Sub Updates?

[AlythiaB]

I know we've kind of been discussing it in other threads, but I was hoping for a clean thread of updates from all of you lovely people on sub! I thought we could start off by answering a round of questions? I need to hear from others because the crazy is kinda/sorta catching up with me. (Still not as bad as querying in my opinion, but I'm a bit neurotic about checking my email and Twitter messages.)

1. When did you first go on sub?
2. How many editors are still reading?
3. Has your agent nudged or submitted to new editors?
4. Do you have any nails left?
5. Do you have anything exciting in the works that you can't really talk about? Hehe (Blink once for yes)

<I'll go first!>

1. November
2. 4 from the original batch; 1 from the new one
3. Yep! I'm in TBR piles. Which, of course, gives me no real sense of how much longer it will be...
4. Yes. But only because I've been gardening, which would make biting them disgusting.
5. I HOPE! But so far it's just because I haven't heard from the editor who seemed really excited about it. (No rejection yet could mean something in the works on her end? Maybe?)

[Missus Braidyhead]

No news here, but I'm keeping myself busy with work and other WIPs!

GOOD LUCK!!!

[Sarah Ahiers (Falen)]

Just replying so I can check on everyone's statuses and cheer you on

[bswb97]

Thanks for starting this Alythia! Good idea to consolidate all the worry and anxiety in one thread.

Oh, the neurosis train. It never stops. One of my unagented friends told me "You have an agent! You have it all! You should feel confident and great!" And I'm like, um, I'm more neurotic than ever, sorry.

1. When did you first go on sub?
November.

2. How many editors are still reading?
I believe 12. 15-17 went out between mid-October and February, all accepted. 4 or 5 rejections, 2 of them very complimentary with one nice note. Other than further requests to read, no further yes/no responses since Jan 1. 

1 of the "still reading" is an R&R as documented in other threads. She requested the R&R in mid-December, sent a gigantic edit letter in early January, and revision was sent to her on March 10. Yeah, just a little nervous on that one since 1) the editor said her goal was to push it to acquisitions after one round of revisions 2) my agent said I nailed the revisions and more. My agent said to expect some kind of word in about a month given the editor's enthusiasm and relatively short turnaround on the initial pass. So you can bet that I look at the calendar every day and think "IS THIS THE DAY?!?!?!"

3. Has your agent nudged or submitted to new editors?
He's done three rounds of subs. The first was 10, the next were 2-3 each just to keep things rolling.

4. Do you have any nails left?
NO! Plus I have weird nightmares about the R&R editor. Literally. The other night I had a dream that she made the offer but it was contingent on me writing a 100,000 word book covering the history of rock music in the 1990s, due in a week. In my dream, I'd started outlining it and when I woke up, my mind continued that process and it took me about a minute to shake out of it.

5. Do you have anything exciting in the works that you can't really talk about? Hehe (Blink once for yes)
There's a pretty high-profile SF contest with winners announced on 3/31. My agent and several pubbed SF authors vetted my entry and said stuff like "if you don't place, it's a travesty" so I am cautiously optimistic. In the meantime, my agent loved the premise of a previously shelved MS and we are working on revisions for that. That's been helpful to keep my mind occupied.

Hopefully others have had more traction in 2016!

[bswb97]

"5. I HOPE! But so far it's just because I haven't heard from the editor who seemed really excited about it. (No rejection yet could mean something in the works on her end? Maybe?)"

Alythia, this is possible, at least based on my experience with the R&R editor I mentioned. As I understand it, the editor read it, then had acquisitions read it, and they told her that they wanted revisions before signing. Then she told my agent that she couldn't buy it outright (thus taking her out of any bidding should it go to auction or another competing offer arise) but she wanted to do the revisions ASAP and push it through acquisitions in hopefully one round of revisions.

So that radio silence could be the editor discussing it with the acquisitions department. Or it could be someone who is really excited about the concept and just has a long queue to go through. But no news is good news at this point. Hang in there!

