The Writing Life: Like Herding Cats

In my work as an acquisitions editor, I speak with many first-time authors. These authors have little concept of the steps to get published and likely do not understand the limited time editors and agents will take with their pitch. These professionals receive many email pitches and are looking for reasons to click delete and press on to the next one. If you pitch the wrong book, wrong length, and other wrongs, you will never know the reason. Instead of a response, you will not receive anything (ghosted) or you will receive a form rejection letter which is more and more rare.

In this article, I compare this editorial process to herding cats. There is almost nothing you can do to control the process but continue forward. From my seasoned experience, it is frustrating but all I can do is look for the people open to my insights and willing to do the necessary work to refine their pitch and find the right connection. It’s not easy but possible if the details line up.

For example, a recent author submitted a Christian nonfiction book with a word count of over 115,000 words. As an editor, I speak with the author as a part of our submission process. I planned to tell this author he was pitching a book with a printed page count of over 400 pages. As I was preparing to speak with this author, he looked at the Morgan James Publishing website and decided not to meet with me and instead to press on to other publishing options. I had a scheduled conference phone call with this author and shortly before our call, he emailed and cancelled. I attempted to encourage him to continue but he would not change his mind.

Another author with a devotional book submission withdrew her submission because she had signed with a literary agent. For decades, I have worked with literary agents. I have numerous friends who are agents and believe in their work and the importance of it. I have a free list of over 400 agents that I give away (just follow this link to get it).

Here’s a little publishing detail that agents will not tell you because it doesn’t help them: they don’t sell all their books which they are pitching. In fact, agents get rejected more than anyone else in this business because they hear “no” many times when they simultaneously send a single submission to multiple places. Here’s another detail to factor into the process of working with an agent. If your agent does locate a publisher and get you a book contract, it is likely to be at least 18 to 24 months before that publisher will get the book into the bookstores. Many authors are in a rush to get their book into the marketplace. With a traditional publishing model, it would be unusual for them to get your book out any quicker because of how books are sold into the bookstores. I was prepared to possibly tell this information to the author who signed with an agent but she withdrew her submission and dismissed me.

For each of these two author situations, I encouraged the author to reach out to me down the road and hope we can work together in the future. If potential authors are treated with respect and kindness, I often find these authors will reach out to me at a later point in time. As an editor I was frustrated with each of these situations because the author failed to explore their possibilities which I could see but they could not. At times I find the acquisition process like herding cats--not possible.

How can authors avoid these missteps and possibly get the attention of an acquisitions editor or literary agent? No matter how the professional responds to your pitch, each of us are actively looking for another bestselling author. We are reading online. We are listening to our phone conversations and most importantly reading our email (the major way people pitch these days).

My straight forward advice about finding the right publisher:

--explore all your options without limitations or preconceived ideas. You are looking for the best way to get published and the answer may surprise you if you are open to it.

--get publishing insights from anyone who offers it--in person on the phone or at a writers’ conference or reading their how-to books

--knock on many different doors and listen to see what opens

Am I missing something that you have experienced in the submission process? Let me know in the comments below.

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According to this prolific editor and writer, at times, the process of working with authors on their submissions is like herding cats. Get the specifics here. (ClickToTweet)