9 Questions Editors Ask When Reading Your Submission

Sue Hines, Trade Director from Allen & Unwin is looking for ways to say no. I’ve heard this before from other editors – there are just so many submissions and you can only publish so much. You can only read so much. It makes it easier if they can just pass on a project and move on to the next.

Sue visited NMIT Fairfield today and had much insight and many gems of advice to share, but what I know will be of most interest to my readers is this:

She asks herself nine questions as she reads new submissions. Are you ready?

1. Is this a good example of itself?
Is the way the writer is telling the story, unique? There are no unique stories, but there are original ways of saying old things.
     
2. How many copies do I think I could sell of this?

3.  How many copies should I print?
The title will not be released for a year so she needs to think ahead to the publishing climate then.

4.  Will this work best as a paperback or hardback?

5. What RRP should this be priced at? $19.99? $35.00?
The price impacts sales.

6. Can I convince Sales & Marketing that this is something we should publish?
Publishing is a team sport, it is not just up to a Commissioning Editor or Publisher to choose the next title. Everyone needs to agree.

7. How is this author likely to manage the publicity world?
Can this author do publicity? She can only guess at this, some quiet little wallflowers when given a microphone turn into stand-up comedians while some highly confident personalities freeze up in front of an audience. Publicity is essential – and the publicity department can help give authors tips if necessary.

8. Is this person the right person to publish on this subject?
Not only are publishers interested in what qualifications you have to tackle your subject matter authoratively, Allen & Unwin, among other publishers have been burned by fraudsters in the past, such as a memoir that was actually fictionalised.

9.  Are there other books like this?
The manuscript could fit as a part of a fad. There are always new fads and as soon as on book becomes popular there will be a slew of titles in the same genre appear. Eg. Da Vinci Code: Religious/cult thrillers. Eat Pray Love: Travelling romances. Twilight: Vampire Romance. Harry Potter: YA Wizards. You get the picture. Good timing can aid your submission make it to publication. But you can't really predict the next big thing. Writers and publishers wish we could though, am I right?

There you have it! Something worth thinking about when you submit your manuscript to publishers.

Laters!

Sairz

Sue is the Trade Director at Allen & Unwin, Sue started her publishing career at the independant publishing house McPhee Gribble. She was the managing editor during the period that the company was the powerhouse of Australian literary publishing and she worked with a range of fiction and non-fiction writers. She then moved to Reed Books to start their first paperback imprint and later went on to become the company's non-fiction and illustrated publisher, publishing many well-known authors during that time. In 1996 she moved to Allen & Unwin as the publisher of her own imprint and was appointed as trade publishing director in 2005.

The ups and downs of lately.

Well.

I didn't think I had anything too interesting to write of late because it has mostly been filled with the torture of writing a 2500 essay for my Authorship and Writing class. It's worth 50% of my mark, and since everyone in the class agrees that it is the most hideous question of all questions ever, it's been really really hard to write. Which is why I'm here and not writing my essay. Because I don't understand my essay. And if I don't understand it, then I doubt my lecturer will understand it.
So now I'm here.

There have actually been some ups and downs of late, nothing too dramatic, or I'm just riding a perpetual wave of "meh, whatever" like calm. Aside from the constant moaning and complaining about my essay.

Received my passport. Yay!
Crappy photo - of course. Boo!

Went shopping with my sister and bought a new phone that is made of awesome and does NOT turn off mid-phone call just cos it feels like it. Yay!

Also bought lots of snazzy new clothes so that I don't feel quite so much like the country bogan that I'm ever so slowly turning into. Yay!

Spent lots and lots of money. The Rudd Stimulus package money that I erm...haven't received yet. Boo! (Or - you're a tool, Sarah!)

Had my feature article on Uni students and financial woes published in Lots Wife Magazine in Melbourne AND The Star Newspaper in Gippsland. Yay!

Did I get paid for either of them? No. Boo!

Have been officially accepted into Leeds University for next semester. Yay!

Have been going around checking out flight details for my little sojourn across the USA with Eleanor, and then over to Europe. We're talking $3800! Boo!

Student Visa for the UK is $290! Boo!

Tourist Visa for USA is free! Yay!

Application Visa for USA is $180. Boo!

Have been writing "The In With Santa" in Script Frenzy which I started writing 2 years ago, but never finished. I'm pleased with how it's going. Yay!

Have stopped writing "The In With Santa" until I get these stupid assignments finished. Two due on Monday, one due on Friday. Boo!

Bought tickets to see Mark Watson and Danny Bhoy at the Comedy Festival next week. Tres excited. Yay!

Will have to miss some classes and Badminton to go to them...meh. I can live with that.

Went home to celebrate my birthday early with my family, we went to Dutchie's Stone Grill Restaurant on Phillip Island. I'd never been there before. You cook your food in front of you, on - surprisingly - a stone grill. Was fun and different. Yay!

My sister is paying for half of my passport and my parents are paying for one of my visas for my birthday. Yay!

My doggie Tessa gave me a birthday card, showing that even though she tries to fake me out sometimes, she really loves me. Yay! (The card was written in my mum's handwriting, so I guess mum helped her).

Decided to go out and buy dinner tonight in congratulations for writing...erm...200 words of my assignment. Yay!

As I was rounding the roundabout, a single mum with no car insurance ran into my car and put a big ol' dent in my door. Not exactly Boo, but aw... I feel bad for her. NO CAR INSURANCE.

Tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY! I'm turning 25! Yay!

I will be spending it writing and stressing about assignments. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

That's all.

