THE ONE WHERE WHEN IT RAINED IT POURED
Cat/genre: Adult + YA, multiple genres
Buckle up, friends. We’re going for a ride.
In the notorious year of our lord corona, 2020, I was lucky enough to land myself an agent, do a few small edits, and send my first book out on sub.
We went out to about fifteen editors—so a fairly robust round for adult genre fiction—because we both felt the manuscript was very strong. And to keep from checking my inbox every five minutes, I asked my agent to email me news or rejections once a week.
As you might expect, the next step was: waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
Waiting so long, in fact, that some of our first round of editors were still reading when I finished writing my next book—a YA passion project in a different genre.
Because it was a different category, after waiting a couple more months, we took the second book out on sub, too (and since this one was YA, we didn’t have to do much strategic juggling as the editor pool is quite separate). So off it went to twelve or so new imprints.
By now, I’d learned that weekly news emails weren’t helpful to me (or great for my mental health), so I asked my agent to only pass on good news or actionable feedback.
My inbox got very quiet.
When that first book originally went on sub, I was pretty zen about the whole thing. Not only was I in love with the new passion project, but I truly believed that we’d sell that first book—even if it took forever (I still believe that, btw). I also had some other big life stressors that were sucking up all my energy and keeping me from worrying too much about sub. That is . . . until we got to nine months. Then twelve. God, I really thought we’d have something by twelve. Useful feedback. An R&R I could get excited about. Something. But no—just a few vague passes, a whole lot of silence, one problematic rejection that bothered me for months, and now a second book in the sub trenches.
I started to be a bit less zen. I moved on to yet another project.
When I finished writing that next book while we were still on sub with the first two, I joked to my agent that I’m too fast for this snail-paced industry. And we decided to do something deeply unusual: we went on sub with a third manuscript.
My agent had a good feeling about the timeliness of this one, and neither of us were excited about waiting when the industry was taking so long to even consider my other books. So, off the new book went to a handful of editors (those who had either passed on project #2 and specifically asked to see my next book, or those who had specifically mentioned wanting something like book #3). And in the meantime, I was asked to audition for some IP (intellectual property) projects.
If you aren’t familiar with the term, it’s essentially this: a publisher has an idea and they hire someone to write it for them. Sometimes this comes from an existing fictional universe (like when authors are hired to write Star Wars books or Disney Princess books), and sometimes it’s just an editor with a killer idea who needs someone to execute it for them.
I turned down the first IP audition that came my way because the story wasn’t right for me. The second disappeared, never to be heard from again, before I’d even had a chance to audition. And then there was a third: a staggeringly big opportunity on the fastest publishing timeline I’d ever heard of. It was the same category and genre as that first book that went on sub, and I had a feeling that if I could land the IP, that first manuscript that was gathering dust on editor desks might suddenly get un-dusty.
I dropped everything to audition for that third IP.
By this point, I’d been continuously on sub for about a year and a half. I’d had one close call (an editor told us they were taking one of the books to acquisitions but then promptly quit their job; insert lolsob emoji here), but no other real movement on anything.
I joked to my agent that we were just going to yeet manuscripts at publishing until they cried uncle and signed one just to make me stop. “Just you watch, we’re going to wait forever and then all your books will sell at once,” my agent joked.
After so many months of silence, this is when the phone finally rang.
It was the IP. They wanted to work with me.
And, as my agent predicted, when it rains, it pours. While we were negotiating the IP contract, an offer came in on one of my originals. The third book we took on sub, in case you’re wondering (turns out the unconventional choice to go out with a third was the right choice for me).
That was two offers on two different books in two weeks.
I literally couldn’t take it in.
It took over a week for it to really sink in, to squee at myself in the bathroom mirror, to get goosebumps, to have those moments where I remember I’m about to be published and start randomly grinning like a fool.
I’d been waiting so long that my body didn’t know how to realize the waiting part (for those two projects, at least) was over. But it is. It is over. Those two projects are well on their way, and I’m going to be a double-debut.
Oh yeah, and I’m still on sub with those other two projects. I still believe in both with my whole heart. But I will say that it feels different now, being on sub knowing I can and have sold something instead of just guessing that I can. Sub hasn’t suddenly become fun, but I feel more hopeful.
And publishing, if you’re listening, my agent and I are just going to keep yeeting those other manuscripts at you until you buy them. So you should probably just go ahead and get it over with.
*
The stories on this blog are posted anonymously so that authors can speak candidly about their experience. If you have a sub story you’d like to share, drop me an email at: katedylanbooks@gmail.com
*