Gotten and Offer but Book is with others as well

lexi_dubois · Jul 20, 2014

Hello there. I am needing advice. I have been given an offer on a short story but a small publishing house. I still have multiple houses with my story. What is the standard thing to do? Take the contract if I like it? Email the other houses that it has an offer now and give them a certain amount of time to respond. If so how long?

If I chose to give them a certain amount of time, what should I say to the offering house and to the publishers with it still out there?

Thank you for your help in advance

Sage · Jul 20, 2014

I'm sorry, but is it a book or a short story?

Assuming it's a book, have you checked with BR&BC on the publisher to see if they have a good reputation? Did these other publishers request to see this novel off a query, or do they allow unsolicited mss in their slush? Have you spoken with the editor about what kind of revisions they're going to expect of you? Is the publisher big enough to approach agents with the offer in hand?

lexi_dubois · Jul 20, 2014

@Sage,

It's a short story. All other publishers have either requested a full or it's part of the original submission process. All are aware it's been simultaneously submitted including the house that offered.

jaksen · Jul 20, 2014

Publishers have requested a full on a short story?

Usually you send the whole story to a publisher, magazine, etc., when you submit. However, if I were in your situation, I'd go with whoever offers the most money.

lexi_dubois · Jul 20, 2014

jaksen said:
Publishers have requested a full on a short story?

Usually you send the whole story to a publisher, magazine, etc., when you submit. However, if I were in your situation, I'd go with whoever offers the most money.

Well most of them was send the entire short story and query and it goes in the slush, but several of them requested the whole short story after reading my query (per their guidelines). Then I have a couple of submissions that happened because and editor liked it but couldn't offer because it didn't fit with their line, but then sent over to other houses that they thought it would fit better with.

mistri · Jul 20, 2014

How long is your story? Are you talking about a novella or a 2k short?

veinglory · Jul 20, 2014

In general, you decide whether to take the offer. If you do you withdraw the story from other markets. If you don't you probably should not have submitted there, but you just politely decline the offer.

Anything involving trying to get them to wait to see if you can get an offer you want more needs to be done with utmost transparency and specificity. Mess it up and you might end up with no offer at all.

cwschizzy · Jul 23, 2014

I suggest letting them know of its possible/immediate acceptance and give them a window of time to respond.

Jinsune · Jul 23, 2014

Let the other publishers know that you have an offer and that you would like a response by a certain time period. This is a difficult situation, especially if you're counting on one of the other publishers accepting your work. Like veinglory said, you could go with the publisher who accepted your work and withdraw it from the other pubs. If you do this, you know you'll have a home for your work, but if you hold out for the other publishers, you don't know how long it'll take for a response to come, and in the meantime, the publisher that accepted your work might decide to move on because of your lack of response.

Gotten and Offer but Book is with others as well

lexi_dubois

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

lexi_dubois

jaksen

Caped Codder

lexi_dubois

mistri

Sneezy Member

veinglory

volitare nequeo

cwschizzy

Eviscerate the Proletariat

Jinsune