Love Sairz

Answers at last

Well it's been a little while since I blogged and I gotta tell ya - it's cos I've been busy. But I say that every blog. I now go to Rock n roll dance lessons Mondays, Badminton Tuesdays (hilarious with 3-4 people per team, so you get hit with the shuttle cock a lot. Especially from a person who will remain nameless. "OMG, Sorry, sorry!" he starts the night with, but by the end it becomes: "I can't help it, it's SO funny." Hmm. And then I go to gym Thursdays and Fridays and I haven't found the time to do my mental health walkies in the evening! Except for the time I was wide awake at 2am and thought I should go but then decided against it. I was trying to make myself more tired, not more awake.

Uni is back - can't remember if it was or not in my last blog...anyhoo I'm read-read-reading but not the fun stuff. I'm trying to keep up with the 50 - 100 pages each class sets me for the week, let alone any FUN reading. Or writing.
And at the moment, this is my second week of placement in a grade prep-one class. I'm having lots of fun, really like the kids but they really can be exhausting.
It's especially interesting for me to do reading group with them every morning, and see what they think of the stories. If they can read them. They ARE grade prep and one we're talking about here.
The library got a shipment of new books today and I spent my lunchtime in there poring over them, looking at the publishers and reading the blurbs. Clearly I'm very excited about kids books and what's new in the market. What people are writing about, what kids are reading about and what publishers are buying.
I was interested to find that one of the grade six girls's favourite book at the moment is about a cane toad who's family is being wiped out by floods and people, and he stacks up his dead relatives in the corner of his room. It's by Morris Gleitzman, and though it sounds kinda disturbing, she says it's funny. It'd have to be, wouldn't it? :)

I received some good news and some disappointing news - after a lot of work and a long wait, Allen & Unwin have decided not to publish my book, Life was cool until you got popular. I was spared the moment of receiving the manuscript back in the mail, because I was at Uni and haven't seen it yet, but next time I go back to my parents place it'll be there waiting for me. It's disappointing cos I really thought this was it, this was the beginning, and I KNOW it's a good book, but clearly it wasn't meant to be. Not as a Girlfriend Fiction title. I can sort of see that it doesn't fit neatly into the Girlfriend Fiction mould, they're mostly serious books and mine's a little more out there. But she had lovely things to say about it and more constructive criticism for me should I choose to take it on.
I waited a day and sent it to another publisher and today I've sent it to an Agent as well. I feel I'm getting a bit better at criticism. :)

Continuing on with bad news, one of my dogs passed away. Horrible day. He's been sick for awhile and my parents decided it was time to have him put down cos he wasn't doing too well. So that morning my father met me halfway between our homes and I got to say goodbye and tell him what a good boy he was. And not twenty minutes later, on their way back home he slipped away. It makes me sad thinking about it again, but it's so much better for him to have gone that way, don't you think? And he was an old fellah, he'd had a good life.

Okay. Deep, calming breath.

Good news however, is that I'm being published, though not fiction. I have the movie review and another piece being published in Lots Wife, and a newspaper article in a local paper as well.
Plus, I found out something interesting about the Writers Digest contest I entered last year. I came 88th, which I was thinking, you know, that's average. But then I discovered I came 88th out of 17,000. Not something to be sneezed at, anymore, eh?

Since I can't concentrate on a long piece of work at the moment, as soon as I get some writing time I hope to start some chapter books and juniuor fiction. I have a gazillion ideas, as well as ideas for creative non fiction for kids on topics such as space and australian history. As a writer, I'm definitely learning that you can't pigeon hole yourself. You have to branch out and that's what I'm starting to do.
That's about it from me. Must go and cook and prepare for placement tomorrow.

Ciao,

Sairz

The midway slump. But early

Hmm.
I'm 10,000 words into my NaNo. That's frickin awesome, I say. Except that I feel like I've hit the slump already. I'm tired. I need a day off. Technically, considering I'm about a day ahead on my word count, I could totally take a day off. But then I would be right on deadline and have no more leeway for slackness. Like only writing 800 words yesterday, and the rate I'm going today, getting none done.

In 3 hours I have work, and when I finish that, the end of exams party will have well and truly started. At our house. And some of my housemates have decided that it is definitely time for Sarah to get schnookered. I've never been drunk before, because I generally don't like drunk people, am scared of getting a hang over and really, alcohol is gross, but I'm thinking of joining in the frivolity tonight. But what about my words?
I've been having a kind of shit day so far, with yet another hoop to jump through when it comes to my application to study overseas next year.
BUT - the good thing? Totally posted off my book to Allen & Unwin today. The synopsis was a killer to write, but I think it reads well and I KNOW the book would be a great fit in the Girlfriend Fiction listing, so we'll see how it goes. Scary, because I've been pinning my hopes on this for about 10 months now...what if she rejects it?
Then I keep writing, which I'm already doing. Not giving up. And keep applying to agents.
My web site is coming along pretty well, it's a tough job considering I really don't know what I'm doing, but it looks good. It's not live yet, but when it is I'll totally let you know.
This blog doesn't overly suit it though, so there might be some tweaking to the appearance happening in the near future. But not just yet.
The book I'm co-writing with Kore is going well too, we're over 10,000 words into that as well.
THAT'S why I'm so tired. Not just exams, work, building a web site, applying for overseas study and doing NaNo. I'm doing my co-writerly duties every single day as well. I'm doing bucketloads. I think I have a right to have an off day.

I'm gonna go watch TV.
Write tomorrow. Hopefully without a hang over.

Sairz