I submitted a book to Deseret Book 8+ weeks ago. I have been waiting as patiently as possible and have not heard back. (They say to expect from 6-8 weeks) Now I am trying to get a hold of them to see if there is a possibility it got lost in the mail etc. I submitted the book about a year and a half ago and during that process (about 4 weeks in) i received a confirmation postcard that they received my manuscript. i have since improved and edited the book and resubmitted it. but this time around i have not received a postcard and the time for consideration has passed and still nothing!
I will probably try sending it in again next week if I haven't heard back, but i am getting a little bit frustrated that they don't have any phone numbers available for me to call to inquire about it. I have sent an email to the contact they have listed from the publishing department, but i have not received a response. I have called the one phone number they have for corporate, but i always get a voicemail. Do you have ANY contact phone numbers for the publishing department? Thanks! :)
No, I don't have any contact numbers for Deseret Book, other than what they post on their website.
Let me make sure I understand. You submitted 1 1/2 years ago and they rejected you. Then you made changes and resubmitted.
Did they ask you to make changes and resubmit? If they did, then be patient. Their website actually says, "Allow at least eight weeks (and occasionally longer) for response on your manuscript." At the 12 week mark, send a short and polite email asking for confirmation of receipt of your book and where it is in the review process.
They've also changed contact names and email addresses since the last time I checked their site. You want to GO HERE and contact the person listed for Publishing.
Make sure you put that email address in your "safe list" so that a reply doesn't end up in your Spam/Trash folder. (That happened to me a lot with authors. If they sent you a reply and it bounced back to them, chances are they don't have time to track you down and figure out why it bounced.)
Also, put all your contact info at the bottom of your email, including mailing address and phone number, so that they have multiple ways to reach you.
If they didn't ask you to resubmit, they may think your second mss is a duplicate submission (which they tell you not to do) unless you were very clear in your query/cover letter that you had re-written the book. However, most of the time, if they weren't interested the first time around, they probably won't be interested in a rewrite unless the changes are substantial.
My recommendation is to send the email again but do not resubmit the same manuscript until you receive a reply.
In the meantime, you are working on another book, aren't you?
(BTW, a friend of mine has her first book coming out next spring. She submitted to a national publisher and didn't hear back for nearly two years before she got an email saying they were interested. So 8 weeks is nothing.)
5 comments:
Another note here--2 months is NOTHING. I'd bet that even their own authors rarely hear back that fast. In my rejection days, it wasn't uncommon to have to wait 6-9 MONTHS for a rejection from DB, Covenant, and (then) Bookcraft.
Here's the good news: the LONGER it takes to hear back, the better, because that means it's taking them longer to make a decision, and it's not a quick and easy rejection.
A long wait means you've made it past at least a stage or two (or more) of the decision-making process.
PATIENCE is the name of the game. I know it's hard (trust me--been there, done that, probably for more years than most), but making a pest of yourself by calling after 8 weeks won't help your case.
An e-mail after 12? Maybe, but JUST to make sure your manuscript isn't lost. Even that I'd be wary of.
JUST WAIT. And work on something else in the meantime. DON'T CALL. Wait.
First time I submitted to Covenant, it was over six months before I heard back.
One of my first rejections came more than a year after submission. I was tempted to email and call and camp out in the publishing company's office lobby because I couldn't believe how long it was taking. I'm really glad I didn't, though, because that would probably have annoyed them. And, though I got rejected, at least they didn't think of me as a pest and put my name on their "Do not ever publish these authors. Ever." list because I'd gotten on their nerves.
Patience. I know it's a virtue, but in this industry it's also a must! (Along with ice cream--that's also requirement.)
And no editor wants to work with a problem. I don't care how good a ms. is, if the author comes across as difficult, demanding, annoying and generally obnoxious, I say no! A polite email is fine, but phone calls? Absolutely not!
My first acceptance took over 7 months.
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