27/11/2024
💫 Submissions (Pt. 3): Making Decisions📄⚖️
Making the call is the toughest part of submissions. We receive so many wonderful stories and only have so much time and resources to publish books. It can feel impossible to choose. Here is how we approach making decisions on submissions as an indie publisher.
Rejecting a submission 🙅
Rejection is a central part of publishing, but it isn’t easy or fun. Authors have taken the time and made themselves vulnerable by sending their manuscripts to us for review. Even when a submission isn’t right for us, there is always something good to say about it. We recognise that a plain rejection can also leave an author floundering and lacking confidence. Where possible, we do try to include a constructive reason why it wasn’t right for us.
Making a full request 📜
We make full requests when a manuscript is ticking most of our boxes and we’re excited to see more of it before making a final decision. We make sure to include a piece of constructive feedback alongside sharing what we loved about the piece. A full request is something to be incredibly proud of. But it is our responsibility to manage expectations. Every book we publish sees every stage of editing. We think it is important to be transparent with our authors about expectations with developmental and line editing from the very beginning.
The acceptance emails 🎉
We love an acceptance email. It is actually incredibly nerve wracking for us as the response we are awaiting is essentially an acceptance email of our own. We hope our acceptance emails come across as virtual party streamers when they open it up. We also think it is important to continue transparency at this point, meaning open discussions about expectations in terms of editing, marketing, royalties and timeframes. Authors are part of our team, we love to get in a call to chat about expectations and visions. Indie publishing with a small, albeit dedicated, team at the beginning of their adventure is not for everyone. The message of our acceptance emails is very much: we want to invite you on our journey, would you like to join us?
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This post is part of our new 💫 Guiding Star content series. For more publishing tips, tutorials, and behind-the-scenes, make sure to follow us on our journey as we bring to life our next cosy fantasy title. 🥰 If you’re ready to launch your own stories into the stars, don’t miss our next instalment! Until next time! 👋
