Thanks for clarifying about what genres you take. I think that's an excellent first step.
Here's the problem from a writer's perspective: Anyone can set up shop on the Internet and say, "Hey, I'm a publisher!" That doesn't mean they know anything about publishing. It's not an entry-level position, but many people treat it like one. So how do we know who's worth sending our manuscripts to? We ask questions.
Take a look at the threads for some new agencies that are popping up. You'll notice many of the first posts will be something to the effect of, "Oh, yes, Mr. Known-Agent left Awesome Literary to form his own agency, now called Super-Awesome Literary." (Note that Mr. Known-Agent was Mr. Assistant Agent for a while before that. And before he was Mr. Assistant Agent, he was the Awesome Literary Intern. He's been building up to the creation of Super-Awesome Literary for years now.)
When we ask you to clarify your industry experience, the intent isn't to jump to conclusions about you or your background. It's to try and learn what makes your company any more likely to succeed than the dozens of other start-ups that sink within a year, taking authors' manuscripts with them.
Remember: we can't give away first rights more than once. If your company sinks, your authors have to shop whatever books they had with you as reprints or write a brand new book. And that's assuming their books aren't somehow tied up with the company when it goes down. Either way, just like that, years of work go down the drain.
Now you see why we're a little touchy when new publishers treat our hard work like something to practice on? No one expects you or your company to be perfect, but we do expect you to know what you're doing. When we submit, we are offering to share the profits of our hard work. If your company can't improve our product or market it any better than we could ourselves, then we might as well go solo.
Here's the problem from a writer's perspective: Anyone can set up shop on the Internet and say, "Hey, I'm a publisher!" That doesn't mean they know anything about publishing. It's not an entry-level position, but many people treat it like one. So how do we know who's worth sending our manuscripts to? We ask questions.
Take a look at the threads for some new agencies that are popping up. You'll notice many of the first posts will be something to the effect of, "Oh, yes, Mr. Known-Agent left Awesome Literary to form his own agency, now called Super-Awesome Literary." (Note that Mr. Known-Agent was Mr. Assistant Agent for a while before that. And before he was Mr. Assistant Agent, he was the Awesome Literary Intern. He's been building up to the creation of Super-Awesome Literary for years now.)
When we ask you to clarify your industry experience, the intent isn't to jump to conclusions about you or your background. It's to try and learn what makes your company any more likely to succeed than the dozens of other start-ups that sink within a year, taking authors' manuscripts with them.
Remember: we can't give away first rights more than once. If your company sinks, your authors have to shop whatever books they had with you as reprints or write a brand new book. And that's assuming their books aren't somehow tied up with the company when it goes down. Either way, just like that, years of work go down the drain.
Now you see why we're a little touchy when new publishers treat our hard work like something to practice on? No one expects you or your company to be perfect, but we do expect you to know what you're doing. When we submit, we are offering to share the profits of our hard work. If your company can't improve our product or market it any better than we could ourselves, then we might as well go solo.
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