[Corraine]

Going nuts here, too. Trying to hold it together by watching The Voice and eating much cake.

1. November
2. All of them.
3. Yes, nudged.
4. Yes, but that's because I eat the cake.
5. Not really. I'm just working on my next book, which I'm enjoying.

Seriously, though, should I be worried that we've not heard anything except the initial requests for the manuscript? No passes, no nothing, not even with the nudge. Is it going to be a no-response-means-no sort of thing?

[Aubrey]

I spent last year on sub with an MG. We did a few rounds starting in January. By December we had 10 responses and almost as many non-responders. However, as I had a new MG ready, my agent didn't bother with any more rounds and I went on sub again this past January with the new book. Two passes so far, the rest non-responders, although we heard from one editor that she's still reading and liking it.

I know quite a few people who went on sub last October/November and have heard nothing. Same thing with other January 2016 sub-ees. Also, a couple people I know who went on sub last fall have indicated passes have just started rolling in.

All of this tells me that sub is a very very very very very very very long process for the majority of folks. I know someone who just got a deal after 17 months. The best thing really is to work on the next book. Think of it this way--if your first book sells, you need to write another book anyway. No reason to not be writing now! I'm in love with my current project (dare I say more so than the book that got me agented and the book I'm on sub with now). You never know what's going to hit.

Good luck to all! Onward!

[Missus Braidyhead]

All of this tells me that sub is a very very very very very very very long process for the majority of folks. I know someone who just got a deal after 17 months. The best thing really is to work on the next book. Think of it this way--if your first book sells, you need to write another book anyway. No reason to not be writing now! I'm in love with my current project (dare I say more so than the book that got me agented and the book I'm on sub with now). You never know what's going to hit.

Good luck to all! Onward!

Yes! All of this! Good luck to you, too.

[AlythiaB]

Aw, thanks for sharing, everyone! Looks like you guys went out on larger submission runs than I did! We only queried 8 the first time and then 2 the second. But my agent wanted to get something back from some of the hopefuls before we moved on too fiercely. (So far, we've had about 3 rejections with the same response--great story, yadda yadda, but not for me--which gives us nothing to go on for edits.)

"5. I HOPE! But so far it's just because I haven't heard from the editor who seemed really excited about it. (No rejection yet could mean something in the works on her end? Maybe?)"

Alythia, this is possible, at least based on my experience with the R&R editor I mentioned. As I understand it, the editor read it, then had acquisitions read it, and they told her that they wanted revisions before signing. Then she told my agent that she couldn't buy it outright (thus taking her out of any bidding should it go to auction or another competing offer arise) but she wanted to do the revisions ASAP and push it through acquisitions in hopefully one round of revisions.

So that radio silence could be the editor discussing it with the acquisitions department. Or it could be someone who is really excited about the concept and just has a long queue to go through. But no news is good news at this point. Hang in there!

Thanks! I hope you're right. It's hard when everything is silent, as you know all too well.

Going nuts here, too. Trying to hold it together by watching The Voice and eating much cake.

1. November
2. All of them.
3. Yes, nudged.
4. Yes, but that's because I eat the cake.
5. Not really. I'm just working on my next book, which I'm enjoying.

Seriously, though, should I be worried that we've not heard anything except the initial requests for the manuscript? No passes, no nothing, not even with the nudge. Is it going to be a no-response-means-no sort of thing?

Oh, bless the cake...

I spent last year on sub with an MG. We did a few rounds starting in January. By December we had 10 responses and almost as many non-responders. However, as I had a new MG ready, my agent didn't bother with any more rounds and I went on sub again this past January with the new book. Two passes so far, the rest non-responders, although we heard from one editor that she's still reading and liking it.

I know quite a few people who went on sub last October/November and have heard nothing. Same thing with other January 2016 sub-ees. Also, a couple people I know who went on sub last fall have indicated passes have just started rolling in.

