The Things We Don't Discuss

Editor R&Rs, Being on Sub, Writing for IP, Selling Short Stories, and more...

There’s a stigma around publishing, and particularly around failure, where we don’t like to talk about the things that aren’t going great for us (even if they are actually going pretty well!). It’s lonely out there, but we aren’t alone. So in this post I’m going to be talking about what things have been like during my first year as an agented author. And then at the very end, I’m going to share a little secret.

Being on Submission with a Novel

First, let’s talk about being on sub. What is it? It’s when your agent sends your book out to editors and tryings to find a publishing house to purchase it. A lot of people find being on sub worse than querying. I’m not one of those people. I find comfort knowing that things are in motion. Nevertheless, it can feel like it takes a long time, and the rejections you get can be frustrating in their niceness.

Many editors are over worked, under paid, and lagging because of it. My agent typically likes to send submissions out to about 4-5 editors at a time. Every agent is different, some send it out to a large group hoping to inspire an auction or a quick sale, but if the book needs further edits, you shoot your shot very quickly, whereas smaller batches lets you take any feedback into account. Problem: most editors don’t give feedback. Usually in a batch of 4-5, you get one or two quickish responses (within a month) and then it can be crickets…and crickets…and crickets…So when a rejection DOES come, it feels like you’ve been waiting in suspension only for bad news, and that can be frustrating. Worse still is when the rejection is nice or effusive, but the editor doesn’t love it ENOUGH to buy it.

Then you get some editors who stop replying after a certain number of nudges, or others who never confirm or request the manuscript at all after being sent the submission pitch. If they never confirm at all, your agent is at least free to send it to someone else at that imprint after time has passed, but if they confirm and then ghost, you’re stuck. Also, sometimes that one editor who isn’t responding is the ONLY editor at the imprint who is good for your book.

It’s all quite outside your control, and that’s frustrating. So it can feel like you are failing, and like your book is dying, when it really isn’t. Publishing just takes time.

Let’s talk R&Rs…

What is an R&R? A Revise and Resubmit is something many querying authors are familiar with, because they occasionally come from agents. They can also come from editors, but the process still moves at a crawl.

I recently received an R&R from one of the “Big 5” on my first novel. I liked the changes suggested, one of which was a pacing issue. So, I broke out that Save the Cat beat sheet (which I’ve honestly never used before), and transferred my plot beats over to see where everything fell. Sure enough, the first act was longer than traditional. I had gotten feedback from one or two agents that the pacing seemed slow at the beginning, but others seemed to like it. Still, I was ready to do the R&R and give the book its best chance.

I finished the R&R in about 8 days. Sent it to my agent, who read it over (they don’t always, and that’s normal). I made a sheet with all the changes I made for the editor. Then my agent sent it off. That was June 21st. It’s now September 22nd. But, this editor is very busy. Some authors said it took 9 months to hear back on an R&R, others a few weeks, but many in the 5-6 month time period.

In the meantime, my agent and I both felt the revisions made the book stronger, so we went out with the new version after giving the agent almost 3 months to reply. We felt that was fair, because the editor’s original list of suggestions was only about a 3-4 sentences, and we want the book to have the best chance in the competitive market.

Here are some other things I’ve learned about R&Rs when it comes to editors:

If you’re not confident in the feedback, you can ask for a phone call to clarify. You may get it, you may not. I asked and did not get one, since this editor was very busy.

You can reject a R&R, even if your agent thinks it will be a good opportunity. You do not have to do anything you don’t want to do. If the R&R fundamentally changes your book, do what you believe is right for you and your work. No one cares as much as you do.

If the editor does not sound excited about your book in the R&R email, and seems overly critical of the work, you might wonder if they liked anything about it? If you get a feeling like the editor isn’t someone you’d want to work with, trust yourself.

Sometimes, even after very enthusiastic phone calls, and editors who seem “all-in”, they can still reject that R&R over something very small. Knowing this, balance whether you want to put in the work, or whether other opportunities are still open for your book. You can save R&Rs as a last resort to your book dying on sub, if you want. You do not have to do them right away.

Writing for IP

What is IP? IP means “intellectual property” and it can be anything from writing for a franchise you are familiar with (Someone writes those Blues Clues books, you know?) to writing samples of a project for a company that pitches on proposal.

There are companies out there whose business plan is built on generating IDEAS for books, and then finding the authors to write those books. Those are called “book packagers” and you can audition to write for them. Sometimes you will be doing it under a pen name, sometimes under your own name.

Typically, they will put out a “casting call,” to which you will respond with a sample of your work. If they like the sample, they will reach out to offer you an audition. Then, they will collect all of the auditions and have a meeting where they decide who they will work with on the final project.

