Submitting my novel to my publisher

REAL NEWS ALERT (pls like or share if you see this)

I’ve submitted my work in progress, provisionally called DEAR HEART, to the editor at my old publisher. She’s newish in this role but well known in the field, and under my old contract I have to give them first sight of my next book. She doesn’t have to take it and I don’t have to accept their offer. The imprint is now called Arcadia, and it does a wider range of things which is useful for someone who writes things I am interested in rather than one narrow strip of genre.

The pitch is, Victorian England, can a fraudulent spirit medium stop an MP murdering his wife? It’s a spooky murder mystery and has a quarrelling female couple for the ages.

I’m also looking at direct submission to a variety of publishers who don’t require agents.

Nor have I given up on agents, the US has many but it is really competitive and I don’t have good US sales to entice them.

This book has had a bumpy ride to get this far but I am proud of it and working to get it so you can see it.

I understand people who self-publish and I may well get there. But it does seem to take either a lot of work or more money than I could afford.

In general the way to deal with submission nerves is to write something else. I have a novella to finalise - it’s been close to read for a while - and a stack of other projects. In the olden days I would have pitched Dear Heart as a series, the characters were designed to be suitable. Nowadays most traditional publishers are reluctant to do series although self-publishers and some digital-first publishers swear by them.

If anyone has questions about writing, reading, the publishing industry do drop me a line, I might hold another Zoom call shortly.

Benjamin Walter Spiers, the Collectors Display Case 1883. Found via artvee