the craft. the submission process.

Last week’s great conversation with L’Oreal Thompson Payton on the publishing journey got me to thinking about some of the nuances involved in publishing that might be useful to share. Things move so slow and then so quickly and it can be easy to gloss over some extremely important parts of the process. So, I wanted to talk a little bit about the submission process.

A lot of information online focuses on the agent part of traditional publishing. Queries and book proposals and that coveted “yes, I do think you have an ability to write, that I can sell,” coming from an agent. But the water gets a little murky when you start trying to find out what happens after that. We talked a little about it on the call, But I figured I'd fill in some details.

Depending on the strengths of the agent you sign with, they may likely have some thoughts or opinions on getting your project ready for submission. My agent is also a writer, so as a part of her work with clients, she assists with initial revisions. As a fiction writer, that may mean some developmental edits on your manuscript. For non-fiction writers, they may have feedback on strengthening your book proposal and those sample pages.

This would be a good time to note that this process and timeline may vary from person to person. More on that later. But take all writing input and advice with a grain of salt, okay?

In my own personal experience, there wasn’t a huge overhaul of work with my agent. But she definitely came back with some feedback and I worked to revise before we were ready to begin the coveted submission process.

“Going on submission” is your agent putting together a pitch letter for acquiring editors at publishers. The editor will often include some of the copy you already used to pitch your project to them. Essentially, your agent queries editors to see who may be interested in reading your actual manuscript or proposal pages.

Hopefully, you and your agent discussed some of their strategy for submission before deciding to work together. But before anything is sent, you should have a discussion about which editors they may be going out to. If they’re not already sharing their list with you, you should be comfortable enough to ask. I also had the ability to contribute a few names to the list since I had done my own research and had an editor at a publisher reach out to me via IG when I announced I had an agent.

Once you’re on the same page feeling confident about possible editors and that their interests are in alignment with the work you produced, it’s time to submit! Going on submission is literally the process of your agent emailing and having possible calls with editors and if an editor has an interest, then requesting your full manuscript or proposal.

And it’s nerve wracking. You should also set expectations with your agent about how you best prefer to communicate in this process. Many writers opt for the “only good news” route so that they don’t have to hear about every “no” that may come their way.

I know the next question is, how long will it take? It all depends, of course!

This process can be quick a la a “The Other Black Girl” that ended up in a fourteen house bidding war -OR- it can take 3-4 months to hear anything back from editors, if at all.

I’m more than happy to share a little bit of my timeline:

January 2020 - Signed with my agent.

February 2020 - Officially out on submission.

April 2020 - We were scheduled for a call with the editor at 37Ink/Simon & Schuster.

May 2020 - I was offered a contract for Good Morning, Love.

June 2020 - We had a fully executed agreement.

I repeat. This will be different for everyone. I remember distinctly before the world shut down completely, being at Brandon Taylor’s Philadelphia tour stop for his debut Real Life. I asked him about his submission process for the book and he was freaking out because he had been on submission for a week. Mind you at that point I was already a month and change in. Do not, I repeat, do not be discouraged when your process doesn’t look like someone else’s! We can all still be successful.

Publishing is not a solo sport. So even if an editor loves your project, they still have to take it to their editorial board before they can make a final decision. Essentially, if they get all green lights, they’ll set up a call. This doesn’t automatically mean you’re being extended an offer. On that call, much like the one with your agent, you need to ensure that you are a good fit for one another.

When I had my call with my editor, at the time (more on losing your initial acquiring editor later), Chelcee, she got this book. Everything she thought about it was confirming my own brainstorms about the space it lived in, audience, and hopefully having film option appeal.

In the event that all goes well, you’ll eventually get the email that changes your life. That makes all of the hard work worth it. It will be an email from your agent that says, we have an offer!

Honorable mention here is something L’Oreal brought up about agents and I want to reiterate here with editors. Although we work insanely hard to get to the point where we’re on submission, you also don’t have to take an offer just because it’s being given to you. Use your gut, call on the holy spirit or the Dalai Lama, whatever you’re into, to let you know if this is the right opportunity for you. I felt like my project was in amazing hands with Chelcee which made it extremely comfortable to move forward with her even after receiving interest from other publishers. Just like the querying process, once you have an offer, your agent will put the other houses on notice to see who else wants to bite.

Hope this helps and I wish you multi-house auctions in your foreseeable future!