Often when we send manuscripts, we get an auto-generated response saying that 'if we don't get back to you, please consider this a regretful no'. I accept that.
In May last year, I approached a good publisher with my manuscript. In July, I received a response saying that my work had 'substantial potential' and they 'might be interested in making an offer for publication', but were pressed for time, so please contact them in November or December. I did so, but have had no communication at all from them thereafter. I sent a reminder last month, which also went unanswered. Is this normal? How long does it make sense to keep my hopes up?
Thanks Jeff, Jimmy and Julian, and all of you for the confidence boost I needed to get up and move on to another publisher!
Jeff: I know what you mean when you say I'm inviting rejection, but sometimes, it's just so tempting!
Jimmy: I'm based in India, yes ... I've looked at other publishers as well, after Lorraine's suggestion, and now I'm fine-tuning the proposal once more. Thanks again!
Julian: I agree, maybe the word 'good' was not the best one in the context. The publisher in question is Scholastic, which is what led me to say that it is 'good' ...
I'm just an amateur at this game, but I say well done for finding a publisher that didn't ask for a £1000 in advance or urge you to go the self publishing road. But then I wonder what made you feel that this was a good publisher?
I once saw a television play about how a film company bought an option on the film-rights to a book, then sat on the project until they'd brought out another film on the same subject, written by somebody else. They weren't stealing anything from the first writer, they were just ensuring that a rival film with a SIMILAR plot didn't cause them any competition in the marketplace. But they shattered the dreams of the main character [the first writer].
Do publishers do this, as well? I don't know, but it seems to make good [business] sense.
Frankly, I have come to be very cynical about publishers. (This is largely why I became a publisher myself.) I'm sure that they have a LOT of work. But they also hold the future (and the dreams) of would-be writers in their hands. I think that some of them use that in a dirty little power game. And I would guess that the vast majority care more about profits than about books. (It's true that there are writers who care more about profits that about WHAT they actually write, but there are a lot of us - all down through the history of literature - who love books more than bucks.)
Your name and your reply to Susan lead me to assume that you're publishing in the East or perhaps in Africa. I don't know what the publishing situation is like there, but in Britain, most little, independent, idealist, caring publishers seem to either go bankrupt or get swallowed up by larger companies and end up in the hands of conservative, profit-driven multinationals based in the USA.
So: congrats on getting as far as you have! But I agree with Lorraine's [once again: excellent] advice. Send your manuscript to other publishers and see if they'll like it as well. They might even end up having it in the stores while this one you're waiting on now is still contemplating its navel... or its profits graph.