Acquired reading
Harold Underdown at The Purple Crayon has recently posted an especially good article about the manuscript-acquisition process -- not from the writer's perspective (that would be, "Writer waits. And waits. And waits. And..."), but rather the "What exactly goes on inside the publishing house?" take on things.
As nerve-wracking as the ordeal can be for the writer with a manuscript under consideration, and as inclined as we writers may be to think that no one else involved is alternating between whooping it up and unknotting their guts, Harold points out that the process can be an emotional one for the editor as well:
Update: I realized shortly after posting that some (many? most?) children's writers with a manuscript in the acquisitions process may not even know that they're in that process until it's over and they receive The Call. In my case, I've never gotten The Call (or The E-Mail) out of the blue -- for each offer I've received, I've been told beforehand that it was in the works, assuming that the process went as the editor hoped.
Whether you've received one book offer or 300 -- in case Jane Yolen is reading -- I'd be interested in knowing whether you (typically) knew that your manuscript was going through the acquisitions rigmarole before the offer came in.
As nerve-wracking as the ordeal can be for the writer with a manuscript under consideration, and as inclined as we writers may be to think that no one else involved is alternating between whooping it up and unknotting their guts, Harold points out that the process can be an emotional one for the editor as well:
[T]he acquisition process always begins with the moment when an editor decides that she wants to publish a particular manuscript. This is an exciting moment for the editor!If you savor the black-box mystery of not knowing what on earth is going on with your manuscript and potential editor while you wait for an offer, then you should, of course, skip this article.
...
The acquisition meeting itself , also known as publishing meeting, can be a stressful experience for an editor...
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Update: I realized shortly after posting that some (many? most?) children's writers with a manuscript in the acquisitions process may not even know that they're in that process until it's over and they receive The Call. In my case, I've never gotten The Call (or The E-Mail) out of the blue -- for each offer I've received, I've been told beforehand that it was in the works, assuming that the process went as the editor hoped.
Whether you've received one book offer or 300 -- in case Jane Yolen is reading -- I'd be interested in knowing whether you (typically) knew that your manuscript was going through the acquisitions rigmarole before the offer came in.
Chris Barton. permalink
