Circling the Lot, Looking for a Spot

The Search for a Publisher

Are you a fan of spine-tingly thrillers? A lover of the paranormal? Or a fan of the paranormal who loves to read spine-tingly thrillers? Or a… well, you know. Believe me, if you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ll love Haunted in Paradise.

For a listing of all my books and published short stories, visit my website at www.susanerogers.com. There are links to stories and podcasts online for free, and to purchase any of my books or anthologies. You can also get to each book from my Amazon page. If you’d like a signed copy, my email is sneirish@gmail.com.

In every movie I watched and book I read about a debut author, agents fought over who would represent the book, and publishers offered tens of thousands of dollars as an advance for the rights to their book.

Don’t you believe one word of it!

In the old days, and I’m taking eons ago like the 1970s or 80s, a writer sent a letter to an agent or publisher with a pitch for their book, which probably wasn’t even written yet, or at least not finished. If the agent like the idea, they’d call around and and find a publisher for it. Then the publisher would offer an advance which was intended to support the author while she was writing the rest of the book.

Don’t laugh – it’s true. But it’s certainly not true anymore. And probably hasn’t been for the past three decades at least.

Traditional publishing is very hard. Yes, there are success stories. Sometimes, a book does get picked up right away by the first agent it’s sent to. Really, that’s a one in a million long shot.

Luck, timing, market trends, and saleability are the significant factors, and can randomly determine which books get picked up for publication and which will not. These days, you must have a completed, polished, edited, ready-to-go manuscript accompanied by comps, a pitch, and a full synopsis. You have to provide your own marketing plan and strategy. You need a multi-platform social media presence. And it’s helpful if you have some street creds – a contest won, short stories or excerpts published, selected for writing conferences, etc.

When I started the query process for agents for Haunted in Paradise, I had a naïve notion of the publishing industry. I knew that representation and a contract wasn’t automatic, but I did believe that, with hard work and proper preparation, my book would be on the way to publication in a very short time, maybe a few months at most.

Here’s what really happened…

March 2020 – 7 queries sent to agents.

Rejections – 3 within 1 month; 1 in 2 months; 1 in 3 months

            No response – 2

May 2020 – 8 additional queries sent to agents

            Rejections – 4 within 1 month; 1 in 4 months

            No response – 3

August 2020 – 7 additional queries sent to agents

            Rejections – 4 within 1 month; 1 in 11½ months

            No response – 2

Discouraging, right? Yeah, a bit. But my nature has always been that when I’m denied something I truly want, I become determined to work even harder for it. Giving up has never been in my vocabulary.

After twenty-two agent rejections the first year, I decided to rethink my strategy.

These rejections didn’t equal bad story and bad writing. I knew my story was good. I knew my writing was good. The challenge was to find somebody in the publishing world who would pay attention.

I rethought my plan. After this first year’s results, I was frustrated with agents. After all, seven of the ones I queried didn’t even have the courtesy or professionalism to send me a response, even if it was a rejection.

I started to research other options, keeping to my decision not to self-publish.

I discovered there were plenty of smaller publishers who accepted direct author submissions, without an agent’s representation. Once again, I did my research and came up with a list of those I thought would have some interest in Haunted in Paradise because they had published similar books in the past. I didn’t completely give up on agents, and I decided to continue to query those whose stated interest matched my book. Plus, I also discovered there were lots of contests out there, looking for submissions of unpublished manuscripts and offering publication as a prize.

After all that research, here’s what happened in 2021:

Agents – 2 queries sent

            1 no response

            1 rejected within 1 month

Publishers – 6 queries sent

Rejections – 1 within 1 month; 3 in 2 months; 1 in 3 months; 1 in 15 months

Contests – 4 submissions; 0 prizes

There was one more publisher queried, with a completely different outcome, but I’ll save it until the next post. It deserves a full and complete discussion.

Because of this situation with the publisher I mentioned immediately above, I didn’t query any other publishers or agents in 2022. I did send the manuscript off to 3 contests but wasn’t selected for any prize.

Here’s what happened in 2023:

Publishers – 10 queries sent

4 no response 

Rejections – 3 within 1 month; 1 in 2 months; 1 in 7 months; 1 in 18 months

There was one more publisher queried in 2023.

I submitted a query to Grendel Press in July. They requested a full manuscript in October. They accepted the book in January 2024, and we signed a contract within a week. I was ecstatic!

Haunted in Paradise would be published!

All of this is to say – Don’t you ever give up!

It sounds cliché but it is true that if your work is good, there will be a publisher out there who will love the book and want to give it a spot to call its own.

For Haunted in Paradise, it took 49 submissions – 24 agents, 18 publishers, 7 contests.

Do I think it was worth the time and effort I put into it, the anticipation, the frustration, the dashed hopes?

Hell, yeah!

What’s Next?

Traveling in circles?