Squee! That's really good news, then!! And, yeah, only one response has been quick so far... I hope to hear some news soon

[gckatz]

Wow, I'm kind of astounded at the number of CNRs you guys are getting from editors. I got a lot of passes but only three CNRs.

(But remember these are full requests, so I hope you guys are giving them enough time. A few months is nothing.)

[bswb97]

Is CNR common for agent-to-editor subs? I was under the impression that editors tend to always respond one way or another to agents, though open subs with writers are obviously different.

[Steph Campbell]

1. When did you first go on sub? Beginning of October (12 editors)

2. How many editors are still reading? 1 still reading + 1 R&R

3. Has your agent nudged or submitted to new editors? Since I completed the R&R last week, we're going out in another week or so to 5 more (original sub list was 12 editors)

4. Do you have any nails left? Yes. Been keeping busy with re-writes for the last several weeks, traveling with my best, and now that it's spring, hanging outside with my kiddos. Oh! After 5 years of my hubs asking me every single morning while he put his running shoes on if I wanted to go run with him, I FINALLY said yes last week and gah, addicted already.

5. Do you have anything exciting in the works that you can't really talk about? Just plugging away on my next YA, and I also co-write with my best so we always have a fun project in the works. Nothing secret going on.

[bswb97]

Steph, what was your R&R request like? I'm curious to see how ours compare. Did the editor mention anything regarding acquisitions and/or send you an edit letter? Or was it more vague?

I asked my agent friend (who is not my agent) about how we've all basically had the same expedience. She said there are a few variables. The holidays can mess up everyone's queue. Some of it is like with agents where the reading queues get prioritized based on competing offers (and she said that one strategy is actually to carpet bomb all editors at once and notify when you get an offer to start the feeding frenzy...the problem with this is that it backs you into a corner and you may get stuck with a lower tier offer so it's a gamble). She also said that big houses tend to be flooded so their reading queues are massive while small houses tend to be understaffed so they get backed up.

Which doesn't exactly tell us much except that we're all still in limbo. But it's nice to know.

Also I'll ask her about the CNR question. I could have sworn I'd read before that editors almost always respond one way or another.

[Steph Campbell]

@bswb97: My R&R was *nothing* like yours! I am so envious of the experience you seemed to have. It sounds like you had really detailed feedback, whereas mine was very vague. I basically got a, "this was so close, but something wasn't quite right. If she's open to revising, we'd look at it again." I agonized over WHAT to change and how. Ultimately, I cut the female POV and rewrote the book entirely from the male MC POV. I have a trusted trade pubbed YA author friend who is also a small press editor and when she suggested that I go that route I maybe cried. I talked myself out of that being the way to go for about 2 weeks before I re-read the book for the 20,000th time and saw what she was talking about. I honestly feel like it's a much stronger, more meaningful book now that if focuses solely on one POV. The other POV, while I loved her and her voice, did little to bring the plot forward. It was 100% painful kill your darlings work for weeks. Fingers crossed it was enough.

[Sarah Ahiers (Falen)]

@bswb97: My R&R was *nothing* like yours! I am so envious of the experience you seemed to have. It sounds like you had really detailed feedback, whereas mine was very vague. I basically got a, "this was so close, but something wasn't quite right. If she's open to revising, we'd look at it again." I agonized over WHAT to change and how. Ultimately, I cut the female POV and rewrote the book entirely from the male MC POV. I have a trusted trade pubbed YA author friend who is also a small press editor and when she suggested that I go that route I maybe cried. I talked myself out of that being the way to go for about 2 weeks before I re-read the book for the 20,000th time and saw what she was talking about. I honestly feel like it's a much stronger, more meaningful book now that if focuses solely on one POV. The other POV, while I loved her and her voice, did little to bring the plot forward. It was 100% painful kill your darlings work for weeks. Fingers crossed it was enough.

That's a badass revision right there. And, really, if you were able to pull that off, there's not much left to scare you when you do finally land a deal and edit letter