Science Fiction Fantasy Chronicles: forums - View Single Post - Questions you always wanted to ask a published author

Teresa Edgerton · 22nd March 2005, 06:43 PM

No, it takes very little time for an editor to send out a form rejection -- or to tell an editorial assistant to do it for him/her. Ultimately, they do get back to you eventually. It can take a very long time, and while it seems unfair, you ARE supposed to wait. After six months you can write and ask if they actually received the manuscript. After about a year you can withdraw the manuscript from consideration. In the meantime you just sit there and wait. It's horrible, but that is how the business works.

Editors really, really hate wasting their time reading something that another editor is about to buy. So most of them discourage multiple submissions by the author. (Agents, on the other hand, are allowed to do this. Don't ask me why, because I don't know.) And by discourage, I mean that if they say they won't look at them and they find out that you've sent them one anyway, they won't buy the book.

But how will they know, you may ask. Well, they probably won't know, unless two of them are interested (especially in SF/Fantasy editors tend to be well acquainted with each other, and yes, they talk to each other) -- which, of course, is just when it would be particularly disadvantageous to alienate them.

As for cover art, smaller publishers may or may not involve the author in the process. Some do, some don't. Larger publishers, like HarperCollins, never give the writer cover approval, and very rarely ask for their input. If your editor is very, very nice (mine is) she may ask for some of your ideas before she conferences the cover with her colleagues. How much attention she pays to those ideas probably depends on how much they agree with her own. Anyway, all actual decisions are made by the editor and the director of the art department. They choose a basic idea and they choose a cover artist and they work with him or her. The author may get to see a sketch (as a courtesy, not because anyone is asking for an opinion), but is more likely not to see anything until the cover art is done.

Fortunately for me, this time around I was thrilled with the result. I only hope I get the same artist for book two, but there is no guarantee even of that.

22nd March 2005, 06:43 PM	#7 (permalink)
Teresa Edgerton Ink-stained Wretch Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: California Posts: 4,568	Re: Questions you always wanted to ask a published author No, it takes very little time for an editor to send out a form rejection -- or to tell an editorial assistant to do it for him/her. Ultimately, they do get back to you eventually. It can take a very long time, and while it seems unfair, you ARE supposed to wait. After six months you can write and ask if they actually received the manuscript. After about a year you can withdraw the manuscript from consideration. In the meantime you just sit there and wait. It's horrible, but that is how the business works. Editors really, really hate wasting their time reading something that another editor is about to buy. So most of them discourage multiple submissions by the author. (Agents, on the other hand, are allowed to do this. Don't ask me why, because I don't know.) And by discourage, I mean that if they say they won't look at them and they find out that you've sent them one anyway, they won't buy the book. But how will they know, you may ask. Well, they probably won't know, unless two of them are interested (especially in SF/Fantasy editors tend to be well acquainted with each other, and yes, they talk to each other) -- which, of course, is just when it would be particularly disadvantageous to alienate them. As for cover art, smaller publishers may or may not involve the author in the process. Some do, some don't. Larger publishers, like HarperCollins, never give the writer cover approval, and very rarely ask for their input. If your editor is very, very nice (mine is) she may ask for some of your ideas before she conferences the cover with her colleagues. How much attention she pays to those ideas probably depends on how much they agree with her own. Anyway, all actual decisions are made by the editor and the director of the art department. They choose a basic idea and they choose a cover artist and they work with him or her. The author may get to see a sketch (as a courtesy, not because anyone is asking for an opinion), but is more likely not to see anything until the cover art is done. Fortunately for me, this time around I was thrilled with the result. I only hope I get the same artist for book two, but there is no guarantee even of that.