In the very earliest months of the pandemic, writers worried if they should still send out queries and proposals. Was it a good time to submit? Should they wait until some later date? There wasn’t necessarily a clear answer, although we offered some discussion on the matter in April 2020. Now, after a year of social distancing and staying at home, it turns out agents and publishers are getting deluged with submissions from writers who’ve had extra time to spend on their manuscripts. In a Clubhouse chat in early April with agents Carly Watters and Jessica Faust, both confirmed a substantial increase in submissions over last year. Gallimard in France has even cried uncle and politely requested that writers defer sending their manuscripts. We’ve heard a similar story from UK agents and publishers.
So what to do? If agents or publishers aren’t explicitly closed or otherwise discouraging, it’s fine to go ahead and submit. Just realize competition may be stiffer and response times may be slow (if a response arrives at all).
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
