I was trying to get a little more organized with my new role and get on top of my submissions inbox. It might be helpful to see what things are like on the editor side of things. As an author it is easy to get frustrated and impatient while you await responses. I’ve totally been there! I’ve read a few agent blogs that talk about how submissions look for them, which is great. But maybe it would be helpful to get a sense of how one editor (definitely not speaking for all editors!) deals with submissions. (A note: this is necessarily a little vague for a bunch of reasons, not least of which is because I’m not going to talk about active submissions on a public blog.)
First thing: Organize.
The first step is to find a good way to corral these submissions. For context, since starting at MIRA Books a couple months ago, I’ve received around 50 agented submissions. Some of these were immediate passes, because MIRA publishes romance. So if there isn’t a romantic element, no matter how much I love it, I have to say no. All submissions get logged in my spreadsheet. In theory, this will help me keep track of what I have, when I received it, and what happened to it (fingers crossed). Some projects are tagged as fast moving because there’s an auction coming up or some other reason I need to make a quick decision, so they are usually prioritized. Everything then gets read as time permits. Some weeks are busier than others. But I do try to get through at least a few submissions a week (looming lists of manuscripts stress me out).
What do I read next?
I usually try to read submissions on my commute or after hours, and decide whether I need to bring them up at our weekly editorial meeting. Everyone needs to be aware of who’s looking at what. We may need to coordinate when two people at different imprints have the same project. I do my absolute best to try to read things in the order I receive them, but that’s not always possible. In any case, it’s time to read. Sometimes the agent’s pitch will draw me in and I’m excited to see how the author pulls off a high-concept plot device. Other times I open the document and the author immediately grabs me with their voice or the setting. I know some editors and agents talk about reading submissions and finding reasons to pass. But I don’t subscribe to that theory. If I’ve gotten past the initial email stage with the agent, I’ve already decided it’s interesting and worth considering. I think it would be terribly unhelpful to me to think about submissions as projects I don’t want to work on. Then my submissions inbox becomes a thing I don’t want to do, rather than a place full of possibility.
What makes the cut?
Honestly, there isn’t an easy answer here. Evaluating a manuscript is almost always (particularly in fiction) a subjective exercise. I might fall head over heels for a project. But another editor at the same imprint might find it totally forgettable. There are a whole host of reasons to love a project: the voice, the plot, the emotional journeys of the character. But there are other things to think about. I also need to consider stuff like author brands or whether it’s a debut, positioning, wider publishing trends, retailer appetite, and so on. There are projects I was desperate to acquire that simply fell flat with the acquisitions team and I wasn’t able to convince them to let me move forward. (Those projects will haunt me forever, and yes I have a list.)
What happens then?
I might love a project, but it isn’t quite right for the imprint or for my list. I love my job and I love our imprint, but at the heart of it, I work for a very commercially minded publisher and my quirky tastes don’t always align with commercial trends. So I might go to bat (not might, I do go to bat) for a project that I think is amazing. But if the rest of the acquisitions team doesn’t think we can position it in a way that we’ll find lots of readers, I don’t necessarily get to offer. When everything aligns and people are on board, we get to the fun part: sending an offer. Well, it’s kind of fun and kind of scary, to be honest, especially when it’s a book that already has interest. You never know if you’ve made a good enough impression or are putting together a good enough offer. (I also have a list of projects I offered on and lost to other editors.)
On timelines.
The acquisitions process is almost never as fast as any of us want it to be. Everyone is working on a ton of stuff. Often reading submissions takes a back seat to more pressing matters. Even on a fast-moving project, there needs to be time for author calls and auction closing dates, extra rounds of bids and more emails and meetings. And for all of those manuscripts that aren’t moving quickly, I often run out of time during the day to read with a fresh enough mind to actively consider a project. Reading and evaluating a submission isn’t like reading for fun. Once I’ve been swept away by a story I love, I’ve got to start thinking about everything else. What are the comps? How many editors are reading? What else is at acquisitions? Can I pull together a presentation? What does the offer look like? etc. etc.
All of that is a bit of an apology to any authors and agents who might be reading. Things take time, I wish I was faster, and I know I owe some of you an email. I’m trying.
What I’m reading/watching/crafting
- I just finished a great zine of flash fiction inspired by David Cronenberg called Disease of Finitude! and you should check it out if you are also a big Cronenberg fan (available through Sublime Beasts on substack). There are some great stories from Joe Koch, Bracken MacLeod, Jim Horlock, and more. And I recently wrapped up Rachel Harrison’s Play Nice which I thought was excellent.
- Watching lots of horror for October, of course, including revisiting some Cronenberg films. Also trying to fill in some gaps (just borrowed A Cure for Wellness from the library).
- Craftwise, I’m getting ready to sew a dress inspired by the cover of Clay McLeod Chapman’s Devil Inside, a book tremendously precious to me because I’m the editor.