Hope this is the right pool ...
Have you noticed that some of Australia’s leading book publishers are actively seeking unsolicited manuscript submissions? It has been years since most publishers accepted unsolicited manuscripts, whether fiction or nonfiction. Until recently, most manuscripts arrived via a literary agent, whose decision to represent the author was supposed to indicate quality. This recent development is the publishing equivalent of looking up into the sky and seeing pigs flying in formation, one after the other, like ducks.
The major three publishers accepting submissions are:
Pan Macmillan, Manuscript Monday. If you submit the first chapter of your manuscript, plus synopsis, electronically between 10am and 4pm every Monday, you’ll have your work read within one month. Details.
Allen & Unwin, The Friday Pitch. This is a long-running program, by which authors can submit the first chapter of their manuscript, plus synopsis, each Friday. Details.
Penguin’s Monthly Catch. Submissions are restricted to the first week (1-7) of every month. Details.
I have to confess that when I worked as an in-house editor in the 1990s, unsolicited manuscripts were the bane of our lives. They haunted us as we worked on the dozen scheduled books we each had in different stages of production, stacked in piles by the door of our offices. Guiltily we would grab a handful every few months once in a while and read the first few pages chapter, just to make sure we weren’t missing a gem in the rough.
Back then, it was an extremely rare manuscript that made it out of the slush pile and into the production schedule. Today the odds are exactly the same, though the submissions process is changing.
So why are these publishers looking for your unsolicited manuscripts now?
According to the Wheeler Centre’s recent interview with Penguin Publisher Ben Ball, it’s all about the digital transformation of the book industry. ‘Perhaps the main reason is that the digital world is bringing us closer than ever to readers, and therefore aspiring writers,’ said Ball. ‘We want to be an even more active part of that community.’
While the relationship between publishers and writers is more interactive than ever before, I believe other structural forces are at work in the industry. I suspect that a generational change is occurring in literary representation in Australia and that publishers have realised that they are not seeing enough new Australian writing from literary agents. In a recent meeting one publisher admitted to me that they were finding it very difficult to find exciting new voices, and that they weren’t seeing a lot of new fiction writing (in particular) from agents.
There are lots of reasons for this, but here are two. One, a lot of successful established agents have enough authors to represent, so are taking on fewer new clients. Two, their clients, often several books into their careers, seem happy enough with their respective publishers that they do not want to shift publishing houses. Put those together and that’s a recipe for leaving a lot of new writers out in the unrepresented cold.
Another development is also relevant. A few publishers in the US are setting up film production companies (see this Hollywood Reporter piece). In order to maximise their profits, they will need to retain all the relevant rights to the stories their book authors create – which is much easier if you’re working with an unrepresented author who knows nothing of his or her rights.
Things to consider before submitting an unsolicited manuscript
As a literary agent* I do not endorse the submission of a manuscript via this electronic process. An agented submission means that the agent has done a lot of this gatekeeping work for the publisher, and is sending a manuscript to a particular editor/publisher because the agent believes it (a) is of a submission-worthy quality, and (b) might be to the taste of that person. The decision is based on knowledge of which editors like which sorts of books, of relationships built over time.
If you are impatient enough to consider it, be aware of a few things:
- Without expert third-party advice, many writers who believe their work is ready are mistaken, and then disappointed when their submission is unsuccessful. In my own case, I often do a lot of editorial development work with my authors to ensure the manuscript is ready for submission to publishers.
- It is almost impossible to step into the same river twice – once you’ve been rejected by a big publisher, you can’t return with a revised version of the same manuscript. You would have been better off doing more work up front with an experienced editor or finding an agent who is willing to take you on, on the condition that you work on revising your manuscript.
- The volume of electronic submissions will dazzle you. If you don’t follow the publisher’s guidelines, you won’t get read at all because there are plenty of people in the submission queue who did things properly. Take the time to read them, I’ve even provided the links above.
- If you do succeed in attracting the publisher’s interest, how will you know which rights to give them, which rights to keep for yourself, and what happens each step of the way along the path to publication?
Here is a great document from the Australian Society of Authors about the contractual agreement between a literary agent and an author. It explains what a literary agent does (or should do).
If you have any questions, please put them in the comments below or contact me directly.
*I am not a member of the Australian Literary Agents’ Association because until recently I was doing agenting work only occasionally and do not yet meet their criteria for membership. Over the past several years I have regularly provided editorial reports on manuscripts for writers whom I did not represent, for which I have been paid. I’m not sure but I think that also disqualifies me from membership for a while yet.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for this post. From an author’s perspective, it is perceived as just as hard to get an agent as it is to find a publisher, in part I think due to the small scale of the industry in Australia (I’m only beginning to consider it now, with my third book). I have to wonder whether the major publishers are returning to unsolicited manuscripts because of a real desire for new writing or if it’s a bit of PR, given how many readers are aspiring writers these days.
I wouldn’t rule out the slushpile, but with a strong caveat for unrepresented authors: know your rights!
