What is your publishing and/or writing pet peeve and how did
you solve it?
Image courtesy freedigitalphotos.net
In short--No reply from a publisher or agent.
The publishing
world is in the midst of huge changes. What had been a fairly static industry
for the last couple hundred years has been turned on its head by the revolution
of the e-book and self publishing. Up until very recently most manuscripts were
submitted in paper—postage and dead trees the heavy toll. Literary agents were
the absolute gatekeepers and it was a very small 'elite' crowd that decided
what America would read.
I guess elitism
dies hard for some.
The job description
of agent is changing, even being questioned as to validity. Formatting a
manuscript for submission is not so dire as it is sure to need to be
reformatted to fit electronic form, and an 'anything goes' mentality has been
adopted by many authors as they can now reach, until now, unreachable niche
markets.
So why, one might
wonder, do some of the old school publishers and agents still not respond to an
author's submission?
Some do not even acknowledge an author's submission with a
form rejection. A subset of this group does not send a computer generated 'got
it' acknowledgement to the author. In this day and age when such auto responses
are business etiquette, let alone common courtesy, it is a pet peeve of mine that
dead silence still occurs.
Image courtesy freedigitalphotos.net
Sure they are busy. What business is not? But to let
an author who has spent months toiling over a manuscript, pouring heart and
soul into its creation, languish without so much as a 'Thanks but no thanks' to
me is unconscionable. ( 'Tell us how you
really feel, Christine.' )
As a small fish
author in a huge pond, there is no way to force courtesy. 
image courtesy freedigitalphotos.net
Thus, I can not solve this pet peeve, but...
Personally, I do not
submit to any publisher that says something to the effect: "If you do not
hear from us, our answer is no thanks." How long does it take to click a
button, sending out a form rejection to the group of authors that have been
read that day? This is not the place to cut corners, IMO.
'Publishing is a small
industry so watch your P's and Q's because anything you do or say today will
surely come round to bite you'---so goes the sage wisdom given to authors.
Dare I say the same
could be said of the reputation of a publisher/agent with authors? After following submission guidelines to within a
gnat's eyelash and jumping through hoops to individualize a submission through
research and polite approach, to be met with silence is supreme rudeness/arrogance.
Sorry--"busy" does not excuse it.
Image courtesy freedigitalphotos.net
Yep--I could go on with pet peeves, but am interested to hear what reader's pet peeves are about our industry. Does bad editing drive you crazy? Do you hate 'free' books for only one day? What about those e-books that are priced as high or higher than their print format twin?
Comment, and you just may win a free Muse e-book of your choice. Maybe one of mine?? *wink*
Cheers,
Christine London at Muse: https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php
Christine's Blog/Website: www.christinelondon.com
Christine on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Christine-London/71009389201?ref=hl
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12 comments:
That's one that always bugged me,too. Really, how long does it take to send a form reply? Not that long. And an automated reply that your e-mail was received is just as easy.
Thanks for sharing, Christine!
I enjoyed your post, Christine. Some publishing houses seem to think they don't need to show any courtesy. A little good manners can make a great impression and it's not hard to send a polite e-mail. It bugs me as well when people lack manners. I sympathise!
This is but one of the reasons I ADORE Muse. Lea and her crew are consummate professionals, caring and always courteous.
In the case of publishing I truly believe that good guys finish first in the hearts of their authors, staff and readers.
Christine, you and I are on the same wave length. My post on Monday is the opposite of yours.
I will agree that publishers that don't even acknowledge your existent bug the heck out of me.
Its called professional courtesy and I won't even buy a book from them.
Marika/Harlie
P.S. If it weren't for Lea, I wouldn't be published today and I will forever be grateful. My experience with Muse has been awesome and I tell people all the time to submit to Muse.
Christine, love the pics along with this post. Yeah, I hate not even knowing the company received the submission. I don't know the technicalities of how to set up that auto-response, but I love getting those. In a couple of instances when I didn't get one, I've emailed to politely inquire and sure enough, they didn't receive the submission. So I resent. In the early days of my writing career, I was too unsure of myself and never checked back.Probably some of them weren't received. I say now, if you don't hear back. Check. Good post, Christine, and I love your picture.
Harlie- I totally agree. Muse rocks!
Thanks for the compliments, Marsha *grin*
Great post, Christine.
Common courtesy is important in all things.
Rejection is hard enough to take... softening the blow is good policy. Being polite doesn't cost anything.
Love your post, Christine. The least these companies can do is send out a rejection form letter. I have received a couple of those years ago and they are deadly. But at least they responded. Silence is the worst.
I agree that Muse is the best. I am also indebted to Lea for publishing my book and recognizing me as an author. That is why I am submitting my second book to Muse as well. Why waste time with a big publisher who probably won't appreciate my writing.:)
Great post, Christine.
I have to admit that I'm not always on the ball with emails. It's simply impossible. My problem is that I file them to respond later and later escapes me.
But I am in the same boat as you are in but from the publisher's side now: no responses from a few vendors/associations I have emailed numerous times for info to get our books into their system. A simple "You're a small house and we don't like small houses" would have been accepted and respected by me than a complete 'click on the ignore button'.
At times I think many forget where they began...in the dungeon with little light and pocketchange to help us get through each level. And I say 'dungeon' only because my little one has taught me that in order to move on with life with less stress you need to look at life like a game and try to reach that next level.
Good luck on that second submission, Barbara :)
I know just what you mean, Lea. If I promise myself to get back to someone when I have more time to focus on just them, their email sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of trying.Good intentions and all. It is usually the larger publishing houses that neglect to get back to an author's submission. One would think they have a well oiled machine in place to evaluate work, but hey--we are all only human. It's the guys who have a policy of not responding that make me scratch my head.
I sure would not want to be in your shoes with all the people and companies you have to approach. That professional courtesy should be in place there too, so I'm sure you have met with frustration many a time. We all thank you for your tenacity. Excellence on your part shows. Muse is top notch.
My exact feelings too! And also my feelings too about the Muse. Lea's given us all a voice. One of the things I remember the most about the Muse is the first e-mail I got from Lea introducing herself and telling me she was going to be in charge of evaluating my book. I was really impressed. And I'm really impressed by her tenacity. I'm a very loyal person and so I have chosen to do school visits where I promote the Muse. We have such awesome books and if I can give some of our authors a boost, you bet I will. Long live the Muse!
Suzanne
Amen Christine! Just about the time I started submitting manuscripts several years ago, there seemed to be the shift NOT to send a reply by many agents. I was prepared for this because Agent Query had an article which said that 'the cold hard silence' had replaced the rejection letter for many of the agencies. But you are right, in this fiercely competitive electronic world, it is the agent who takes the time to at least send a professional rejection of some sort, that will be remembered and queried again. The others, probably not. There are a lot of agents out there, and if they are smart, they will remain true to the nature of business professionals during this huge electronic shift.
Great post and pics,
Cheers, Sara
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