So You're Out on Sub
In Which We Talk About Your Manuscript In Editor Inboxes 📬
I know we’re all already thinking of when and how I’m going to put a submarine pun in here since we’re on a pun-filled, metaphorical ship in the writerly seas, but this time I’m going to spare you and just get right to it (mostly because I can’t think of anything good, dammit!).
This week we’ve got a fellow author who says simply:
Everyone talks about surviving querying, but not much about going on sub to editors.
As an extremely Type-A, very Virgo, Virgo, I fully relate to this vent, Surviving Sub. When I’m on submission with my manuscript in editors’ inboxes, I think about it C-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-L-Y. Like, refreshing email every 10 to 15 minutes (which is really more like every 2 to 3 minutes) and no amount of “just work on your next book” advice helps. At all. Not even a little bit.
So honestly, for about the first two weeks of being on sub, I’m doing everything else that needs doing in my life. Catching up on emails, catching up with friends who I haven’t seen when I’ve been in the Writer Cave, getting outside so that my skin can remember what the sun is like, binging all the shows I’m behind on, and reading like wild because it’s one of the few things that actually helps my brain shut off for a bit. In between all of these things, of course I’m still refreshing that email and obsessing over when I’m going to hear anything, but at least I have all these other fun things I can do to distract myself.
After about the two week mark (sometimes a month), my brain starts to get used to the fact that we’re on sub and can start thinking about writing something else again. Even still, I don’t know that I’m fully ready at this point to dive into a full fledged manuscript, so what I tend to do is brainstorm about what I could potentially write next. One to three sentence loglines that get me excited. The ones that peak my interest the most then become a paragraph or two, and those paragraphs that ramp me up even more become a couple-page outlines, and the outline that gets me going the most then gets my attention. Also because I’m an extremely Type-A, very Virgo, Virgo, I will outline the whole damn book, and this process takes somewhere between 6 to 8 weeks for me. I don’t pressure myself to hit any kind of word count goals for the day/week in this time frame, just playing with the idea each day for as long as my mind wants to run with it. It reminds me that writing is fun and not a stressful Oh shit is any editor going to buy this?!?! experience 100% of the time. Once those two months are up and I have an outline, if we’re still on sub, now I’ve fully accepted the fact that this is the new normal of my life probably forever, and my brain can push that fact to the side and work on the next thing. If this isn’t the case for you, no worries whatsoever. There is no right timeline for working on the next book other than the one that works for your brain!
Another thing that helps me during sub time is getting all the data in real time from my agent. I’ve let him know that I want to know when rejections come in so I can update a spreadsheet on my end with who said no and what their reason for rejection is. Sometimes it’s something outside of my control like they’ve already got a gay YA love story set on a year-round Christmas theme park island like mine, but other times it’s something that maybe I should consider revising, especially if it’s a commonality in rejections. Getting this data as folks turn me down helps me from going into an I don’t know what’s happening!!!! spiral. I do know what’s happening and it just so happens to be a lot of no.
I worry this may not be as profound as you were hoping, Surviving Sub, or that it’s not all that different from what people say when being out on submission to agents. But hopefully at a minimum you feel like you have permission to freak out and sit in your feels about being out on sub. I mean, it’s such a vulnerable time! You’ve gotten that agent yes, but now all these editors can still tell you no, and statistically, most of them are going to be a big ol’ no. That’s a scary yet exciting time! Because someday you’re going to get that yes too, but potentially maybe not with this story on sub, and it’s all right to hone in on when and how and who is going to give you that yes. Let yourself feel that, and don’t worry about getting back to writing or being able to focus on anything else until your brain tells you it’s ready. You got this! 🎶 You will survive! Hey hey! 🎶
-JJ
What about you, fellow author-passengers? How do you cope with being on sub to editors? Put your thoughts in the comments below, or if you’d like to stay anonymous, feel free to write them to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com and I’ll post them here for you.
If you’d like to vent about anything author/writing related, write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP. I’ll give you my take in a post, and we’ll crowdsource author opinions in the comments. You’ll remain anonymous, and any haters will be thrown overboard. Ultimately, I think you’re going to be buoyed up by author love and support as we realize we really are all in the same boat 🛳️
As a type A very Virgo, Virgo myself, this reads like my holding pattern whenever I’m waiting to hear back from my agent or editor. Currently, that’s between final draft and copy edits. I totally relate to making sure my agent knows I want to know all the tea. Being able to take a No and process it as useful information rather than a personal rejection is so important. When you said you outline a whole book, I felt seen. lol And that moment of panic after you’ve put so much time into it, like, will me editor even care?! Also my brain was swimming with submarine puns and I still imagined us on an excursion. What a fun cruise! lol
Nice to read this since I'm currently on sub for the very FIRST time! I didn't have to go through this process with my debut since I had editor interest from a pitch contest. I just passed the one month mark, so I'm starting to get used to it now. It's a weird feeling though. I'm just diving into a new project this week, so I hope that will keep me adequately distracted. Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts about being on sub!