I'm bringing a novel that I'm over the moon about to our acquisitions meeting this Tuesday. I feel like it's such a long shot, and I just feel sick about it.
Children's books for a commercial audience. We do the full spectrum (board books for babies, picture books for 3-6-year-olds, chapter books and novels for elementary kids, and novels for teens). I work primarily on picture books and young adult novels. This potential acquisition is the latter.
Different factors are always in play. I believe in every book I bring to acquisitions, and certainly hope to convey that when I present it. But I feel like this particular book is a long shot because a) there is another auction manuscript on a very similar topic and with a similar voice and for the same audience being discussed the day before, b) we already have two OTHER authors who write for a similar audience and on similar themes on our list, c) there are three other houses very interested and I'm proposing a rather modest advance (on the advice of the editorial director), and d) it needs a lot of editorial work. All of those factors together make it a long shot, but the writing is incredible and I love the story, so if we don't get the other project and everyone else loves it as I do, it might still have a shot. I'm still hoping for it with all my might!
Do you bring one book to the acquisitions board at a time? I imagine that would be the case, it would be a lot of work to juggle multiple books if they got approved.
(Sorry, just wondering, I'm really interested in getting into editing).
Our acquisitions board meets every three weeks, and sometimes editors will bring more than one project--it depends how many manuscripts you and the rest of the editorial group are interested in at a time.
But that doesn't indicate how many books you're actually WORKING on at a time. We're continually signing up books for the next season's list (and the one after that, and after that...). It certainly varies from editor to editor, but often editors will be juggling 10-15 books a season, continually working on all of them. For example, for this upcoming season (spring 09), I'm working on 10 books (7 of my boss's, 3 of my own). That's a relatively light list though, and last season (fall 08), I had 16 projects (13 of my boss's, 3 of my own) to work on at once. It is a lot of work, but usually (hopefully) the manuscripts don't all come in at the exact same time, and you get very good at juggling.
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And yes, you should get an agent. But let me know if you get something in the works!
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Just believe in it. That will show then, when you pitch it, and it seems like that would be the best way to help the book :)
~Jeanne P.
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~Jeanne P.
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(Sorry, just wondering, I'm really interested in getting into editing).
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But that doesn't indicate how many books you're actually WORKING on at a time. We're continually signing up books for the next season's list (and the one after that, and after that...). It certainly varies from editor to editor, but often editors will be juggling 10-15 books a season, continually working on all of them. For example, for this upcoming season (spring 09), I'm working on 10 books (7 of my boss's, 3 of my own). That's a relatively light list though, and last season (fall 08), I had 16 projects (13 of my boss's, 3 of my own) to work on at once. It is a lot of work, but usually (hopefully) the manuscripts don't all come in at the exact same time, and you get very good at juggling.
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see you soon? tomorrow? night? maybe?
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