Updates in acquisitions

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!
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Curious for those who've subbed to editors by various means.

What's the process like on their end? I'm guessing one person reads and if it's not an immediate R, other readers are brought in? Do you get updates--if you nudge or check in--and they're still embroiled in that process, or would they need to obfuscate (Eg still under consideration, as opposed to 'it's with other readers) and so on?

Sorry, I hope those questions make sense. It's clear to me how MS assessment and acquisition works for most agents but feels semi mysterious on the editor side. Have read a couple articles on it but they're still quite vague.
 

D.L. Shepherd

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I can only comment on my experience, which is with a small press. I subbed in the beginning of June and got a request for the full a few days later. Then I heard nothing until the end of August, when my editor emailed to tell me she had passed it on to Acquisitions to have others read it and to discuss marketing. Then nothing more until the initial offer came at the beginning of October.

Hope that helps, and if you are waiting to hear, good luck!
 

Fuchsia Groan

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I'm guessing one person reads and if it's not an immediate R, other readers are brought in?


I've only subbed through agents, but this is the process to my knowledge. First the editor to whom it was sent reads it; then, if they like it, they pass it to the editorial board; if it gets through there, it goes to acquisitions. Again in my limited experience, the agent/author is most likely to hear something concrete when a ms. is ready to go to acquisitions. After that, though, the wait could still be weeks or months. That could be because they're getting more reads, because people are on vacation or whatever and they need a quorum, or because they have a lot of paperwork to do before they can make an official offer.

The only other thing I know is that editors tend to read a lot faster once someone else puts an offer on the table. So, if you get one, contact anyone else who has the book, same as you would with agents reading fulls. (When you have an agent, the agent does the nudging, of course.)
 

CarlHackman

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From my experience with a smaller press. Sent query then got full request. From there I waited. I was then told that it was being passed up the line and shortly after I was told that they would like to publish. Pretty much straight away after that the contract came into my inbox.

From what I understand, once the AE gives it the nod, it goes to an editorial round table where they see if it is a fit and where it can be slotted in to their publishing schedule. This is where it either gets accepted or passed. The time scales varies from publisher to publisher, it all depends how many manuscripts they have to consider and also the number of books they want to publish during the year.