Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Submission update

I don't do this very often so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth.

Last night, I dealt with over 50 e-queries with the following results (roughly)

  • 34 rejections recorded
  • 10+ rejections not worthy of being recorded (these were people submitting projects not in my romance or women's fiction
  • 21 requests for additional material

Out of those the trends were:

  • A huge number of YA's that all claimed to be the next Harry Potter. One even went so far as saying the project was better than Rowling
  • Many lacking a high concept. it was like reading reading the synopsis of books already out.
  • Over 10 of the submissions were rejected because I simply couldn't figure out what they were writing.
  • Roughly 5 were under word count (as low as 30K)
  • Several of the rejections were due to the writers really not knowing what their stories were

Of those I requested more from, I would say half had a premise that might work but based on the material sent I couldn't make a full decision.

On to the next pile.

Scott

4 comments:

  1. Oh please please please don't let mine be one of the rejected :^/

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  2. Scott,
    If I can ask? How far out are your submission responses from the date recieved?

    Melissa

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  3. Melissa,
    I am still answering e-queries and will be responding to all of the snail mail submissions that I have shortly.
    If I have requested more material from you and you haven't sent it yet, you can still send the material.
    If you have additional material you have already sent, you are probably in my stack of submissions ready for responses.
    Hope this answers your question.

    Scott

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  4. Yay! You asked for more information from me - it is ready and I have shipped it (via post from Australia) today. The remainder of the novel is good to go whenever you are ready to read it. I am very excited!!!

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