posted
So I sent out a novel in April to a publisher that said that they take 2-3 months and after that I can follow up with them via email. It's been officially 3 months and I've heard nothing yet so I want to send out a follow up email but I don't know what to say. I'm worried that if the email is bad they'll reject my novel (although they've probably already rejected it - yeah positivity!). Any suggestions/examples of appropriate follow up emails for publishers?
Posts: 72 | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
"No news is good news..." in the writing business. But, if their maximum is three months, I'd double it and query after six months. (I had a publisher sit on a novel for over a year---by mistake, they said---and I got a prompt rejection after I wrote them.)
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I dunno.... I'd hold them to their timeline. If they specifically state that you can query for progress after not hearing form them for three months, I'd maybe give a week or two leeway and then fire off a short, polite email. It's possible they're just behind echedule, it's possible that they misplaced it or it was lost in the mail (or their response was lost in the mail).
Maybe something along the lines of:
I submitted my manuscript to your office on March 2, 2008, and have not received any response from as of yet. As per your instruction on your website, three months have passed and I am writing you to see if you have indeed received my manuscript, or if perhaps your response was lost in transit back to me.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Or some variation on that. If they say they accept follow-up queries after three months, no point in not holding them to it. If they're going to be petulant and reject your manuscript simply because you followed the rules that they've already outlined, I'm not 100% certain that they would be the kind of agent you should be looking for.
Jayson Merryfield
[This message has been edited by Wolfe_boy (edited July 10, 2008).]
posted
Absolutely follow up. If they intended to take you on or ask you for more info they won't change their mind if you send them an email (unless, possibly, it was a really nasty email!); rather, I'd think they'd be happy to follow up. If they've already rejected it, well, then they've already rejected it. They are in the business of reviewing manuscripts, so you have every right to get an answer from them in a reasonable time.
I think Wolfe_Boy's wording is good. Anything polite and business like will work.
Off the top of my head, something like:
Dear Ms. XX,
I'm writing to follow up on a manuscript I sent you 3 months ago. Please let me know if you have received TITLE by Author, sent March 22, 0000. If you have had a chance to review it, I'd love hear back from you.
Sincerely,
XX
Btw, there's no reason to wait 6 months. You've got business to do, they've got business to do. They can always ignore your email, too.
Noah Lukeman, a famous literary agent, suggests following up with in a few weeks, I believe (I should probably check that...)
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited July 10, 2008).]
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited July 10, 2008).]
posted
Let me add this...by my count, I've had, oh, about one hundred eighty manuscripts I've submitted somewhere. (I've lost count of how many actual submissions I've made.) Of that one hundred eighty, I had five disappear without a trace.
Of that five...I queried after a year each time. One---which had two go missing---wrote back saying they didn't know where they were (and they'd been having a problem with their mail). The other three never responded at all.
So I figure after a year, a query, and no answer, it's gone for good.
posted
Thank you all for your helpful replies. I was really anxious about this but I'm feeling better/more prepared now. Posts: 72 | Registered: Aug 2007
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