Anyone else on submission to publishers?

[Villy0]

I’m really struggling to stay phlegmatic amidst the process of having a literary agent send my manuscript out. (Maybe partly because it’s my second of the former and third of the latter.) In the past I’ve managed to write my next book to distract myself from stressing about it, but this time I can’t concentrate on anything but my inbox. I really like my current agent but she’s got high levels of confidence for this submission which I’m experiencing as a lot of pressure.

It doesn’t help that my debut writer pals who went out on submission post-pandemic haven’t been sold or were but only realllly slowly. So I’d love to hear any post-pandemic cheery publishing stories, as well as from anyone in same boat.

Yes, and have been for some time. I don’t think she’s going to successfully place it, though she’s still trying.

This is my first time, so I’ve no idea what happens next.

I’m mired in lots of other stuff though, so I’m not remotely obsessing on it. For me, it’s better than trying to find an agent, because she’s the one waiting on e-mails. I’ve made a start on rewriting an earlier unpublished novel that had potential, but I didn’t have the writing experience to fulfill.

Good luck with yours. Is it still early days? I’ve already been rejected by several, many of which were positive, but said (in effect) it wouldn’t fit their list.

Good luck with it! Have you discussed with your agent what your next project/next steps would be, if s/he doesn’t place this one? Things are incredibly slow at the moment apparently so a very long wait is virtually standard.

Yes my submission only went out last week so no feedback at all (that I’m aware of). This latest agent recommended not updating me about passes as they come along, so he’ll be in touch only with good news unless I directly ask.

i think my increased stress this time is because the agent/agency are much bigger and better than my last, so I feel like I’ve got more to lose. And although we’ve planned for if he can’t place it, by agreeing on my next project and a soft deadline of me getting a sample to him, his strategy feels very confident, given the state of the market. EG, sent it to all the big publishers in US/UK altogether, rather than in rounds, and putting it in the agency Frankfurt rights catalogue (the only MSS without a single territory sold that they’re including, he told me, which I have no idea how to interpret).

I'm not in this position yet but I will be in due course and I'm really nervous about it. When my agent signed me I had a contract with a 'big 5' through an open submission so I've never been out on submission before. I wrote three books for the publisher but now I have decided to move genre slightly so we've parted ways. Agent is very encouraging but sometimes it feels like A Very Bad Idea!

@LouisaMayAlcott I guess it was inevitable for submissions to have to happen at some point, since virtually no writers are with their publishers for their whole careers? At least you’ll have some sales figures/potential readership to back up your manuscript. Slight genre change sounds exciting!

I had an agency email alert earlier that got me excited, but it turned out to be from a right’s assistant, with a draft of the page on my novel for their Frankfurt rights guide, which made the subs process seem horrifically real. (I’m a bit bemused about being included when I’ve not been sold in any territories at all, and fear that they assume I will be by then, and I’ll have horrendously let them down if I’m not!)

Another morning lost to writing by stressing, so I think I’m going to turn off the email alerts for my agency, on the basis that any brilliant news is likely to come over the phone anyway.

Sorry to confuse - an OP but had reverted to an old name somehow!

Phew, managed to switch back.

I am going out very soon! It's exciting and terrifying. Agent currently sharing target publishers. I have already learned to multiply timescales by ten so am not expecting anything to happen quickly 😅