Open to Submissions - And Some Suggestions for New Writers

We opened to subs May 15. http://mundania.com/submissions.php

Please, please, please follow the guidelines. We aren't looking for the same things we were last year (this applies to unsolicited manuscripts--in house authors can sub anything any time) and it speeds up the process for everyone in slush when the guidelines are followed.

Some additional tips for those who might be interested:

1. Please double check your spam folders for correspondence. An auto-reply is sent to submissions received. If you didn't get an auto-reply, we didn't get your submission--but check your spam folder. I highly recommend querying from an email address such as Gmail, as we've had trouble with both AOL and Comcast receiving our replies.

2. All submissions that follow the guidelines will receive a reply. If you don't receive a reply, check whether you sent a genre we're not looking for, a file format we don't accept, or didn't include something important such as a synopsis. Depending on the volume of submissions, you may get a rejection letter pointing this out or the submission may have been deleted without review. If you don't receive a reply and you *did* follow the guidelines, again, keep an eye on your spam folder. Every time we open for subs, I receive a handful of complaints that I didn't get back to people when I did send an R notice. (To that end, no, nothing from last year is still under consideration--those full reads were handled in January/early Feb.)

3. Please don't resubmit previously submitted material unless specifically asked to do so. You'll be able to tell because the email will say, "Please feel free to resubmit this in the future."

4. Please watch what you say on your blog. There's nothing worse than being excited about a manuscript, visiting the author's site, and being disappointed in their behavior.

To expand on this, understand that while the number one most important thing is the book you've written, acquiring a book means entering in a business relationship with someone for at least three to five years (and hopefully more--we love to build a backlist with authors). I understand new writers don't have a whole lot to talk about *but* the submissions process on their blogs, but less information is usually the way to go. It's probably not a good idea to blog about rejections. It's *really* a bad idea to blog about rejections calling the editor or agent by name. It's *really* not a smart move to sub to small press and then speak of them as less-than on your blog.

We google every author and every book under serious consideration, to see if the work was previously published and to see if the author is someone who raises any red flags (whether they're professional ones or rather serious ones, like arrests for stalking and assault, which has happened). Treat your public words as what they are: words anyone can read, including people you want to work with.

Sort of like dressing at work for the position you want and not the one you have, act *now* like a professional writer even if you don't have pro credits yet.

The likelihood is that we'll stay open for submissions for sixty to ninety days. Don't rush your work: take your time, polish things up, because you have a couple of months to do so.

Happy writing!