[kcmay]

In March, Angry Robot Books will be accepting unagented & unsolicited manuscripts.

http://angryrobotbooks.com/march-2011-open-door-month/

If you have something almost ready to submit, get busy!

[PeteMC]

Good to know, thanks mate. I wonder if they realise what a deluge they've just let themselves in for!

[MrBF1V3]

If it were about acting I believe this would be a cattle call.

To do this one has to have something extraordinary--but isn't that always the case?

B5

[tmso]

Well, you know, what's the worst they can do - reject it and say you suck?

I do that to myself everyday.

I think I'll try. Bummer that it will take six months for them to get back, though. I guess I can prep my book for self-publishing in the meantime.

[PeteMC]

Too right, it's always worth a shot! I was thinking more that as they have two of the Warhammer 40kfranchise's biggest names on their client list they are probably going to get drowned in a tide of wannabe-warhammer slush!

[Marian Perera]

Bummer that it will take six months for them to get back, though.

That's normal for commercial publishing. An agent has had a full of my manuscript for four months now. If I were to send a manuscript to Tor or Baen (probably the only two major publishers who will look at unagented work), they might take a year or more to respond.

Hopefully I'd be using that year to write more, so it wouldn't be wasted.

[Holbrook]

Well, you know, what's the worst they can do - reject it and say you suck?

I do that to myself everyday.

I think I'll try. Bummer that it will take six months for them to get back, though. I guess I can prep my book for self-publishing in the meantime.

Six months is not bad, I waited nearly 12 to be signed.

Get working on the next novel. Write short stories. Be prepared for when and if they say yes, becuase then they will ask you "What else do you have?"

Take a good look at the range they publish then you will know if your work fits. My doesn't. sadly, even though one of the editors remarked it was the sort of thing he would read, it was not what he was looking for for the imprint.

[tmso]

Six months is not bad, I waited nearly 12 to be signed.

Yikes!

Good advice about start working on the next. As the story is part one of seven, I got my work set out for me. I was kind of hoping, though, that it would be quicker for some reason.

I've read a pre-release book of theirs that was similar to mine (funky historical fiction with a bit of voodoo thrown in), but I didn't like it and stopped reading.

I'm a little worried about the length. They want a fantasy at around 100k. My book is no where near it, but we'll see if I can pad it a bit and maybe I'll come close enough.

Thanks for the advice, all. :)

[tmso]

An agent has had a full of my manuscript for four months now.

The thing is...what are they doing with it, hmmm? Four whole months? The mysteries of agents and publishers... :p

[Marian Perera]

The thing is...what are they doing with it, hmmm?

It's probably in a queue. The agent's pre-existing clients also have manuscripts, their editors might want revisions, foreign rights might need to be negotiated and so on.

A new agent recently joined the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency and said she was building up a client list from scratch. According to her blog, she once got 1600 emails in one day, all from writers querying novels.

I'd like to get a quick reply but I have an idea what the industry is like.