These projects can pay well, and you don’t have to write the entire project unless the book sells. However, some authors won’t like not being the ones to control the storyline. Usually the book packager has a synopsis of the entire project, so there is no real ‘plotting’ to be done, except perhaps making sure all the pieces connect.

I did not even know this was ‘a thing’ until joining submission discords and hearing others talk about working on IP. Some agents will have an in with companies that do this kind of work, and you can let your agent know you are interested in IP opportunities. Other times, you just have to put yourself out there as both a writer and a FAN in order to get noticed by book packagers looking for someone to write…say… a MARVEL novel.

If this is something you’re interested in, I recommend doing your own research. There are a lot of things to think of as well… If you are a debut author, and your agent is pitching you as a debut, working on IP under your own name could be a problem. But it could also be a good way to freelance and make money as an author while you are on submission with your own projects.

Which brings me to another topic…

Selling Short Stories

I am in a writing group with a number of elder authors who have all sold stories to magazines like Clarkesworld and Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and suchlike. So, when I joined I would often hear of their past sales and I was shocked—you can sell short stories? Well, yes, but the market is not the same as it once was.

Magazines are struggling to pay their writers and keep subscriptions, because of the diminishing reach of “traditional” social media (ie twitter/facebook), changes to Amazon Kindle, etc. That means delayed contracts, slower read times, and some markets shuttering all together.

When I write a short story, I have maybe 8-10 places I could possibly send it if I want to be paid, but maybe only 5 markets if I want a pro-rate sale. The “pro” rate for short fiction is eight cents per word according to the SFWA. Most markets are looking for stories under 5k, with a sweet spot of around 3k. If you sell at 3.5k short story to a pro market, you’re looking at around $280 US.

But they are inundated with stories, and the market is more competitive than ever. Many of the pro-rate markets like to say you cannot submit the pieces simultaneously, yet take months to get back to you. Worse, some markets backfill their issues with solicited stories from authors they’ve worked with before, leaving little to no room for new talent.

I’ve had a constant rotation of stories going out—stories that I really like—that my betas really like—and yet each of them has gone out to no more than 4 markets during the last 1.5 years I’ve been submitting them. Rejections from those magazines can come on days when you already feel down, whether from being on sub, having writer’s block, or any other number of writerly problems. There was a very long period where I subbed nothing to recover my mental health. But coming into 2023, one of my goals was to sell a short story, so I began again.

I seem to be in a maybe pile for one magazine, but it’s very possible I will not meet my goal. So at what point does a potential $280 become worth my mental health? Is it nice to be in those magazines? Yes. Does it have any effect on publishers looking at my manuscripts? no.

Sure, sales to pro-rate or notable markets can get you attention in a query for those who are in the know about that kind of thing, but it’s not going to push an agent over the top on offering representation. Nor would it push an editor to acquire your book.

I have no cut and dry answer to this. I write short stories because I love them, and they’re small snippets of worlds I don’t have the time or energy to fully build out. They’re often sad, though they have hopeful messages. I think they are cathartic for me to write. Places for me to explore quiet fears in a fantasy setting.

So I won’t stop writing them, and I probably won’t stop submitting them either, but I can’t deny the need for breaks. Maybe I’d have better luck if I wrote happy endings, but those aren’t the stories I need to write.

If you are a writer, and you are looking for places to submit your short stories, I have found this list of upcoming paid markets for genre fiction to be a lifesaver. A huge thank you to Megan Kiekel Anderson for compiling it. I’d recommend signing up for her newsletter as well. It at least takes some of the stress out of submitting.

Some news from me

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Thank you for reading. Thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting me.

My brain constantly cooks up new stories. I love to write, and practice makes perfect. Yet my agent already has plenty of material to work with, and at some point, I began longing for that writer/reader connection just to keep me going.

So with that in mind, I’ve decided to begin a serialized novel/novella. It’s a fantasy romance I’m pitching as Howl’s Moving Castle meets Bridgerton. The first part will be free to read, and the rest I will be posting on Patreon, and potentially opening up a “paid” portion of my substack for this (don’t worry, normal newsletter will always be free!).

Part of me struggles with asking for payment, but I believe in paying creatives, and so I am holding myself to the same standard. Plus, it gives me some additional funds to commission art, which in turn helps support the creative market.

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The Wizard Vilkas does not steal hearts, he borrows them. But when he goes after the wrong heart, he comes up against a very formidable sister. She could be his salvation or his undoing, and he isn’t sure which he prefers. But she stands in the way of the one thing he desperately needs…His hearts are on borrowed time, and that time is about to run out.

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I’ve got my first commissioned art underway for this project, and I can’t wait for you to meet Kas and Ellie.

More on this project to come! In the meantime I hope you are all thriving, and wish you the best on your writing journey.