Hi Jen, thanks for your comment. As always, I feel there’s probably a bit of both elements you suggest at work behind publishers’ embracing of the slush pile. I’ve heard too many comments from publishers about the reduction in number of manuscripts they receive from (some) agents.There seems to be a feeling among them that a few agents decided the combination of economic climate, the typically low sales of debut fiction, and the transformation of the publishing industry was an unholy trinity they decided not to pursue. As a result the pipelines of new work from agents to publishers has dried up a bit.
You are quite right that there is only good PR to be had from publishing houses opening up their rusty front gates to unsolicited manuscripts. On close inspection of the publishers’ guidelines, however, they really are not committing to look at much more than a synopsis or a whole chapter. If they want more, don’t call them, they’ll call you. Which is no different from how it’s always been.
Thanks for reading! Virginia
Hi Virginia! Great article, but I’m not sure you’ve really identified a recent theme here. Many Australian publishers have been accepting unsolicited manuscripts for years. Including Pan Macmillan, which you identify as a new addition. A few of them have started taking unsolicited manuscripts in electronic form for the first time, and I suspect the (relatively) onerous submission guidelines are added to make the flow of submissions slightly more manageable.
The last Unwin Fellowship to come to Australia covered off quite a few of these issues in his report, which I think is available publicly. It’s not particularly kind to Australian agents, but it still has some useful things to say.
At any rate, I tend to think the reasons for the high rate of unsolicited manuscript acceptance among Australian publishers is as much about our market as anything else. It’s a small country, and as I’m sure you know it’s difficult to sell foreign rights from Australia, so it’s very hard (and becoming increasingly so) to be an agent. So there aren’t that many of you. That creates the perception that publishers might miss something if they don’t keep the slush pile open. But that’s surely not a recent thing!
Perhaps there are other things at work, too. Literary agents have gained a reputation for being an unscalable fortress for new writers (not so much gatekeepers as guardians of a drawbridge permanently raised), and an intractable battering ram by publishers. They way they operate at Frankfurt book fair for example, reinforces this: their own ivory tower on level 6 with stern minders at the reception desk. So, I don’t think they have done themselves any favours, particularly from the view of unrepresented authors who so wish to have representation. Combined with this, the activities of some in acting as e-publishers for their clients, thus diminishing the value they bring to publishers, has understandably led publishers to circumvent them.
For a publisher, one of the advantages of sourcing through an agent is risk-reduction. That hasn’t changed. But, with the increasing economic pressures on publishers, the agent is becoming a risk-reduction policy with too high a premium. Weighing that against the undoubted benefits, as you mention, makes hedging their bets more sensible.
All that you say regarding the value agents bring is true, and notwithstanding my comments above, I believe they play a valuable role, especially your second bullet point. Once agents start to lose the trust of publishers, and don’t have it from the new writers because they are appear closed to them, then their position in the chain is starting to look uncertain. I think it is beholden on the agents as much as the publishers to address this. Your comments make it seem as if it is the publishers who need to re-think and the new writers who need to beware, which sort of lets the agents off any hook.
As a published (print and digital), but unrepresented author of very little note (but very great talent, of course), I had initially decided I did not want to approach publishers directly but wanted the reach, knowledge and connections of an agent. Mostly what I got was a world-weary sigh, and often not even that. The number I contacted, both in Australia and the UK (where I started) who didn’t even respond, was disturbing. Of a dozen I contacted not one even agreed to accept a submission. So, with more hubris than sense, I said, ‘Sod you’ and did it myself. OK, I started with the creme de la creme (AP Watts, Curtis Brown, WMA and the like) but it hardly made me feel that they were actively pursuing new talent.
Advising writers to tread carefully about direct submissions when most feel as Jennifer – that agents are as hard a nut to crack as publishers – does provoke a certain exasperation.
Alan Skinner recently posted..Pass the hatchet, please
Hi Joel, thanks for reading and commenting. You’re right that unsolicited submissions have continued to be accepted by Australian publishers while in most major markets that channel has been blocked by gatekeeping agents for some time. I hope for publishers’ sake that the electronic submissions process makes sifting through them easier and quicker, as that will reduce the agony of waiting for writers as well as the publishers’ dread of a pile of unread submissions. It’s always great to hear about a great writer “plucked from the slush pile”, because agents certainly are not infallible. But that person tends to be the exception who proves the rule, which is that the slush pile is a very difficult route towards publication, and leaves the successful author relatively vulnerable with regards to his or her rights.
Thanks also for your reminder about the Unwin Fellowship report, which I will find and make some points about here.
Good luck with Momentum, which must be keeping you and your colleagues rather busy!
Hi Alan, thank you for reading my article and for your thoughtful comments. I did not mean to imply that publishers should rethink what they’re doing with regards to accepting unsolicited submissions. If I were a publisher I might well make the same decision. I simply noted its prevalence in Australia and wondered why that might be the case. The great comments I’m getting on this post indicate there are plenty of factors at work, which are worth exploring in other posts.
It is always disappointing to hear of the rudeness (there is no other word for it) and unprofessionalism of so-called book publishing professionals who do not bother to respond to inquiries. This industry is built on human relationships, no matter how digitised aspects of acquisition, production and distribution continue to become. You are quite right that agents who are either battening down their hatches or undercutting publishers by e-publishing books by clients that might otherwise have gone to a traditional publisher are doing themselves and their profession a disservice. But equally writers must know their rights and not be flattered into accepting the first offer that comes along from a publisher without questioning the terms of a contractual agreement.
All of the things you mention are leading towards a blurrier line dividing writers, agents and publishers. Agents do need to work to maintain and build trust with writers and with publishers. I have been very surprised, for example, that the agent of a writer whose memoir turns out to be fabricated seems never to get censured, it’s always the publisher.
As an aside, in the US we’re also beginning to see agented self-published books, in which the agent seems to be acting as a kind of curator among what is often a huge volume of poor-quality material. I’ll have to leave thinking about the implications of that for another post.
Thanks again for writing, I’ll check out your website now.
A fascinating insight, thanks, Virginia. Great to see the considered responses, too.
If you’re right that a “generational chance” is happening, I wonder if part of that might be to do with genre? Would it be fair to say that younger players are less focused on the need to discover “literary” talent, and more focused on fostering the aspiration of writers who read, write and enjoy genre fiction, while publishers – especially ebook publishers – recognise genre fiction’s commerical possibilities and see that as the profitable way of the future? The electronic slush pile of that paradigm makes a lot more sense than the stacks of unsolicited manuscripts gathering dust in the old editorial office.
There has certainly been a perception among aspiring and writers I know that, until recently, agents in Australia haven’t been interested in popular fiction, especially women-dominated genres such as romance and women’s contemporary fiction. Many of the published authors I know have sought representation elsewhere, such as the US or UK, or have attracted the attention of editors via competitions and only become agented once they have a publisher’s interest, and yet several of these have become internationally best-selling authors – though their names continue to be barely recognised in Australia, except by devoted fans.
I’d be very interested to know your thoughts.
Elizabeth Lhuede recently posted..AWW2012 Wrap-up
Hi Elizabeth, I’m very happy to have found your comment – Wordpress has a funny idea of spam sometimes! I am intrigued by your argument about agents and genre fiction. While it’s quite true that some agents have had a “literary” focus, it’s also true that there are successful agents who have been around for years who represent writers of romance or crime fiction whether as a special focus or as part of their larger stable of authors. Certainly it is increasingly difficult for an Australian agent to pursue a purely literary focus, whatever we mean precisely by that rather unstable term. Any reputable agent should be fostering their clients’ aspirations. I am interested to learn that there is a perception of some Australian agents’ lack of interest in contemporary women’s fiction. One of my clients, Fiona Higgins, has a wonderful novel called THE MOTHERS’ GROUP that is as contemporary as women’s fiction gets. That book is released in March by Allen & Unwin, who are doing a brilliant job of bringing it to market. In our information-flooded era, perhaps it’s inevitable that winning competitions and so on is a faster route to getting a publisher’s attention. That’s why there’s such a sense of urgency about platform-building and using Twitter etc to establish some kind of profile in the absence of published works and stand out from the competition for the attention of so-called gatekeepers.
Thank you again for writing. I will now have to check my spam folder regularly to ensure I’m not missing out on other insightful and thoughtful responses to my posts!
It takes hours to prepare every submission in keeping with each agent’s requirements. One of the agent’s functions is surely to help writers not waste time in non-creative activities. But the search for an agent is surely one of the most dispiriting non-creative activities that eats into a writer’s time. I feel I would rather spend my non-creative time approaching a publisher rather than an agent but publishers have surrounded themselves with barriers – of course, I can understand why. As to agents sifting through the chaff, I am not sure that they do that job very well. The slur against self-published books is that they have not been through an editing process, but that is not always true. And even when a book is edited by a publisher disasters can still happen – witness Robert Hughes’s last book which was riddled with errors. Hughes is a polymath. His best work might be behind him but a good editor with the same broad sweep of knowledge as Hughes would not have let those mistakes get through.
Hi Aline,
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. I agree that querying agents is time consuming, but I think if you spend the time to come up with a strong pitch, a synopsis, and some thoughts as to what other books are already out there in the marketplace that might (however tangentially) be considered similar to yours, then those elements should stay consistent in your approach to every agent. What would change would be the sentence(s) about why you approached that particular agent. For example – how did you discover her? Does s/he represent an author you love whose work relates to yours in some way? Did s/he recently sell several books in your genre? It’s like sending out your resume, you alter the cover note to suit the job and the person to whom you’re sending the application.
You’re quite right about sloppy editing, it can be a problem for major trade publishers as well as self-published authors. I have no knowledge of the Hughes book you mention, but there are reasons that poor editing can creep into the books of well established authors. Sometimes those reasons have to do with the author’s willingness to revise or to check proofs; sometimes the publisher gets lazy in the belief that the author’s name will be enough to sell the books even if they’ve cut corners by not getting a proofreader. As I say, this is pure speculation but based on experiences I’ve seen close up.
I appreciate your comments and wish you good luck with your writing.
Virginia
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