It's submission time again.

[panik]

I've been fighting all weekend with synopses of varying lengths (every agent wants something different). I just sent out my 'elevator pitch' (their description, not mine) to Zeno who were accepting submissions but now, are not - my email sent back by return. ::sigh::

I'm just working on my spiel to Ian Drury at Sheil Land - first in line because he accepts email subs (and most do not). He only wants a one paragraph synopsis (of a 150,000 word novel. Piece of piss. O:!!!), two chapters and ' a short summary of why someone would pay their own cash money to read your book'.

I hate this part. Hate it like a massive serving of hate with hate sauce and a side order of loathing.

Cup of tea, I think, then back to the grind. Gotta have this baby out by teatime.

Comments

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Good luck babe. ::crosses fingers and thumbs::

[the4ts.livejournal.com]

::hugs and hands you another cuppa (or something stronger if you prefer::

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

I should probably know this, but what genre is it? Was just wondering whether the newish imprint my friend has just got a two-book deal with might be worth approaching...

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

Sort of urban fantasy, dark humour.

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right. Can't remember the name but it's a subsidiary of a big publishing house. I'll ask him.

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

That would be great, thank you!

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've spoken to him (and I should probably say he can be a bit arrogant, but he did get a two-book deal on what was basically his first go, so he obviously did something right...).

His publisher is Angry Robot, a new subsidiary of HarperCollins, and their submission guidelines are here: http://angryrobotbooks.com/about-us/submissions/. They're not accepting unsolicited submissions at the moment.

He has offered, if you want, for you to send him what would be your submission to an agent (he says it should be "an email query, no attachments, with the query and synopsis and five pages in the body of the email, exactly as if they were querying an agent. If they are submitting elsewhere, I want to know where and who.")

It seems that if he likes it and if he's willing to recommend you to them, then they'll look at your submission - so it might be worth a go.

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for going out to bat for me, it's really appreciated. I followed the link and I'll be honest, looking at their catalogue, I'm not sure mine fits in there. Mine is very much lit fic, not really pure genre like their usual stuff. I'll have a think about it and put a proposal together but I may hang fire a week or two before approaching them, wait for my A list agencies to reject me get back to me first.

Okeydokey

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

From what he says, they seem like great people who are trying hard to set up something good. But I have a major niggle about HarperCollins; the last two books I read from them had horrendous errors that basic copyediting/proofreading would have caught. So you may be better off without them anyway.

His agent is Jennifer Jackson, based in NY, if you're looking for any more agenty people to approach...

Also...

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

... don't know if you're interested, but he has a LJ - shevdon.