mblinks does not seem to be 'listening'... or maybe just hasn't been back since he/she/whatever posted it...
The last three agents I sent a manuscript to did not read even past page two as I have foolproof way of telling so I have given up. When I have a best selling self published book to my name then it will be payback time!!!! let them come and let them grovel! Well one can dream.
Had these agents requested the full manuscript? If you get tremendous success self-publishing, enjoy it. Agents won't be groveling. Someone once said that this idea was like someone saying, "Aren't you sorry you didn't marry George, who I introduced you to years ago? He's a successful orthodontist now."
I visited it - it's quite a good site it seems. Supposedly written by a magazine editor (I never checked the credentials but the article content certainly shows the writer at least claims to be one) and she lists the reasons why people's works are sometimes rejected in her experience. Quite interesting. Chicagoliz - your example made me chuckle xD such a funny image! Njslater - I'm curious, what foolproof way did you come up with to know which page the agent read up to?
Are you kidding me? I was actually baffled by this post. They're not a critiquing service. If you've sent them a reading fee, you're paying them to read, not to give you a crash course in literature. Their job is to consider your work, and accept or deny it accordingly. The editing comes in if and only if they decide they're able to take you on. That should be common sense.
go back a bit further, bk... erebh was confusing agents [what the op was complaining about] with publishers' acquisition editors... and was not referring to any editor one would pay to read the ms and comment on it... and legit agents/publishers do not charge reading fees... or get any money from the author's own pocket... all the money goes to the authors...
I supposed that was the case, which is why I refrained from using the word editor specifically and spoke more on the services that publishers offer. It's also why I emphasized that a reading fee would be a big 'if' - that is, unlikely. Publishers take the time to read your work, and if they accept it, hand it over to be edited; they're not required to do any more than that. That was pretty much my point. I don't think that erebh's term swap detracts from the general idea.
I didn't have a very wide circle to shop my story around to--MG Christian fantasy/mystery--but from every agent I did sub to, they were all rejections. Yeah, I gave up. Just went to CreateSpace. I figured I had the whole process of "sub, rejection, sub, rejection, sub, rejection" down pat, and just didn't need the aggravation.
Right, they can't even take the time to give people any feedback, so why bother is my question. I think I will save myself that headache right from the start. I don't have a year to wait for them to look at my work and then another year for them to bring it to print "Maybe", when I can be selling my work within 6 months time myself and get more of the profits, and retain all my rights to the book.
There's an excellent article on this topic in the October issue of Writer's Digest. It's written by an agent, listing reasons why she rejects novels. It's a more informative article than some on this subject. She makes the point that the query letter is only the starting point. The rest of the novel has to live up to its promise—and often it doesn't. Authors often spend too much time 'crafting' query letters and the first few pages of the MS, and leave the rest of the novel to swing in the breeze. It's definitely worth a read.
you don't lose the rights to your book when you're traditionally published... it's still your book and the copyright is registered in your name, so why do you think you wouldn't 'retain' all rights to your own book?
It's my understanding publishers demand the submissions not be sent to other publishers at the same time, and it's also my understanding writers often ignore this 'requirement'.
For short stories, that's generally true: no editor wants to pick a story to fill one of half a dozen slots in a magazine and find you've sold it elsewhere in the meantime. For novels, that's generally not true: getting a novel on the shelves usually takes a year or more, and will just be one of thousands the publisher is releasing that year.
how does that have anything to do with what i said, ginger? what publishers do you know of that release thousands of books in one year?
The Big Six? Sorry, Big Five. I can't find any official numbers of new books released, but Penguin claims to have published 250 NYT best-sellers in 2012, so you can be pretty sure they released thousands of books. Wikipedia claims over 200,000 books were published in America in 2010, and I'm pretty sure the Big Six made up more than 3% of those. But my point was that a magazine editor might be looking for one story from a new writer to fill one free slot in their magazine after they've bought stories from established writers for the others. If they find that story, and it's already sold elsewhere, they have a significant problem. A publisher like Penguin is publishing so many books that if one has sold elsewhere before they decide they want to buy it, they can shrug and move on.
You could get a higher percentage of the profits, but if the sales are drastically lower--as they are likely to be if you're not spending serious money on artwork, layout, marketing, etc., even if we assume that you are as good as a professional writer _and_ a professional editor rolled into one--that will still be a smaller dollar number.
Maybe, maybe not, we will see. One thing I have always been good at is finding cheaper ways to do things, for instance I know two people who have a strong command of the English language that will read over and edit my book for free. Nobody knows how much they will make on their books though. Don't kid yourself on that marketing part though, the big Publishers usually don't help you too much with that anyway from what I've read, we have to do most of that ourselves regardless of how we get the book published. I don't need to spend serious money on my book to turn out a great book, I just need to do it right. Spending a lot of money don't guarantee your book will even sell. The important thing is we take care of everything a step at a time before we hit that publish now button, not how much we spend to get there.
Because the Publisher has rights too, such as they get so much money from each book sale. Then the question is can I sell my book on any medium or place I choose. Do you think if a major publisher was to give you say a 5K advance and publish your book you can go sell it anyway, anywhere you like? I think not, so having your rights is like the term light machine gun in my eyes, it's relative. I think you will be signing some of those rights away when you contract, the key is to lesson it. Take Amazon for instance; I found out if you supply Amazon with an ISBN you are the Publisher, but if they supply you with one then they are. Somebody correct me if I am wrong about any of this though. I'm still trying to figure out how I can sell my book "Or if I can" on all the different digital or print on demand sites and readers I desire at the same time. I figure the more places it's up for sell the better for sales. If anybody knows how this works I would love to hear it.
that has nothing to do with owning the copyright... it's a contractual issue only... your publisher will have the exclusive right to print, sell and distribute your book, as specified in the contract, but you are still the sole owner of the copyright... if you try to sell the ms to another publisher after you've signed with one, you would be in breach of contract and could be sued...
