There’s a traditional publishing house that has the manuscript for Mad World, and has since April 8th. I followed up with them once and they told me it was still under consideration, which presumably means it hasn’t reached the top of the slush pile and no one has read it yet. That’s fine, I understand the industry and I know they get a lot of submissions.
At this point I would prefer to publish through a traditional publisher, especially this imprint since they specialize in trade and genre books. They are up and coming, hungry and out to penetrate the market. All good things for a new writer. If they aren’t going to pick it up then I want to get it out there myself, and I want to do it soon so I catch the summer/beach read season. Time is short so I need to get a decision from them.
Which brings me to the imbalance of power. I sat and wordsmithed an email to the editor there, bending over backward not to look like I was pushing him. I even apologized for bothering him. Why? Because I know full well that the likely response to such an email is to tell me they pass, without anyone having read it, because it’s one less manuscript they have to read. Not ‘oh sorry we’re taking so long, I’ll get right on it so you have an answer and can move ahead.’
Why do we as writers have to act like meek supplicants? We have a product that they can sell and make money off. They don’t owe us anything and are free to reject it. But they can hold onto it indefinitely, tying it up so we can’t submit elsewhere. This publisher promises to respond in under two months; it’s been two and a half. And I felt like even approaching them was going to tempt a smack-down from them, because they have the power (the ‘hand’, as George Costanza put it).
One more example of the lure of Indie publishing: it shifts power from the big guys to the writer, putting it back into the hands of the ones who created the value in the first place.
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