Tone of publisher
Okay, maybe I'm being overly sensitive this morning. I'm looking around for pub houses for querying about a children's book. I finished it up, had a couple of people read it, and I was feeling really good about it. Now, I'm at the point of looking into publishers. I found a publishing house. They're mid-sized. I've looked at a couple of their books, and I think mine will fit with the type of selection they offer.
I went to their site to check out their info on submissions. The tone is very aggressive and mean. There are words in all caps, which is a general turn-off for me. So, my question for all of you is how much you take the tone into account when you're querying. I'd really like to send my manuscript, and I can follow their guidelines easily, but I almost feel as if the editors wouldn't be nice people to try to work with. Have you found a correlation between the tone of the sub guides and the editors?
I haven't had a book published yet, and I'm not sure what to think now.
Brandi
reph Keeper of the folded waterproof tarp
Posts: 1447
(11/18/04 1:55 pm) Reply
Re: Tone of publisher
You might try asking about them by name on the Background Check board, a few inches down the main Water Cooler page.
Re: Tone of publisher
I have dealt with someone before who has come across as having a bad attitude, I mean she sounded like a real snot, but I didn't let that stop me from submitting to her when I felt I had something suitable.
Eventually I submitted something to her that she liked enough to use. This was only for an article though, dealing with a book you would have to deal with the people more (I assume) so you'd probably want it to be someone pleasant.
April "The best way to predict the future is to invent it" -Alan Kay
Re: Tone of publisher
I think it's somewhat good that the publisher's tone is nasty on their actual website. Better than sounding like pussycats on the site and then rebuffing your query with nastiness. If they are abrupt and short on their site, you won't be accepting syrup in their response to you. If they do respond syrupy, however, you'd feel gleeful. I wouldn't worry about their tone if it is on the site for all the world to see. I am more concerned about a publisher's tone when he's rejecting me. A nice rejection puts me in a funk for a few days, a mean one would probably send me into hiding.
DiTryin New friend
Posts: 39
(12/1/04 10:23 pm) Reply
Re:
Brandi,
Go ahead and submit it if you think it's a good fit.
They probably did that to stop a recurring problem they have with submissions and/or weed out the wrong folks.
I have something similar in my newsletter guidelines, but I'm the nicest person in the world... until you break one of my rules.
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