Behind the Scenes: Steps from submitting your novel to receiving an offer

Once you have signed with an agent and completed your edits, our attention turns to submissions. Submission is a really exciting part of the publishing process, but it can also be a stressful time, particularly for debut authors.

At Mushens Entertainment, we share our submission letters and carefully curated submission lists with our clients, so you can see what we saying to publishers and who those publishers are. But once the editors receive your submission, what happens next?

Waiting to hear back from editors can feel painstakingly drawn out, but the keen editors are usually busy in the background. Here are the several steps an editor needs to go through between receiving a submission and making an offer.

RECEIVING AND READING THE SUBMISSION:

The first step for editors is receiving the submission letter and manuscript from the author’s agent. It will probably be one of several submissions they receive that week, with some editors receiving upwards of 20 submissions in a week during busier periods. The time it takes an editor to respond will vary wildly depending on how many submissions they have to juggle at once. When they have multiple things to read, editors will prioritise some of those submissions. Everyone has their own personal system, but they are likely to consider the following things when deciding how to prioritise the submission:

·      Does the pitch appeal? Does it chime with something on their wish-list?

·      Does it fit any trends or is it something strikingly original?

·      Can they immediately see how to pitch it to their colleagues and to retailers?

·      Does it feel different enough from what their imprint and the wider publishing team have already acquired?

·      Do they have room for another debut or brand author on their list?

·      Do they have similar taste to the agent? Have they enjoyed their submissions in the past?

·      Has the agent had any kind of interest? If another editor tries to pre-empt the book or scouts begin to highlight it, a submission could move up in terms of their priorities.

·      How long ago did they receive it?

·      Are they being chased for a decision?

As an author and agent we have no way of knowing how many submissions an editor is juggling or where we have landed on that list of priorities. Where you fall on the list isn’t anything to worry about, as editors often end up offering on something that felt like low-priority when it first came in, but do bear in mind that there could be several things in the queue to be read before an editor can focus on your submission.

It is also worth remembering that reading submissions is just a small part of an editor’s job. They will have lots of deadlines for the books they have already acquired: deal memos to draft, contracts to check, edits to complete, covers to brief, publishing plans to write up and numerous weekly meetings with colleagues in marketing, publicity and sales, as well as with external people like authors, agents and scouts. A lot of editors have to read submissions outside of work hours in evenings or weekends.

THE EDITORIAL MEETING:

Editorial meetings are where submissions are discussed. Once an editor has finished reading a submission, if they are interested, they will circulate it to their editorial team for second reads, and get feedback in the Editorial meeting.

The meeting is usually attended by all the editors from the imprint (from assistants to publishers) and sometimes also includes a colleague or two from publicity, marketing and sales. They happen once a week, and the people attending need several days to read or dip into the submissions being discussed. If an editor finishes your book a few hours after the editorial meeting, you could be waiting seven days for them to have chance to discuss with their colleagues.

In that meeting everyone shares their opinion on the book, talking about whether they enjoyed the writing and found the plot engaging enough. They will also talk through a lot of the questions above: What is the pitch? How does it fit into the fiction/non-fiction market? How does it fit into the company’s existing publishing? Can Sales see the routes to market? Do Publicity think their contacts will be excited to read and review/feature? Do the marketing team know how to reach the right readers for this particular book? 

THE ACQUISITIONS MEETING:

The Acquisitions meeting is a chance for the wider company to consider a submission. If a project is met by enthusiasm in the Editorial meeting, the editor will bring it to Acquisitions. Again, in a usual scenario they would bring to the following week’s Acquisitions meeting so that other colleagues have time to read. In addition to editors, this meeting is attended by a mixture of colleagues from departments including management (e.g. the company’s Managing Director), sales, publicity, marketing, rights, international sales and finance.

In this meeting, editors will cover a lot of the same questions as above and get more feedback from the wider team. Acquisitions meetings can be tough, as sometimes the wider team doesn’t have the same enthusiasm for the project as the editor. If that happens, the editor will reject the submission. This is why sometimes we get disappointing news from editors who previously had been really enthusiastic about a submission. However, if the meeting goes well, the editor is approved to make an offer.

PUTTING TOGETHER AN OFFER:

When an editor gets the green light to make an offer on a submission they have a few things to organise. First off, they need to discuss how much money to offer as an advance (if they follow a traditional publishing model rather than a Royalties-only model), which rights to predicate that offer on (e.g. UK/Commonwealth rights or World English or World All Languages), and what to offer in terms of royalties. All of these things are detailed in a deal memo. Once they have their deal memo drawn they will often send it to the Contracts team or to their manager to check and amend if necessary. While they wait for feedback on that front, they will run costings to make sure the money they are offering makes sense for the business and start composing a covering note/letter for the agent and author, which (usually and hopefully!) conveys their enthusiasm for the submission and provides a few key details on how they would envision publishing the book. They get their costing signed off by their Manager or Managing Director and then they are ready to offer. The final step is to send their covering note and the deal memo to the agent as their official offer. As you can imagine, all of this takes a while!

Your agent then sends the offer to you and you discuss together. You and your agent will have been in constant contact throughout the process, with the agent updating you whenever they have news!