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Wednesday, March 09, 2011
This blog has moved
Imogen Howson's blog can now be found on her website, at www.imogenhowson.com/blog.
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| Monday, June 07, 2010
Moving house - virtually
Or, as Simon Cowell would probably say if I was a contestant on Britain's Got Talent or the X-Factor, literally moving house. Which would be wrong and would cause me to shriek at the TV.
Anyway, the blog is moving to Wordpress. Eventually my whole website may move there too, but that will entail help from M.G. Braden the magnificent.
Come visit me!
Imogen Howson at Wordpress
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| Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Patriotism is being forced upon me
As if it's not enough that I am surrounded by England flags (houses, cars, iced buns in the baker's shop, Facebook pages...) my groceries just arrived and my harmless little British-grown mint and parsley are in these new plant pots.
Okay, yes, I live in England and Britain, so it would be unreasonable to expect to avoid the relevant flags (although I deeply dislike both and covet Canada's nice maple leaf), but do they have to become part of my interior decor just because I want to make a broad bean and mint pate for next weekend?
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| Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Different ways of responding to rejection
Part of my job at Samhain is to staff the submissions inbox. This mostly involves logging the submissions and passing them on to the acquiring editors. Sometimes it involves answering questions from potential authors - everything from "would this plot element be acceptable to Samhain?" to "how long is your standard contract for?".
It also involves letting authors know if there's a problem with their submission. Sometimes they inadvertently send the wrong format, for instance, or the attachments drop off in cyberspace or come through corrupted.
Sometimes, too, authors send in a manuscript that we don't publish. Most often these are young adult manuscripts, because Samhain used to publish young adult books, although we don't currently do so. We also get submissions for books without romance elements, or comic books, or non-fiction, and in all these cases I send back a fairly standard letter letting the author we can't consider their manuscript.
I also read submissions and send out form rejection letters. I used to work as one of the acquiring editors so I have a fairly good handle on what Samhain is looking for. If a work seems promising I put it back in the slush pile for an acquiring editor to consider. If I know it's not suitable I send a form rejection.
Most authors don't bother replying to either the standard "we can't publish this" letter or the form rejection. Obviously, there's no need to - I assume they just cross Samhain off their list and try their manuscript elsewhere. Some, however, do reply.
This month I've had these type of responses:
(note: I'm quoting no one directly. All these responses are paraphrased not cut & pasted)
Thank you for getting back to me in good time.
Thank you for considering my manuscript. Have a great day!
Thanks for getting back to me. I'm sorry you're not interested in this manuscript, but it's not going to stop me trying to get it published elsewhere.
All these responses are fine. They're not necessary, by any means, but there's no problem with people sending them. And I appreciate the politeness - I've had my share of rejections and I understand how crushing they can be!
This month, however, I've also had these responses (again, all paraphrased):
Screw yourself. You didn't read my book properly you unlettered shallow donkey.
You've lost out.
You lied to me. YOU MAKE MY LIFE VERY HARD AND YOU HAVE NO RESPECT FOR ME OR MY COUNTRY. SCREW YOU.
I would like to point out that my paraphrases use, um, milder language than the originals. I would also like to point out that none of these responses is appropriate. Particularly because two of them were in reply to me saying that I was sorry, we couldn't consider these books because they're something we don't publish.
I mean, really. Do you want your book to be published by a publisher who doesn't publish anything else like that, and therefore has no market for it and no expertise in publicizing that genre? And if you do want us to, do you really think calling the admin assistant names is going to assist you in your goal? And what oh what is wrong with you?
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Scented Danger
a Red Riding Hood Anthology story
from Drollerie Press
Within the Darkness
Blood of the Volcano
Shadow-Weaver
A Cloak of Feathers
Linked
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