What I Learned on Submission By Diane Barnes

I recently learned that my novel MORE THAN will be published on October 29, 2019. I cried big, ugly tears of joy when I received the news. It’s my third book, and I have never been that emotional about a release before. For a long time, I feared this novel would live in my bottom desk drawer next to the bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs I have stashed away in case of an emergency.

The novel is about an overweight, middle-aged lonely widow who reshapes her body, and more importantly, her life by attending an exercise class at her local gym. 

I was naively confident when my book went out on submission.  My first two novels were published. Other students in my novel writing classes told me I had a winner, beta readers loved it, and my agent messaged me while reading it to say it made her cry but was also so funny she spit her coffee out. In my disillusioned mind, publishers would be fighting for it.

Instead, this is what they had to say:

• Nobody wants to read about an overweight middle-aged woman.
• We’re concerned about “fat shaming.”

For the record, my book doesn’t fat shame, and I think readers want to see more characters who aren’t beautiful, wealthy and twenty-something. It was hard to convince publishers of this though. My book was on submission for a year — a long, emotional roller coaster of a year.  I wasn’t ready for this, but I’m better off today because of it. I learned a lot about publishing and ended up working with a publisher I love. Here are my takeaways about the process:

Being on submission is harder than querying. During querying, I had control in the process. I researched agents and sent my emails. Throughout the process, I  knew who was reading my manuscript and how long they had it. I decided when to send follow-ups, and the responses came directly to me.  During submission, you give control to your agent. She’s the one who sends the manuscript to editors and she’s the one who receives the responses.

For me, it was hard to turn over that control. Luckily, my agent excels at communicating and kept me informed every step of the way. Still, the waiting was hard.  I felt I had to be doing something. So, I would constantly research publishers and editors and shoot off emails asking my agent to submit to them. She never told me to knock it off.  Mostly, she patiently explained why they weren’t a good fit. 

Even if editors love your book, it’s not enough. Ouch! This was the most painful lesson I learned.  Think about querying and how difficult it is to find an agent who loves your work and wants to represent it. Now, imagine how much harder that would be if the agent worked at a big agency and all the other agents there had to love your book just as much in order for her to represent it. That’s similar to what has to happen to get a book deal because no matter how much an editor loves your book, she doesn’t have the final say. The editor presents your book to an acquisitions board and they make a collaborative business decision based on how well they think your book will sell, which is a lot like fortune telling because they have no idea.

The political climate is impacting book deals. Yes, I’m blaming my rejections on President Trump. I’m joking. Sort of.  People are a lot more sensitive to bullying and name calling these days and are afraid of doing or saying something that will offend others.  There are one or two scenes in my novel where people aren’t nice to my character because of her size, and editors were concerned readers might be offended. I can’t help but wonder if they would have been as concerned during the Obama years.

Make sure you can count on your agent. When it comes to agents, I hit the lottery. Seriously. Anyone can stand by you when things are easy, but when rejections are piling up and your confidence starts to slip and the emergency Mini Eggs are long gone, it’s a godsend to have an agent who not only stands by you but repeatedly reminds you how much she believes in your book and your writing. 

Work on your next book during the submission process. While my book was on submission, it was had for me to think about anything else. I was always distracted, wondering if today would be the day I heard something.  No matter what I was doing, I was sneaking peeks at my phone to see if I missed any messages. The only time I got relief from my obsessing was when I was working on my next story and lost in writing a scene. 

Listen to your agent. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been so confident going into submission.  My straight-shooting agent had warned me the industry was going through serious changes. As much as she loved the book, she said it would be hard to get passed some gatekeepers, especially because I didn’t have a large social media presence.  “Readers will love it, we just need a way to get it into their hands,” she predicted. From the get-go, she suggested a small publisher that has a strong track record with women’s fiction and has produced a few USA Today Bestselling authors as a great match for my book, but I really wanted to hold out for one of the big houses. After all, doesn’t every author dream of getting published by one of the big houses?

So we methodically went through the submission process, sending my manuscript to a select few editors at a time.  We came very close, making it all the way to acquisitions boards at two big houses, only to have editors regretfully pass along bad news.  And then my agent sent my manuscript to Red Adept Publishing, where she wanted to send it to all along. As she hoped, they loved it.

A publisher’s size doesn’t matter. What’s important is that the publisher loves your book and will do everything they can to make it successful. Red Adept Publishing has been phenomenal to work with, far exceeding my expectations. Everyone from the owner, to the development editor, line editors, proofreaders and other authors have been incredibly supportive and invested in my success.  As I watch some of my peers struggling with their own publishing houses, I am grateful every day for my publisher and glad that they published MORE THAN instead of one of the big guys. With their help, the manuscript we submitted is a better book today.

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Diane Barnes is the author of the romance novels Waiting for Ethan (2015) and Mixed Signals (2016). MORE THAN is her debut in women’s fiction. Diane is a marketing and corporate communication writer in the health care industry. When she’s not writing, she’s at the gym, running or playing tennis, trying to burn off the ridiculous amounts of chocolate and ice cream she eats. She and her husband Steven live in Massachusetts and dream of moving to Turks and Caicos – at least for the winter months. She hopes you enjoy reading her books as much as she enjoyed writing them.

Follow her on Twitter  https://twitter.com/DianeBarnes777

Find out more about her on her Website https://www.dianembarnes.com/

MORE THAN

“You are obese, Mrs. Moriarty.”

Peggy Moriarty is stunned by her doctor’s words. She knows she’s let herself go a bit, but she thinks the young, skinny physician is exaggerating. Her husband’s death fourteen years ago left her to raise their twins, Grace and Greg, alone. But now that they’re teenagers, doing their own things, her only hobby is watching Messages from Beyond, a show about a medium who connects the grieving with their deceased loved ones.

When the twins leave for college, they give Peggy a gift certificate for an exercise class. At first, Peggy is insulted. But once the sting wears off, she realizes if she gets in shape, she might gain the confidence she needs to go on her favorite TV show and talk to her husband one last time.

With help from her new friends at the gym and Carmen Tavarez, the mother of Grace’s boyfriend, Peggy begins to emerge from her prolonged grief and spread her wings. She may soon discover that her sum is more than a mother, a widow, and her body.

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips