What to Do if Your Manuscript Gets Accepted

Deep down, you think it will never happen. But one day, you will sell your romance novel. When you get the call from the romance editor, what do you do?

Thank her (or him). And then to ask for details of the offer. And then tell her you’ll need time to consider it all. Editors expect this. They know you’re completely crazy at that moment. They know you can’t possibly think because your brain is dancing a mad happy dance. After you say goodbye calmly and politely, you’re allowed to scream and cry and call your mother, your spouse, and your best friend.

The next thing to do is to call an agent. (If you already had one, your agent would have made the original call to say your book had sold.) With an offer in hand, it should be a slam dunk to get an agent. Investigate who sells your kind of story, who has a consistent reputation within the field, and who is taking on new clients. Then call the agent directly and explain that you would like to hire that agent to negotiate your contract. Yes, you will be paying the agent 15% of your royalties on that book forever. But it will be worth it. Agents know contracts. They know authors’ rights. They will help you get the best possible deal, including the best back end rights, the best up front money, and more. You’ll already know who the good agents are, because you will have done your homework even before you submitted your manuscript directly to a publisher.

This tactic won’t work if the contract you have been offered is for a vanity or subsidy publisher and you’re going to end up paying to publish your book. Even though you still need to protect yourself when signing a contract, an agent won’t be interested because there is no profit to you and thus no cut of the profit to the agent. This tactic also won’t work if the publisher is an epublisher, since in most cases today, your expected royalties will be too small for the agent’s cut to pay for the agent’s time. You can still try, though. Epublishing has a big future, and that might influence an agent in your favor.

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