R & Rs are Revise and Resubmit requests. Basically, if an editor sees something they like in your work, but feel it still needs tweaking, sometimes they put together a revision letter to see if an author would be interested in revising and submitting the manuscript back.
The other day, I asked on Twitter how many authors have received these and wow, there were so many! It’s not something we really talk about publicly because well, it is embarrassing when you do the revisions and you still don’t get the book deal.
But then, is it really?
There are so many reasons why a book deal isn’t offered. It’s possible one editor loves it and can’t get it through acquisitions. It’s possible the publisher just bought a similar premise through another editor. Many, many reasons.
But each time an author gets an R&R, he or she has to decide whether to take it on. Sometimes, the revisions can be pretty intense. If you have an agent, it’s best to talk it over with them because they can usually recommend a go if they believe it’s worth the time.
Have I received these? Yes. In fact, I did one that I was sure would end up a sale. It didn’t, but I did take the revised book back out. I’m currently doing an R&R for another publisher. Is there a guarantee this will get the book deal? No. But I honestly looked over the very detailed notes and agreed with most of her requests. To give you an idea, she wasn’t sure about the prologue. Honestly, neither was I. I added that in at another editor’s request. Now, maybe I didn’t carry it off as well as I’d hoped, but that particular part of the book never seemed to fit the rest. So, it was easy to cut.
So, I’ve been a busy, busy writer. I’m revising the book and it’s intense. Taking your manuscript apart, cutting, adding… sometimes it can make you feel like this…
I don’t know that this will work for the publisher, but hey, I’ll get a stronger book out of this if not. I also have other work under consideration and might possibly take on a few rewrites for those…
So, while this blog sometimes gets a little quiet, things are flying behind the scenes. 😉