Q01: Publisher

(This post is part of a larger subseries entitled Perpetual WIPs: Pre-Pub Authors. To see the rest of the questions posed, click here.)

What kind of publisher is your deal with, and how did you pursue that route of publication?

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My publisher is traditional, and I got to this point by querying agents (aka walking through a bed of nails with no shoes on) and then being on submission (walking through a slightly smaller, but more dense bed of nails with no shoes on).

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Big Six (Five, Four?) – Agent

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I’m getting published by Hot Key Books, a new imprint of a big publisher headed by the amazing Sarah Odedina. My agent submitted to publishers, and two days later we had an offer from Hot Key!

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My deal is with a traditional publisher (one of the big 6…now 5). I went about it the old-fashioned way, got an agent, she made a list of place she wanted to sub, I said “okay, I trust you” and had a favorite and lucked into getting my favorite 🙂

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I sold my book to Spencer Hill Press, an independent publisher specializing in young adult fiction, but it’s really hard to say that I pursued that route. Honestly, I lucked out. Various points in time/space/fate converged one night during BEA 2012 in New York City and my friend struck up conversation with a stranger at a party on a rooftop in Tribecca. This stranger happened to be one of my future editors. We just didn’t know it at the time. One of the best things to keep in mind is that you never know when the right opportunity is going to knock, so make sure you pay attention. And always be prepared with a pitch. It helps. I stumbled over mine like crazy! 

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My deal is with an imprint of one of the Big Six—er, five?—publishers. I pursued it in the “traditional” fashion: I signed with an agent first, and then she sent out my manuscript to editors at the bigger publishing houses.

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My deal is with a small, digital-only press  and it was actually dumb luck.  I was determined to pursue the representation of an agent prior to submitting to any publishers (big or small), but my manuscript caught the eye of both my future agent and future publisher through one of the many opportunities put together by the close-knit writers community that has developed online.

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I’m with an imprint of the big six. My pub route has been very traditional–slush pile and all.

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A smaller imprint of an established house, via the good, ol’ slush-pile-to-agent-to-editor route 🙂

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Big Six (Big…Four?) publisher. My agent sent to a small, varied group of imprints and publishers and we ended up going with a wonderful editor at a great imprint who made us a very kind offer.

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My deal is with a Big 6 publisher, and I went the traditional route–I got an agent who then subbed to publishers.

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My book will be published by one of the big 6. (or is it 5 or 4 now? I can’t keep track). I’m a slushpile baby, so I went the traditional way. Lots of trial and error, lots of shelved manuscripts, and lots of rejections from agents before finally finding the perfect combo of right book, right time, right agent. Lucky for me said agent is brilliant and knew exactly who wanted a book like mine, and, also lucky for me, that editor was able to convince the acquisitions team to buy it.

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