Tip of the Week - Follow Submission Guidelines

Since my next two upcoming workshops focus on what you should and shouldn’t do once your manuscript is completed, this week’s tip focuses on the very important step of sending out queries. If you like this tip, many more like it will be included in my upcoming workshop “Mistakes Authors Make When Submitting to Publishers.” Sign up for my newsletter for reminders and details about this workshop.

It may seem like nothing more than common sense, but you would be utterly surprised to find out how many authors ignore this tip, which is this: before you query a publisher or a literary agent, read and follow their submission guidelines.

Submission guidelines can be found on a publisher’s or agent’s website, usually with very little searching. Guidelines can include what genres are accepted, what format the submission should be in, word count, and what information should be included in the submission package. Some guidelines, especially for genre-specific publishers or imprints, can be quite specific as to what editors are looking for as far as characterization and other elements. Guidelines are established for good reason. Even small publishers receive hundreds of queries each week. There is simply no time for an agent or publisher to waste on reading a query that doesn’t fit what they’re looking for.

And yet authors do it, all the time. I’m honestly not sure why. Maybe they didn’t bother to read the submission guidelines. Maybe they feel guidelines are just guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Maybe they think their book is so wonderful that an editor or agent would be willing to ignore the fact that it doesn’t fit. Maybe they think that guidelines are for others, but not for them. (Like when I was a cop – I would constantly see people duck under the yellow “do not cross” tape at a crime scene, apparently thinking it didn’t apply to them.)

One of the queries sent in to the publisher I work for ignored the submission guidelines and actually thanked the publisher for being “open-minded,” obviously hoping that the praise would persuade the publisher to forgive his transgression. NOT.

Please know that nothing, but nothing, irritates a publisher more than an author who ignores the submission guidelines. It doesn’t matter if you think your book is the next Harry Potter – if the guidelines say they don’t accept young adult fantasy, don’t send it in! You may think the worst thing you’re doing is wasting someone’s time, but what you’re really doing is sending the message that you can’t follow instructions. And what editor would want to work with an author who can’t follow simple instructions? Plus, you’ve just burned that market. You’ve lost your one and only shot at submitting to that agent or publisher, and you’ve pissed them off in the process. A year from now you can’t rectify your submission and send in another query. It doesn’t work like that.

~~Jaye Roycraft