The Early Editorial Process: From submission to acquisition

Posted on November 13, 2023 in London

What happens between a book going out on submission to being acquired by a publisher? How complicated or glamorous are they? How do differ?

Most submissions are sent to editors from agents, but of course many authors are un-agented and may send in their own work themselves. Although many editors prefer to go down the agented route, there are instances when un-agented submissions are acquired and published, especially if writers have completed courses or have visibility elsewhere. There is no ‘right’ path for a book to go from submission to acquisition.

The agent path

When a text is acquired from an agent, it will go out on submission usually as a first point of call. Editors will sometimes be given a full or partial manuscript, with a synopsis and sometimes with a pitch deck. Once they’ve read it and are interested in pursuing it further, they might share it with the wider editorial team to get further clarity on whether the text is one for a publisher’s list. Then they might share with the PR/marketing, rights and sales teams to get a broader picture of how the book might sell. This process might only take a week or so if a submission is garnering lots of interest from multiple publishers and there’s a pressing deadline. Or it may take several weeks, it all depends on the agent’s deadline and whether other publishers are in the running.

A typical submission

In the case of a more typical submission, a publisher may make an offer after reading and sharing with their team. If there are no other publishers in the running, this is typically moved on quickly. There might be some negotiation between a publisher and agent, and if an author and agent are happy, an offer will be accepted, and a contract will be sent out to formalise an acquisition. Sometimes this process can be relatively quick, other times it can be a long process if it takes editors some time to reach a submission. It’s rare and pretty impressive for a submission to go straight into editors’ inboxes and within a few weeks a book is acquired. Publishing is long! And so is the acquisition process.

Atypical submissions

In the case of a high-profile submission with several publishers interested in putting offers on the table, an author and agent may meet with the publisher before or after a first offer is made. Agents may whittle down the publishers to a smaller number based on highest offers and another meeting may be scheduled to narrow the pool down further. These meetings may require publishers to present a marketing campaign too. Often these take place over the course of a week or two, so it can require publishers to shift priorities and focus on a potential acquisition, collaborating across departments to win an auction. Some publishers may pre-empt a book, which usually includes a publisher putting down a big offer that they anticipate will beat out any other publishers in the running. Authors/agents don’t necessarily accept all pre-empts though.

How glamorous is this process?

There can be a misconception that every submission to acquisition process is filled with meetings, several stages of offers and auctions. Most books aren’t acquired in this way. Often editors are submitted texts, they may take a little while to reach them, and may put down an offer if they and their team like it. The process isn’t always glamorous and is often as simple as an editor likes the book and eventually makes an offer. And it isn’t to say that the books with the buzziest and most arduous steps to acquisition are always the biggest and best titles. However, the variation definitely keeps things exciting!