Carina Press

Entering week 32. They respond fairly promptly to queries. It's just that the response is "we're running a bit late", which was funny back in week 16....

At least with submittable you can be fairly certain the ms wasn't misplaced.

Telergic said:

Entering week 32. They respond fairly promptly to queries. It's just that the response is "we're running a bit late", which was funny back in week 16....

At least with submittable you can be fairly certain the ms wasn't misplaced.

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Looks like they're farther behind now. Twelve days ago I sent a gentle nudge and so far, crickets... *shrugs*

WriterInChains said:

Looks like they're farther behind now. Twelve days ago I sent a gentle nudge and so far, crickets... *shrugs*

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We've had notification on the author loop that they've just hired four (could be five, I forget!) new editors. Fingers crossed they'll be able to deal with the backlog now.

Filigree said:

Some of the Big Five SFF imprints won't take work published on Wattpad, at least up to 2015 when I last checked.

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This has definitely changed. Several Wattpad books have been published by the Big 5.

Hi everyone, I've just read through the past few weeks of posts and I'm very sorry for the extended wait that some of you have experienced since last fall. Everything that was submitted prior to the new year did get read by our first round readers, but has been in queue for a read by an acquiring editor. We just hired six new freelance editors who are all reading submissions very quickly and I anticipate that we'll have responses going out to everything submitted through 2017 by end of month. If you don't receive a response by end of month, and you submitted in 2017, please email us at the [email protected] email address. If you are worried right now that your submission was overlooked, send an email and I'll ask our team to get back to you. With the new editors, our submissions response time will return to the 12 weeks we've previously posted. We are all very relieved!

Form rejection after 34 weeks. No animus, but I doubt I'll submit anything here again.

Angela James said:

Hi everyone, I've just read through the past few weeks of posts and I'm very sorry for the extended wait that some of you have experienced since last fall. Everything that was submitted prior to the new year did get read by our first round readers, but has been in queue for a read by an acquiring editor. We just hired six new freelance editors who are all reading submissions very quickly and I anticipate that we'll have responses going out to everything submitted through 2017 by end of month.

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Thank you for the update! Good to hear that the response times will shorten.

Anna204 said:

This has definitely changed. Several Wattpad books have been published by the Big 5.

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When it comes to first rights the Big 5 make exceptions for work that is extremely popular. That's pretty much it. Assuming that because someone who has a breakout book on Wattpad gets a Big 5 deal means that anyone on Wattpad can do the same is fallacious. (And maybe that's not what you're trying to say, but I see it a lot. Folks always want to talk about EL James or Hugh Howey or Andy Weir as proof that publishers don't care about first rights, and ignore the fact that those books were insanely popular/selling like crazy before they were picked up by the big guys.)

There are always exceptions to first publication requirements. They always have to do with being a hot property and not ambiguity on the part of the publisher as to whether or not they'll take something that's already been published.

I resubmitted a R&R to a specific editor last year. I nudged via email once I passed the 12-week mark, received no response. I thought maybe emailing directly was frowned upon so I added a note to Submittable, no response so far and I definitely don't plan on pestering again.

I'm wondering if since most 2017 submissions are due to receive responses by the end of February anyway, maybe inquiries on those subs aren't being replied to at all?

Scratch that - received my rejection today. 13 weeks total on a 73k R&R. No feedback other than to say the revisions were fine but it wasn't a good fit for them.

So to anyone considering a R&R - think very carefully about it. I don't regret doing the work because I think the manuscript came out better in the end, but it's a great deal of effort and a long wait to revise according to what an editor wants at that moment in time. And there's absolutely no guarantee of any feedback or acceptance.

I will commend the editor - she was very professional and her initial suggestions for improving the manuscript were spot on. She seemed like she'd be great to work with. (Probably why this stings a little.)

Good luck to anyone else waiting on a submission. I hope you have a better outcome.

Form rejection after 22 weeks.

Some tracking data - two days ago (28 April) I put in a novel partial for the submit on proposal call, directed to a specific editor. This morning the Submittable status has changed to "in progress", so it looks as if they are starting to work through the proposal submissions, even if it's just to have a quick look at what's come in.

Aggy B. said:

When it comes to first rights the Big 5 make exceptions for work that is extremely popular. That's pretty much it. Assuming that because someone who has a breakout book on Wattpad gets a Big 5 deal means that anyone on Wattpad can do the same is fallacious. (And maybe that's not what you're trying to say, but I see it a lot. Folks always want to talk about EL James or Hugh Howey or Andy Weir as proof that publishers don't care about first rights, and ignore the fact that those books were insanely popular/selling like crazy before they were picked up by the big guys.)

There are always exceptions to first publication requirements. They always have to do with being a hot property and not ambiguity on the part of the publisher as to whether or not they'll take something that's already been published.

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You're right, that's not what I was trying to say. My point was that some Wattpad works get published by Big 5. With regard to first rights, whether an author has them or not, getting a Big 5 publishing contract is pretty difficult. Almost impossible. So whether perceived first rights are gone or not, it's an uphill climb.

Form rejection last night on the partial I submitted on 28 April, so six week turnaround. Even assuming they rejected immediately on reading the query letter and thus it was the fastest possible response, that's doing a lot better on response time than early this year before they hired more editors. Looks as if they're back to hitting the 12 weeks target for letting people know yes/no/maybe.

Has anyone any updated stats on what to expect time frame wise? I submitted a full and hit the 12 week mark 2weeks ago, switched to in-progress...but from reading this thread am I right in thinking it could be another 6-12 weeks?

I can wait... Patiently...

*Refreshes screen constantly* ��

I'm in the same boat. Submittable switched to In Progress just days before the 12 week mark. That was a month ago, and still no word. But I'm hoping that means it made it through the initial read and has moved on to the next.

Just a question, are you submitting to a specific editor or just in general on Submittable? I'm curious if that has anything to do with the time frame differences after they hired the new editors.

I didn't address my submission to any editor in particular.

Poop. Rejection after 4 months, 3 days.

Looks like long wait times on submissions are the norm?

Also, anyone here have any experience with M/M Fantasy romance with Carina? I look at their lists and don't see a ton of it, but most of what is there has good numbers of reviews and presumably sales. I'm looking to publish a new series (book 1 is done, and I've written up the whole submission/series outline package) and I'm having a heck of time deciding between another press or Carina. Waiting four months doesn't sound too fun, though.

Now that you mention it, never heard much of M/M at Carina so I can't be sure but if you don't see much of it then that you'd probably be wasting your time. Either they don't want it or don't acquire much of it. Ever thought of self-publishing? That's where many of the M/M romance authors are going and thriving as well. Other than some of the M/M small presses that closed, I can't think of any that's dealing primarily with M/M.

Disclaimer, I don't write M/M but know a lot of people who do. Haven't ever heard anyone mentioning Carina as a viable place for M/M. I assume maybe it's because their audience is similar to the Harlequin crowd from the books I've seen pushed.

Carina publishes M/M, and if you look at their most recent blog post of what their editors are specifically looking for, you'll see lots of interest along those lines. I don't know how much M/M fantasy romance they do, but at least one editor is looking for it as of Fall 2018.

I have seen M/M there and would consider it well worth a try.