is this a new thing? (AUTHORS.me & Submittable.com)

[007 fan]

Hello,

I'd like people's thoughts on a couple of agencies I've come across that require an author to create an account for querying.

One agency asks that authors create an account with AUTHORS.me, and another asks for one through Submittable.com. Now, if you are querying an agent that uses "Submittable", there is no charge. And I don't think there's a charge for the agency using the AUTHORS.me one. I just don't like the idea of my material going through another source, my material being stored on some other website, me likely getting spam for everything under the sun related to writing sent to the email account I intend to use only for querying.

Oh, and there's one agency that requires authors to fill out a form that requires an address for the author, just to query.

I've passed on each of the 3 agencies, but I am curious what you folks think of these new-to-me requirements. Maybe I'm being overly whatever. 

[jcwrites]

I have no personal experience, but here's a link to an AbsoluteWrite thread on Authors.me (their website looks gimmicky):

<https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?312768-Submission-service-Authors-me>


AND here's Janet Reid's take on the subject:

<http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2016/01/authorsme-query-service.html>

[007 fan]

I have no personal experience, but here's a link to an AbsoluteWrite thread on Authors.me (their website looks gimmicky):

<https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?312768-Submission-service-Authors-me>


AND here's Janet Reid's take on the subject:

<http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2016/01/authorsme-query-service.html>

Ah! Thanks and karma!

I'll continue to steer clear of anyone requiring anything that isn't 'standard', including the one agency that wants me to enter my home address into an online form, just to send a query. The agent in that agency touts being a member of A.A.R. on her agency site and at Publishers Marketplace, but she's not listed on the A.A.R. website.

[Pineapplejuice]

The submit whole file to create an account sounds dodgy as. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that.

The address is ok with me so long as it's a hard copy letter.

[Munley]

I've never had any dealings with author.me, but I do have a little experience with submittable.com.
I have no qualms about using submittable.com, but you'd have to decide for yourself once you feel you have enough information to make that decision.

Submittable.com seems to be used by quite a few legitimate literary journals, magazines, and small presses, and it's been around for at least 10 years, as evidenced by some of the work I submitted through the service.

Click on the image file below this post to get a look at what an author's file page (mine) looks like.
You'll see that I have 5 short-story submissions on there between 2008 and 2018. I've redacted my name and the names of the stories in this file, but you can see the publishers' names, the submission dates, as well as tabs above you can click on for the current status of the submission. To the right of each entry is a button to withdraw an active (no decision yet) submission, or remove a submission that has been declined. Your work won't be up there forever if you choose to remove it.

I've never had the sort of backlash you are worried about from submittable.com. In fact, I ended up with spam -- electronic and postal -- from other literary journals only when ordering a subscription and they sold their subscription list to other literary journals.

I encoutered submittable.com by using Duotrope.com, which has more than 6,000 markets for short stories and small presses you can submit directly to -- much like QueryTracker lists agents. Both Duotrope and QT offer search and tracking features. Sub.com is a way for publishers to handle what you have submitted and for you to follow what's happening with with your submission. I imagine that agents use sub.com in a comparable way. It has been a few years since I tried to market short stories. Started again, and I'm seeing a big increase in the number of journals and magazines requiring "submittable.com" as a way to upload your story to a particular publisher.

There seems to be a big difference between author.me and submittable.com.
I wouldn't go near author.me, which is basically a way for agents to browse what authors have to sell, and then contact the authors to say they're interested. To understand what's so awful about this, it would be helpful to read agent Janet Reid's post, as suggested by jc writes on this thread. I'll repost the link:
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2016/01/authorsme-query-service.html

Submittable.com offers publishers a service as described here:

https://www.submittable.com/submission-management-software

Click on the video triangle for an overview.
For a publisher or agent, there are several advantages to using submittable.com. For example, this takes away one of the biggest risks -- directly receiving attached files in an email that may contain a virus. An editor I have submitted my story to can read my story online without downloading it, as well as record any actions related to a submission, which authors can learn about by logging in.

