5 months and still no contact from publishing house

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and wondered if someone here would be able to help me.

At the end of August, I sent a synopsis, covering letter and the first 3 chapters of my book to a well-known publishing house in the UK, that accept unsolicited manuscripts. They state on their website that they respond to each manuscript that include an SAE (which I did) and will try and respond within three months.

I waited four months out of courtesy then emailed them. I heard nothing, so I phoned them - no answer. Last week, I phoned them again and left a message with my email address and mobile number, still nothing.

The thing that most concerns me is (and sorry, I don't mean to sound big-headed about this) what if someone has read my story and stolen my idea? I've heard it happens. I've been writing for many years and when I've read people my books over the years, this story has caused the most reaction.

I would really appreciate any help, please.

Thank you

 

I really wouldn't worry too much about anyone stealing your ideas, after all, ideas are the easiest part of writing. But not knowing who or what or any other details, I couldn't hope to conjecture as to why they wouldn't respond. Saying you phoned them, though, and you got "no answer" sounds fishy. Even poorly known publishing houses generally have someone to answer the phone and give "an answer" even if it is a non-answer. Given that it's been 5 months with no answer, though, you probably should be able to shop it out to others. I'd recommend trying to find an agent, though. In my experience they're pretty good at keeping in touch and answering questions as long as you're not too pushy or annoying.

 

First, ideas can't be trademarked or copyrighted so anyone could "steal your idea." However, if you've ever read a set of stories from a writing prompt, it won't be the same story so no worries. Also, the same "story idea" is used in ad infinitum in published work anyway, so again, no worries.

Also, someone stealing even their actual manuscript is something newbies worry about a lot and seasoned writers worry about very little. They're a lot of work to get out there, very iffy on profits, and easily recognizeable if they do get anywhere. So, they are among the stupidest possible things to steal. (Also, the vast majority of writing by unpublished writers isn't publishable in the first place).

Chances are, they're just poor at responding. Many publishing houses are, especially if they're not interested in the manuscript. This is not an unusual scenario because your work in the slushpile is of course top priority to you but very low in priority to them. I'd just go on and submit it elsewhere. Best wishes.

ETA: The few times I've personally known of stories being stolen, the attempts were just stupid, like a friend in someone's writing group stealing her story and posting it as her own on her blog. No money lost or gained but a threat about being sued got it taken down immediately. Another time someone "re-wrote" someone's published book (so, see, it can happen even after it's published). It was easily recognizable. A bunch of us from that writing forum deluged the dumbass thief with comments on Amazon and it soon disappeared. If the work is submitted to a publisher and they publish it, just tell them and they'll most likely take care of it.

 

A good idea and $5 will buy you a cup of coffee. If they're any kind of respectable publishing house they have far more to lose from a copyright suit than they might gain from filing the serial numbers off your book and publishing it under a fake name.

But, yeah, responses can take a long time. One established writer posted on his blog some time back that he'd just got a rejection from a publisher for a book he sent them two years before, and had forgotten he even sent to them. I think he'd already given up and self-published it by that point.