The Hungry Artist

Back in February, I received an email from one of the House of Anansi editors that they were interested in reading a sample from my novel, The Former Things Have Passed Away, based on a query and synopsis. So they requested the first 25 pages. It had taken them 4 months to get back to me. Something like over a month passed, and I started feeling anxious – do they not like it enough to read more? So I did what technically you’re not supposed to do (according to their submission page) and wrote the editor inquiring if she received my manuscript (I used the word “confirm” so as not to sound pushy) and reminding her that the rest of the novel is available for her perusual. She wrote back a few hours later to tell me that yes indeed, they did receive it and apologized for the delay. They receive thousands of queries a month and she said they are very busy, so I need to give them up to 6 months to respond. However, she said they would read it as soon as possible and thanked me for my patience. Wow, she was not irritated and was very cordial. So if it takes 6 months to get back to me to send the other 120 pages, it may take up to a year to ever make a decision to publish! Ah, it’s just fine; I’m honored that they even chose to give my manuscript a chance out of thousands of queries. Now another waiting game. It feels like waiting for Godot…