rocking horse publishing « Robin Writes

I’m going to start right off with a bang:

Things To Do When Querying a Publisher

Pay attention to dates. If a publisher is NOT accepting submissions, your ms might go directly into the “no” file.

Follow directions. If those directions say to send as an attachment, do so. If the directions say “NO HEADERS,” go with that. If you can’t read directions, your ms is going into that “no” file.

Likewise, if the submissions page says the publisher only accepts mss of 70K words or more, don’t send your novella or anything else that has fewer words. I don’t mean five fewer, or even 500. Don’t send a ms that is 50K, or it goes into the same file as the ones above.

Don’t send ONLY the ms. How is the publisher supposed to know what the book is about? Read the whole thing? You’re kidding, right? Most small presses have one or two or maybe a couple more people read submissions; besides that, they’re doing a lot of other things as well. There is simply NO TIME for something like this.

Don’t keep emailing and asking about your ms. Sure, you can check with the publisher if a month or so has passed, but once is enough. Many small presses simply don’t respond if the ms isn’t right for them—like literary agents. Sure, it’s not very polite, and authors complain all the time, and I even agree with them. Unless I’m the one who’s supposed to respond. There aren’t enough hours in the day.

Know your terminology. Don’t tell a publisher you want them to “represent” your work; publishers aren’t agents, we publish. Period.

Don’t send a fancy cover letter. Don’t tell me you’ve “perused” my website and have “aspirations.” Nothing screams 1) ESL or 2) I compulsively use dictionary.com quite like trying to sound intelligent. And failing. Especially when words such as these are used incorrectly. I’m looking for a book in which I don’t have to make corrections within every single sentence.

Don’t tell me you’re submitting on someone’s “behave.” Error aside—and not typos, I can tell the difference—if you have an agent who’s not performing up to your standards, it could be due to your book—it might stink. Or your judgment is off base. Or, of course, you’re getting screwed, in which case just find another agent.

NOTE: not everyone who “says” he’s an agent actually is one. Ditto for a “publicist.”

I have, ahem, over 100 submissions sitting in my file. At least half of those will be rejected automatically because of some of these things—or all of these things. Sometimes, though, rejections have to do with timing. If I receive ten children’s books, I’m obviously not going to accept all ten. Your book might be really good, but there might be two that are better . . .

NOTE: do not continue to resubmit if you haven’t received a response. There’s a reason. It might be the time element (mine), or the timing, or you think you didn’t follow directions the first time, or you’re wondering if I actually received it. I probably did. Email doesn’t get lost very often.

There you have it. Follow directions, make sure your ms is “clean,” and tell a good story. And be patient. With large publishers, it can take years before a book is released. Cut small press a little slack on the response time, and don’t be afraid to follow-up. Once. 🙂

I met Paul Hennrich a year or so ago, when I went to speak to the SEMO Writers’ Group in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He gave me a copy of his first novel, Definitions, and I was absolutely hooked on the story: a “retired” DEA agent, Kent Baker, is hanging around St. Louis and trouble just seems to find him—trouble as in murder and mayhem.

So when Paul mentioned that he’d like RHP to publish the next book in this suspense series, I jumped on it—and here it is, Scavengers, with the return of Kent Baker.

Kent Baker once again finds himself chasing the criminal element and rescuing the good guys, this time heading into Illinois farm country. His buddy Kevin’s grandmother has met an untimely end in a pigsty, and Kent takes a road trip to check into the situation.

What he finds there leads to a classmate reunion of sorts, a couple of knife fights, and a trip to UMSL. Oh, and a few altercations here and there. All in a day’s work for a semi-retired, perhaps on a leave of absence, certainly almost washed up and burnt out DEA agent.

And here’s a little about Paul:

Paul Hennrich was born and raised in the rolling farmlands of Southern Illinois, the same as Kent Baker, the protagonist of his mystery/suspense novels. He eventually married and settled in Southeast Missouri, first in Cape Girardeau and then in Jackson where he now resides. He and his wife are the proud parents of a daughter and a son, and grandparents to three grandchildren, all of whom are puzzle pieces of a large, extended family. He wrote his first short story in the third grade and has been forever grateful to his young teacher who took the time to read it to the entire class, even the part about a head rolling down the stairs. That story and his classmates’ reactions to it started him on is love affair with writing.

By the way, we’re having a giveaway for Scavengers over on our Facebook page . . .