Alright! I've finally finished my novel. It's 165,000 words of pure genius. (right? right?) I take a minute to celebrate, take two minutes even. Hastily I write a quick query letter and send it out to the first publisher I find that accepts fantasy. I printed the manuscript out exactly how their submission requirements stated. I went through the whole process line by line to make sure I was giving them exactly what they asked for. I ignore the needle slowly sneaking up behind me. Yay! Hooray! More celebration, the query's in the mail. They're going to love it of course, why wouldn't they? A couple weeks later the publisher's reply arrives in the mail. I rip the envelope open and... *pop* rejection letter.
I've heard countless stories of people just like me who rush into sending their novel to publishers before they've really taken the time polish their entire novel, not to mention their query letter. It astounds me even more the stories I hear about people submitting their manuscripts WITHOUT READING THE FREAKIN MANUAL. By manual I mean the submission requirements that every agent/publisher posts on their website. I'll rant about this more in the future I'm sure, but let me tell you right now, there's this big thing in both publishers' and agents' offices called a slush pile. That's where your piece of art gets dumped along with every other submission that comes to them. It's going to be very, very tempting to try and make your query, envelope, whatever, stand out. I urge you, resist the temptation to give your submission that 'little something extra'. Publisher's don't want something extra, they want what they ask for. I digress on this topic for now. More to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment