Patience, grasshoppers…

Several times on this blog and in interviews elsewhere, I’ve mentioned that publishing looks like a very slow-moving industry from the outside. Your editors and publishers look calm, unruffled and unmoving on the surface, even when they’re paddling furiously underneath.

Today I finished up ARCs for Cold Magics by Erik Buchanan. I have two signed manuscripts in the queue for edits, and drafts pending with the authors on two more.

I wrote in my guidelines for the Slush Rush that a 4-6 month response time could be expected. That seems like a very long time, I know. To be honest, I don’t expect it to take me that long. But it means that January 1 was not the day to start mailing me to ask if I’d looked at your query yet, to ask if response letters had gone out yet, or to ask me why I haven’t sent you a response yet.

I understand that it’s easy to get excited and anxious when you’ve got a submission out somewhere, but I’m sorry. I’m not answering any “Have you answered yet?” mails. The time it would take to respond to them is time I need to be spending on work — work that includes reading and sorting those submissions.

1. Wait until the response window has closed, and THEN send a polite note if you haven’t heard back yet. In my case, the response window closes in JUNE. It is not June yet, last I checked. Also don’t immediately follow your submission with a “did you get it?” mail. Gwen Gades of Dragon Moon Press says it best: “Many publishers will tell you how long it should take to get a response to you… but NONE of them will say ‘43 seconds’.”

2. Even if you do wait a reasonable amount of time before you follow up, if you don’t get an answer right away, don’t keep mailing. Sending off another query every day, every two days, or every week, just makes you seem high-maintenance. Things aren’t going to move any faster if your manuscript is accepted somewhere, so don’t give off the expectation that you’ll be constantly prodding for a status update even when you’ve been told not to expect news yet. Publishers have a lot of projects going on at once, and they get to each of them in due time.

3. Use proper channels. You don’t have to mail someone at work, AND at home, AND comment on their blog, AND leave a Facebook message, AND @ them on Twitter. Seriously. If the front door is locked, don’t go around the house trying all the doors and windows. Trying one additional avenue after a reasonable amount of time is okay. Sometimes a server blinks. But don’t think that doing the contact info rounds will get a response any faster, and especially don’t do a full-spectrum blitz.

4. If you’re going to ignore #1, #2, and #3, at least accept responsibility for your actions. If you get a response that asks you to be patient, don’t get defensive and tell me that it’s someone else’s fault that you’re not; and don’t get overly dramatic and repentant in your apology or tell someone at length how busy you know they must be. It’s not going to get you that answer any faster. Just thank them for the response and give them space.

5. If there’s an extenuating circumstance, don’t wait, but do explain the situation. “I know your guidelines say not to expect feedback until June, but I just wanted you to know that X has expressed interest in the manuscript also, and I wanted to give you first dibs on it. Please let me know if you’re interested so that I can give X an answer,” tells a publisher what’s going on and gives them a fair shot to make time to read and respond, where “Hi, I was wondering if you’d looked at it yet,” doesn’t.