, while some agents/editors might take little vacations with their families (like everyone else), many are out of the office for conference after conference after conference.

I don't get the impression that any of the agents/editors (at least the ones I follow online in some way--not stalking!) are slacking off...they're just living their lives (trying to balance work and personal life) like everyone else.

If anything, as someone else pointed out, Kristin Nelson was posting on a Sunday evening. I also saw on Twitter that agent Janet Reid was working on Sunday night...and got responses from editors that night as well. And Reid even tweeted that she doesn't know who perpetuates this myth that agents don't work in the summer.

New York totally shuts down during the summer. It's smelly and sticky, and even if people are in town, they don't get much done.

Worst time for submissions?

The Agent Calendar:

January. Right after the holidays, agents recovering from celebration, new year and all, plenty of stuff left over from the past year to catch up on, not including new submissions. Those can wait.

or, February. Drearyass weather everywhere, worst month of the year, with maybe one rival, you just want to get through it, the hell with new submissions.

or March. I might have been wrong about February. End of winter, energy at low ebb, who has time to deal sensibly with new submissions?

or April. This fucker is the cruelest month, breeds lilacs out of a dead land, and is TAX TIME. Nothing more need be said.

or May. Oh. Spring. Gotta get outside, get some sun, anticipate a real summer, who has time to deal with new submissions?

or June. Hey, this is vacation time. Been working my ass off for damn near half a year now, and I need time to relax. Who has time to deal with new submissions?

or July. It's 107 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, the reservoirs are drying up, I have the energy of a cold three-toed sloth. Where's the carafe of Talisker?

or August Worse than July. The Mets suck. I have a bad heat rash. Who has energy to deal with new submissions?

or September. Summer is ending. Leaves are dying, winter is coming, and you want me to read your submission?

or October. Halloween. Shit. Queries for four hundred fifty-seven horror-genre manuscripts piled on my desk. five-hundred eighty-six of them guaranteed to be horrible. Where's that carafe of Talisker?

or November. February's twin, except two days longer and with weather guaranteed to get worse in the next month, not better. Plus Thanksgiving. Four days off (yeah, right) in which to read all the new queries and submissions. God help the submitter.

or December. Ah. The Holidays. Thank God. Don't have to do any damn thing about submissions. Now have to worry about what damn gift to buy my tween daughter, who doesn't like anything anymore. Yeah. You wanna submit something to me this month? Where's that carafe of Talisker?

And, goddamit, this one submission in 4,290 I made the mistake of opening and looking at and it's maybe the next Harry Potter. I gotta read it. Shit. Where's that damn carafe?

caw

I sent out 10 queries on 8/1. Got two requests, one reject and one of the two requests already said "thanks, but no." People are working.

grover4232 said:

New York totally shuts down during the summer. It's smelly and sticky, and even if people are in town, they don't get much done.

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In ten years I never once had a boss who let me slack because the subway stunk and the air was wet enough to swim through. I must've worked at the wrong places, lol. Well, that or I worked in offices that had air conditioning and a business to run....

I sold two projects in August and both went out on submission in August. One sold in four days, one in about ten. Every NY agent I know is talking about the myth of the August doldrums right now.

The best time to send your query is when it's ready. If you try to match it to the calendar of supposed good/better/best the only thing you're going to do is not send it when it's ready.

This is really interesting. In Lizzy Kremer's UK version of Writing a Novel for Dummies, she mentions one of the busiest periods is right after summer as all the teachers have spent their holidays finishing off their WIP. I've tried to get my subs all in before this period of time as I actually do know a few teachers polishing off their manuscripts.

I really get annoyed when I see agents saying:

"We're closed for submissions during the summer."

It's wow-worthy. I mean this isn't school, you shouldn't be closed for summer break >.<;

Spastic_Dreamer said:

I really get annoyed when I see agents saying:

"We're closed for submissions during the summer."

It's wow-worthy. I mean this isn't school, you shouldn't be closed for summer break >.<;

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Closed for submissions =/= not working.

Agents attend conferences, and summer is conference season. Writing is a very solitary endeavor, but publishing is a social business. Agents cannot sell books if they don't engage in the publishing machine, and that means conferences.

That means getting on airplanes at five in the morning, sleeping in hotels, schmoozing late into the night. Considering agents field HUNDREDS of queries daily, it's not surprising that during the peak travel season, they would close to submissions.

VanessaNorth said:

Closed for submissions =/= not working.

Agents attend conferences, and summer is conference season. Writing is a very solitary endeavor, but publishing is a social business. Agents cannot sell books if they don't engage in the publishing machine, and that means conferences.

That means getting on airplanes at five in the morning, sleeping in hotels, schmoozing late into the night. Considering agents field HUNDREDS of queries daily, it's not surprising that during the peak travel season, they would close to submissions.

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I understand, it's just...it goes both ways. I mean, yeah, it's peak travel season. However, many young authors can finally write during the summer. School is very tiring and summer break may be their only opportunity to finish up a novel or query. I just personally think the closed-for-summer thing is bad for potential business.

Interesting posts/responses. Thanks, all!

I'll be honest with you. I have submitted three novels throughout the past few years and I very rarely hear back from publishers or agents during the summer months. So I only enter contests and submit to journals during that time.

Also, in all of the agents I've submitted queries to (and it's been quite a few), only 2 have ever had the decency to send me back a rejection letter. So that's why I concentrate my efforts on submitting to publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts. At least I know someone has seen it, acknowledges it, and thanks me for submitting.

I honestly think it's completely random - I don't think any one time period is better than another. All agents have different schedules and I highly doubt there's a rule in place saying these months are bad, these months are good.

Everyone is different. Everyone has different times in which they work, and times in which they work best. Everyone takes vacation at different times.

Anyway - I agree, you send your query and your MS when you're all set and ready to go. No sooner, no later. If an agent reads your query and your mS and loves it you'll get signed. Time of year has nothing to do with it...but there is a little bit of luck involved

ALSO - I would say I just avoid sending queries on weekends..i send them on tuesdays / wed / thurs with the mindset that Im letting agents catch up on e-mails on a flustered monday, and avoiding contacting them on a "weekend mode" friday lol. That's my only method of timing...