As far as I can tell, only I and the publications I've chosen to submit my story to can read my story on submittable.com.
It isn't up there (like on the author.me site) for the perusal of anybody out there looking for stories to publish.

There is no advantage for an agent to pay to use author.me rather than the traditional submission process. Authors who buy into authors.me, in order to avoid the work and research of submissions, are, in my opinion, doing the equivalent of standing on a hilltop and throwing their manuscript pages to the wind. Nobody is going to read them. Agents already have plenty of submissions targeted according to their own submission guidelines.

I'm surprised that an agent you thought of querying would ask you to sign into authors.me.
Is this agent listed on QueryTracker?

Regarding your concern about including your address just to submit a query, I have always thought of that as standard for a business letter, which is what a query is. My query always includes my street address, email address, and phone number.

 

[jcwrites]

@Munley: Excellent post. Thanks for sorting it out.

[007 fan]

The submit whole file to create an account sounds dodgy as. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that.

The address is ok with me so long as it's a hard copy letter.

I didn't see that a whole file (I think you are meaning an entire MS?) was required. For the agency that uses AUTHORS.me, the sign-up requires you to enter an email address and password. Of course, the agent site does mention "forms to fill out", so I'm thinking once the password is set, etc., more could be asked. But the agent site says "so you can submit your query", and I took that to mean I wouldn't be required to include more than my query.

As for address, I'd be okay including an address in a mailed query too since my address (would use my P.O. Box) would be on the sending and return envelopes anyway.

ETA: gave you karma, though I didn't mention that until my reply to Munley's post. 

[007 fan]

I've never had any dealings with author.me, but I do have a little experience with submittable.com.
I have no qualms about using submittable.com, but you'd have to decide for yourself once you feel you have enough information to make that decision.

Submittable.com seems to be used by quite a few legitimate literary journals, magazines, and small presses, and it's been around for at least 10 years, as evidenced by some of the work I submitted through the service.

Click on the image file below this post to get a look at what an author's file page (mine) looks like.
You'll see that I have 5 short-story submissions on there between 2008 and 2018. I've redacted my name and the names of the stories in this file, but you can see the publishers' names, the submission dates, as well as tabs above you can click on for the current status of the submission. To the right of each entry is a button to withdraw an active (no decision yet) submission, or remove a submission that has been declined. Your work won't be up there forever if you choose to remove it.  Thank you for sharing your experience and your page so others could see more. I wasn't expecting your redactions to be so squiggly. I do feel better about the site now and will re-look at the agencies who use that. I thought I just had one who uses the 'submittable.com' between my two lists of 'research these peeps more in depth' lists, but there's 3, and of them, one might now be added to my 'to query list'. The other two weren't in consideration for me for other reasons as well.

I've never had the sort of backlash you are worried about from submittable.com. In fact, I ended up with spam -- electronic and postal -- from other literary journals only when ordering a subscription and they sold their subscription list to other literary journals.  Okay.
Good to know. I got spammed like crazy when I joined another writers' forum the same time I signed up here and had to cancel the account for it to stop.

I encoutered submittable.com by using Duotrope.com, which has more than 6,000 markets for short stories and small presses you can submit directly to -- much like QueryTracker lists agents. Both Duotrope and QT offer search and tracking features. Sub.com is a way for publishers to handle what you have submitted and for you to follow what's happening with with your submission. I imagine that agents use sub.com in a comparable way. It has been a few years since I tried to market short stories. Started again, and I'm seeing a big increase in the number of journals and magazines requiring "submittable.com" as a way to upload your story to a particular publisher.

