As you may have read in today’s Times, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has stopped taking submissions [subscription required]. They are calling it a “freeze-lite” as opposed to a “hard freeze.” I take this to mean that if a sure thing comes along, then they will bid on it. Anything less will receive a pass.
I’m not surprised at this news. I’ve heard through the grapevine that advances are suddenly, precipitously lower (an agent friend told me that a book he would have sold for 75K last year went for ten) and that the market was generally cool, but this is the first time I’ve heard a publisher go on record saying that they’re not buying.
Do not fret. In publishing this time of year is notorious for being slow anyway. (August can also be bad.) If you’re killing yourself to get that proposal/manuscript out the door, you might be better off taking a break, gaining some perspective, enjoying the holidays, and then ramping up again in January/February. This is especially true if you’re a first-time author. Making that manuscript even 5% better might make all the difference in the world when it comes time to sell. The bad times can’t last forever.
Point two: Publishers may not be buying books, but now is the time for us readers to really pour it on. We are not going to get our government bailout. If anything money for the arts is going to get scarcer. So if you’re interested in seeing books and authors survive, then the market is our only hope.
(The undercover book editor and blogger Moonrat wrote an excellent post earlier this month about what the economy did to publishing in the month of October. You will want to read it.)
So go out and buy a bunch of books, new, from a bookstore. Read them, give them as gifts, use them to prop open windows, hoard them obsessively in your basement. And for those of you who enjoy (or at least tolerate) Facebook, there is the Buy a Book, Save the World! group. I believe this is the result of some of Moonrat’s readers hearing her call. Go Moonrat! Go books!
Tags: books
I will do my part and go buy some books. OK, fine, I admit it, I’m only looking for an excuse to buy more books!
Thank you for the heads up, it also gives me a good excuse to take a break from sending out proposals and just focus on writing.
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http://saharsblog.wordpress.com
How timely! I just signed up for the Facebook group and read Colleen Lindsay’s post on the Harcourt/HM stoppage.
What’s your opinion on hitting up agents now though? You’d think they’d be hungrier than ever and wanting to play catch up with their reading. I know the holidays makes a great time for me to catch up at the magazine.
Good question Bets– I’m wondering the same thing agent-wise.
Thanks for the perspective Dennis. Helps to make me feel less freaked-out.
When I worked for a literary agency we tried to stay as caught up on our queries/partials/etc. no matter what the season.
I think the issue here is how agents they are looking at projects given the overall slowdown. Some are going to get more conservative. Others might respond by taking more risks.
These are the kinds of things Writer’s Market can’t tell you.
bets/pseudosu: I was also wondering how NaNoWriMo affects agents’ calendars. Have this vision in my head that come December, inboxes will be flooded.
[Note to self: beat the clock.]
interesting. Well, I could send to a few more this year without really damaging my overall chances. I’ve really barely touched the iceberg.
bets / jes /???
Anyone have any insight on non-replies? I’ve read they mean, “No,” but then again know things get sucked into spam filters etc. Am considering stubbornly re-querying until I get an actual, “Get a life– you suck!” from these people…
Thoughts????
I guess it depends on how long. I’ve gotten rejections 6 mos later. If it’s been 6 mos I’d think it’d be okay to resend with a note explaining why. But I’ll defer to what Dennis says.
But the key really is to keep submitting. Query widely and often, as Miss Snark always said.
There was a time when everyone got a personalized rejection. Now silence can be considered a no. You can follow up to get the more definitive answer, but I think you’re wasting your time and more importantly your emotional energy.
When someone wants your work, you’ll know. And it won’t take forty e-mails to make it happen.
Pseudosu: What Dennis said. Agents all say things like, “Well, things do get stuck in the spam filter sometimes…!”, and it’s tempting to imagine that’s what’s happened to your query — and use the fantasy as a “reason” not to submit anywhere else just yet. Especially if you’re like most of us, and querying agents in something like “first choice first” order. (One doesn’t want to miss getting THAT agent…)
Don’t let the grass grow underfoot, though. Wait a couple of months and if you’re still wondering, then go back and re-query. If you still get silence on this pass then cut yourself free from that fantasy.
Of course I’m throwing around the second-person pronoun up there as though I were talking to YOU, Pseudo, rather than to myself.
A sure thing? What the blazes is that?