It's been recommended to me by two people not to accept the contribution-based offers I've received and am tempted by. Two people who know more about the publishing industry than me. I know this about them because they are both published writers.

The rationale contradicts and nullifies my motivation for paying someone some money to publish my book, which is: I get one book published, and then I can say I'm a published writer, and then publishers are more open to my writing. Not so, apparently....
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Not much to report, really. Just keeping count. Although those are two quite nice "NO" pics I found, don't you think?

 

 

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So April brought me four rejection letters. Not good. I mean I guess it's better than no response at all. At least I know where I stand. But i think I now have more rejections than chances left. I am still waiting to hear from about a dozen British publishers. They generally do promise to respond, even if it takes a while. Not like American publishers, who generally say they can take 6 months or longer to respond, and they will only get back to you if they are interested. So you kind of send ...
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A month of mixed reviews, March was. I got 3 more form letters to say thanks but no thanks. I also got 2 more "partnership publishing" offers. i.e. I "contribute" to the costs.

You may have read a previous post about my first offer. The cost was £5700. The 2nd offer was a little higher - £8600. Gulp. Okay, they want to do it in hardcover. But a hundred thousand ronts is a hundred thousand ronts. The amount did include illustrations, which I don't need, but I can't imagine taking that cost aw...
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Then again, you do get those rejections that make you feel like maybe your work really isn't that bad.

This publisher said they "publish a lot of educational material and picture books are rarely to be found on our lists. However, we strongly recommend that you take this to a more tradey children’s publisher that focuses on picture books as it has heaps of potential and could be snapped up by them!"

Onward ho, then.

 

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February 14th to February 17th were not such good days. I got four rejections in those four days. 

I also discovered what the "form" letter is. And I am by now becoming quite familiar with it.

They all start and end a little differently, but somewhere in the middle of one or two or three short paragraphs, you inevitably see the words "not suitable for our list". They usually thank you for submitting your work and sometimes even use the word "decline", as if they somewhat sheepishly have turned ...
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It's good news. But, probably, not good enough news.

The offer is essentially a self-publishing offer. Or what publishers might like to call a "co-publishing" offer. They offer to publish your book, but you have to make a "contribution". What you get in exchange is much better distribution and marketing than you could do alone, plus you get a higher percentage of royalties.

It's not quite what one dreams of. The fantasy is that publishers fight over your work because it is so devastatingly good...
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11 Jan 2011:
We're sorry but your story is a little too old and sophisticated for our readers.

13 Jan 2011:
We're sorry but your story is a little too young and patronising for our readers.  

Huh?

 
 
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I have to say, sometimes even rejection can be encouraging. The next three "NO"s, between September and November 2010, all seemed legitimately, sincerely sorry not to say yes. They were all South African publishers, and they were all extremely complimentary, and they went to great pains to say how it pained them to have to say no but with the children's picture book market being what it is in SA (teeny tiny weeny winy) they tend to publish books of local interest, which The Illustrious Mr. B...
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And so it began. On 22 January 2010 (was it really that long ago?), I got my first rejection letter. It was from a local (South African) publisher, whose name is not important. Okay, it was Tafelberg.

I should mention that this first rejection is probably still the least positive one of all the rejections received thus far. I should also mention they were extremely complimentary, as has every publisher been, about the illustrations. They were less complimentary about the story, and about the ...
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I have a friend, Paige Nick, who wrote a novel (her first), called A Million Miles From Normal. (She also has a hilarious blog by the same name.) She gave it to two publishers. Both offered to publish it. In fact, she got a two-book deal. So that sort of thing does happen.

More common is a long litany of rejections, such as I am starting to compile.

I wrote a children's story, called The Illustrious Mr. Blimp. I think it's rather sweet, and has a clever little idea around which the story is wri...
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