There seems to be a big difference between author.me and submittable.com.
I wouldn't go near author.me, which is basically a way for agents to browse what authors have to sell, and then contact the authors to say they're interested. To understand what's so awful about this, it would be helpful to read agent Janet Reid's post, as suggested by jc writes on this thread. I'll repost the link:
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2016/01/authorsme-query-service.html

Submittable.com offers publishers a service as described here:

https://www.submittable.com/submission-management-software

Click on the video triangle for an overview. I did read jcwrite's link to Ms. Reid's post on it and the link to absolutewrite, and I read your link. But I didn't notice that there was a video. I'll look again.
For a publisher or agent, there are several advantages to using submittable.com. For example, this takes away one of the biggest risks -- directly receiving attached files in an email that may contain a virus. An editor I have submitted my story to can read my story online without downloading it, as well as record any actions related to a submission, which authors can learn about by logging in.

As far as I can tell, only I and the publications I've chosen to submit my story to can read my story on submittable.com.
It isn't up there (like on the author.me site) for the perusal of anybody out there looking for stories to publish.

There is no advantage for an agent to pay to use author.me rather than the traditional submission process. Authors who buy into authors.me, in order to avoid the work and research of submissions, are, in my opinion, doing the equivalent of standing on a hilltop and throwing their manuscript pages to the wind. Nobody is going to read them. Agents already have plenty of submissions targeted according to their own submission guidelines.

I'm surprised that an agent you thought of querying would ask you to sign into authors.me.
Is this agent listed on QueryTracker? Yes. And also on A.A.R.

Regarding your concern about including your address just to submit a query, I have always thought of that as standard for a business letter, which is what a query is. My query always includes my street address, email address, and phone number. I know some people do that, include a home address, but no agent of those I've researched have asked for it to be included in the query, so I omit it and just include my email and phone number. I do include a P.O. Box address on my title page of my MS.

Since there is so much helpful info in this thread, I've adjusted the title of the thread to include the names of those sites so others can know what's here by just a quick look.

Anyway, thanks again, and karma to you and Pineapplejuice.

 

[Thulsa_Doom]

Submittable is fast  becoming the industry standard, especially in short genre fiction, in managing submissions.

It was started (if my memory holds me in good stead) by the on-line magazine Clarkesworld as part of their own submission handling protocol, and was then offered out for other publishers/curators to manage their workload.

It can be handy if you're a person who submits often and widely, too, as it shows your acceptance and rejection stats.

[Munley]

Submittable is fast  becoming the industry standard, especially in short genre fiction, in managing submissions.

It was started (if my memory holds me in good stead) by the on-line magazine Clarkesworld as part of their own submission handling protocol, and was then offered out for other publishers/curators to manage their workload.

It can be handy if you're a person who submits often and widely, too, as it shows your acceptance and rejection stats.

It is handy for those stats, but so far, only about half of the publishers I submit to use Submittable, so writers need some other way to keep records for everything submitted. And while I know I can remove stories from S's records, I don't know whether publishers delete stories from S's records after a certain time. If so, that record would be lost to the writer.

I use Duotrope (now $50 per year) for researching submissions, recording submissions, and tracking their progress. Duotrope keeps up with which publications are closed to submissions (either temporarily of for good), which ones are themed, etc., so it's useful for those things, too.

You're right, I think, about Submittable becoming the industry standard. Besides the stats you mention, you can tell that what you submitted actually got to the publisher, unlike email. You may never know if your story landed in the spam folder.

[Thulsa_Doom]

THE SUBMISSION GRINDER is one of the nicer resources for tracking subs. Very similar to Query Tracker in a way.

[NextChapter]

I queried an agent who asked that I use authors.me. She completely ignored my submission, so I sent her a follow-up email a month later, and through authors.me, I could see that she downloaded my manuscript. She never got back to me. My manuscript is not a total disaster. Since November, six agents have requested submissions. This agent simply ignored me. An independent publisher found my manuscript on authors.me and sent me a contract. I did a little research and found that whatever he published was mostly sub-standard, that he does not have editors to spiff things up. It's no better than self-publishing, and the publisher takes a large percentage. I passed.

[Spat]

I queried several agents through Submittable. They're big agents and I felt okay with it. I think it just helps them to keep organized, is streamlined, and keeps their email accounts from getting overloaded. I've also used Submittable when subbing to small pubs. Always go with what you're comfortable with. There are plenty of agents who still do the more traditional email/website form.