Uh-oh - simultaneous subs to e-pubs?

Simultaneous subs are acceptable provided you let them know you are doing so. I've done it my entire career. As soon as you receive an offer, notify the other party--either offering them the chance to back to you within two weeks with a decision, or that you're withdrawing it from consideration. With two major publishers, I was asked by the editor to sub directly to her from then on instead of going through the general submissions email. It's always worked out for me.

Good luck!

Dee Carney said:

As soon as you receive an offer, notify the other party--either offering them the chance to back to you within two weeks with a decision, or that you're withdrawing it from consideration.

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I have a submission with Samhain, Ellora's, and LSB. I've let them know it's a simultaneous submission. I really appreciate this advice, and just wanted to know how effective you've found this tactic.

phrasing would simply state that this MS is also with an editor at another publisher and you will keep all parties advised as to status. If you get an offer from pub1 while waiting on pub2, write pub2 and advise them you have received an offer/request from another pub and has pub2 had a chance to review it yet.

Most likely you will either get a quick pass or a response from an editor.

RosalieStanton said:

I have a submission with Samhain, Ellora's, and LSB. I've let them know it's a simultaneous submission. I really appreciate this advice, and just wanted to know how effective you've found this tactic.

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As I've said, it's always worked out for me. If, for example, I preferred the story go to X publishing house, I might give X two to four weeks of lead time with the story before then simul subbing to Y and Z publishing houses.

Kate_Sherwood said:

how exactly do you phrase it.

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I say something along the lines of "This manuscript is being submitted to other publishers at this time. Should the status of its availability change, I will be sure to let you know."--or something along those lines.

And yes, I always tell them up front.

I'd let them know asap, personally, because I wouldn't want to chance pissing them off.

I can tell you that the publishers you named won't get angry about simultaneous submissions, so let that knot in your stomach go. The wording you proposed for the query letter was fine. I think the important thing is that you let pubs know up front it's simultaneous, and that you let them know immediately when it's no longer available.

Speaking from the publisher point of view, I don't mind simultaneous submissions at all, it makes perfect sense for me for an author to submit to a few places at a time. That said, it DOES irritate me when someone submits a project and then emails in under a week saying it's been accepted elsewhere. Because then all that's happened is the support staff has had to spend time entering and updating the info into the system--without any chance of us even getting to look at it because most reputable publishers don't have a week turn around time. So not even giving the publishers a chance to read it at all is kind of...eh. If you're going to submit to several publishers, and you know one of them has quicker turn around time and you'd be happy if that one offered you a contract, so you'd pull your submission anyway, then possibly you may want to consider submitting just to them first.

Alternately, I really appreciate it when someone has a submission in with us and lets us know it's been contracted but says they'd still like us to look at it and would we be able to do so within 2 weeks (2 weeks is a reasonable time frame in these cases). This, of course, is not necessary if the pub who offered a contract is the one you really want to publish with, but if you think you'd rather publish with me, I appreciate that opportunity.

Angela James said:

That said, it DOES irritate me when someone submits a project and then emails in under a week saying it's been accepted elsewhere.

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At the risk of irritating one of my own publishers--eep!--here's how I avoid this exact scenario. If X says they take 12 weeks to reply, Y takes 8 weeks and Z takes 6 weeks. I'll sub to X first, wait 4 weeks and then sub to Y and then two weeks later sub to Z. That way, in theory, I'll get all of my replies around the same time. Everyone's also had a chance, hopefully, to read at least some of it.

Thanks for posting this question, I was wondering about this as well.

Most of the websites tell whether they accept simultaneous submissions, and I know Samhain says to let them know about activity on other submissions. Can't recall on the others. Just stick a line at the end of the submission letter stating you've submitted elsewhere and will advise them if you receive an offer from another publisher.

I've never really understood what all the fuss is about. After all, once you get an agent, s/he will send out to multiple pubs all at the same time, or very closely spaced. And those houses don't seem to go ballistic about it. But we're told, by and large, not to...

Life's too short. Nodding to Angela, who knows more about the other side than I, but I once subbed to a house who took 18 months to reply. One house never replied though I sent polite "status" notes twice a year or so. Was I really supposed to treat those books as "dead" for all that time? I was getting gray hairs as it was.

Before my agent and I signed, I tended to give the houses 6-8 weeks before I sent out again. I figured if they were feelin' the lurrve, they had sufficient time to contact me and make an offer. For the books I sold on proposal, the publisher got back to me within a week or two.

My take, YMMV.

Definitely be up front about it, and be sure to keep up with communications about it.

I heard about an author who placed the same story in two anthologies, then claimed she "forgot" to tell Editor A that it had been accepted by Editor B--this while both anthologies were in page proofs. Not a good way to stay on editors' good sides!