A general question

Toni1953 said:

A friend of mine recently submitted one of her manuscripts to Kensington. the editor did not buy the book, but wrote back with a detailed critique detailing much of what they felt would make the book saleable.

I feel that this is almost as good as an acceptance. Chances are if she follows direction and resubmits, they'll take it on. What do you guys think? i'd consider it a victory of sorts, although it does make you wonder why they just didn't take her on and then have her do the revisions.

she has no agent, BTW.

Any thoughts?

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They have no way of knowing whether she can do the revisions properly until after she does them. I've been on the other side of the desk here. When you tell a new writer what needs to be changed/rewritten/revised/fixed, the new writer will, about three fourths of the time, do a lousy job. The novel will be worse after they work on it than it was before.

This means that unless the novel is something special, and something that needs very minor work, you don't want to offer a contract until after you see what kind of job the writer does on the rewrite/revision.

Especially if the writer doesn't have an agent. But even with an agent, it's taking a chance, and most editors want to see a manuscript that is salable, not one that might be, before offering a contract.

In a similar vein, an agent will occasionally indicate interest in representing a book if certain revisions can be made. But since the agent has no idea if the writer is actually capable of making the required revisions, she's not going to offer representation until after the revisions are done. And if they're not done to her satisfaction, she won't be offering to represent after all.

Agent

rugcat said:

In a similar vein, an agent will occasionally indicate interest in representing a book if certain revisions can be made. But since the agent has no idea if the writer is actually capable of making the required revisions, she's not going to offer representation until after the revisions are done. And if they're not done to her satisfaction, she won't be offering to represent after all.

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That's a very good analogy.