Around two years. I could be considered an overly impatient braggart, but I think two years sitting on a manuscript is a fairly long time. And this is the problem with traditional pathways to publication for the unknown and, possibly, shitty author. Is the wait time worth it?
The back story - I wrote a story called The Recast back when I cannot remember, but it is a science fiction story set in a far future version of Australia. The manuscript, written with my favourite software Scrivener, was submitted to a US-based publisher. They emailed me a year later (that was a sign!) with an interesting comment. Someone had pulled it from their mass of unsolicited manuscripts and put it to their people for more attention. The email was a sure boost to the ego, and that is the truth. I was pumped!
What I was unprepared for, as a new and emerging author, was the timeframe. This is not a complaint about the publisher. I get it. Everyone who thinks they can write a novel is sending the poor staff of any publisher who takes unsolicited works their drivel, me included. That translates into a massive workload for a staff who are already exceptionally busy people. I get it, and I have every degree of sympathy for their plight. When real life intrudes on the fantasy I entertain of me being a real author, my job as a teacher gives me some idea of what the staff of a publishing company must endure. I would not want their job, and I am teaching in a secondary school!
But the reality is publishers and their staff, like the rest of humanity, have only twenty-four hours in a day. That time is often taken up with a plethora of conflicting and competing obligations, which means only one thing. The manuscript into which you have poured your soul will often find itself on the back-burner of priorities. As far as trad publishing is concerned, this is the reality and the nature of the beast, through utterly no fault of the staff who work for publishing companies.
Traditional publishing, no matter what crap people level at it, takes time. Pure and simple. If you’re as impatient as some, maybe the indie route is more your juice.
Do I regret submitting a manuscript? Hell, no! For the purely egoistical endorsement that someone who has no idea who I am said my story was worth more than the delete button is something I am happy to live on for years! Last time I emailed the publisher, they said my novel was about 33 in line. Hell, they can take all the time they need. They have endorsed me as a writer with potential. Their decision alone means I am not entirely wasting my time in this caper.
However, all that said, I am also keen to put other stories out there as in indie author. I am planning to use Substack partly for that reason. For the first chapter of any serialised novel, expect that to be for free. After that, my paid subscribers get everything, including the full eBook at the end, if I have published it as such a thing.
In my vast experience, all of six months, I would suggest a mix of traditional publishing for the stories you are in no hurry at all, and indie publishing for those stories you are keen to get to your readers. In the end, keep it real.
You can grab another of my book, NeoTokyo Dead, from all fantastic platforms!
