After Sub

What happens after you sign?

I’ve been having various talks with my writing friends (all in different phases of the publishing phase!) and also reading a bunch of pubtips posts, and what we came to conclude is that the time after you’ve left the querying trenches and entered the sub abyss, before you get an offer, is…a void. We don’t get much info about it, do we? And this is to be expected. When you go on sub, advertising it publicly might not be the smartest move (always discuss with your agent, of course!)—when you announce you’re on sub, you’re letting editors know how long you’ve been there, and also what place in your subbing queue they might occupy. This sounds silly, maybe. Are editors really noticing these things? Who knows. In the case they are, you have got to measure if it’s worth it to let everyone know how far in the process you are.

But because there’s so little information available, I’ve seen writers despairing after however many months they deem “too much” on sub, thinking it means their book is dead. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Deals have been made after a book has been out for a year. There’s no set time. With so many editors out there, and so many manuscripts reaching their desks every day, it’s no wonder publishing moves at a snail pace.

It can feel like a lonely time. I’m not on sub yet, but I’ve seen others verbalizing how lonesome it feels. You can’t say too much about it, you can’t find a lot of info out there, and if you’re not tapped into a network, you might have no idea how everything works. This is why it’s so important to make friends. Friends will help you in terms of the business itself—they give you blurbs, advice, etc—but also they’ll be there to hold your hand if something falls through.

So, what happens after you sign? Well, first, you’re probably going to go through, at least, a round of edits. This doesn’t mean your book is bad. Your agent has a vision to make your book even better. Also, don’t expect your agent to have an insane turnaround—like editors, they have other clients, many have daytime full time jobs, moonlighting as agents, and they must read queries while they’re at it. It doesn’t mean your agent will only prioritize you if you’re a star client. Your agent is a partner in crime. You’re not their charity case—you make them money, for god’s sake!—but you’re also not their pal. You both share a passion for your projects, your voice, and you work together to frame your path in the best way possible.

Then you go on sub. And you wait. And wait.

Sub can take multiple rounds, multiple houses, from big 5 to respectable mid-sized presses, and so on. Editors have entire teams they must get on their side and convince your book is worth investing in. If you get lucky and get an offer, you’ll have more edits. Editors won’t do it for you, either. Edit letters give suggestions, but no one is going to write/change the book for you. You put in the work, and then you wait. And wait.

Oh, and editing with an agent/editor will definitely be very different from self-editing. Keep in mind if you disagree with any of your agent’s suggestions, you should feel free to not take said feedback. Your editor will catch plot holes and typos and you’re going to ask yourself how you got an offer with those in there! You got it because your book is good, silly.

Contracts can take a while to get to you. Advances aren’t handed off to you in one go. They’re parcelled, and sometimes there are delays, and, honestly, this isn’t the industry to go into if you want to make stupid amounts of money really quickly. Even if you luck out and get a huge deal, you’re not getting it right now. Ah, and don’t forget about taxes!

Another misconception I hear quite often is that after you get an offer, you’ll have to change your vision to fit the market. Listen, everything has a market. Even if you’re self-publishing, your readers will expect you to follow your genre’s conventions. But, no, most editors are not going to change your book so much that it stops being your book. Things that could change: your title! Don’t be too precious about your stories. I wouldn’t advise you to change something essential to the plot/heart of the book, especially if you feel there might be some bigotry behind that suggestion (for example, if someone told you to make your queer couple not queer). But don’t be afraid to kill your darlings.

If your book dies on sub, do you die with it? No! Write the next thing. It’s not that different from querying. I also assume most writers won’t write a single book and be done. So, invest your time elsewhere. Invest it in hobbies, but also in new projects.

In terms of what’s “normal” or “abnormal”: some agents will not share editor names, only their houses, because there have been cases of writers online stalking the editor. Most agents will share, though, in my experience. Some writers do better knowing everything about everything, others prefer to just receive news when something truly important happens, like an R&R or an offer. You, the writer, should not be the one preparing your package, though you can work at it with your agent and make suggestions. Your agent’s job is preparing the sub package, knowing which editors to send your book to, and they should also pursue connections with editors. New agents will obviously not know everyone yet, and that’s fine! As long as they’re getting good mentorship, and they’re mentors do have the connections, it’s all good.

Imposter syndrome doesn’t go away after you sign with an agent. Sometimes it gets worse. You might fear your agent signed you thinking you were this great artist, but now they’re going to meet the real you and drop you—this doesn’t happen very often. You might have brain worms whispering things to you. Please, remember: you are not a charity case. Your agent signed you because they liked your book and they thought they could market it, sell it, and get their well-deserved compensation.

Finally: congrats! You took the first steps—and, hey, it might end up being a long journey. But time would pass regardless, wouldn’t it? And you would always be a writer, published or not. Might as well try your luck.