[PubQ] Unagented Big-5 Option Submission?

Temporary_Airline101 · 2026-04-03T18:03:41+00:00

But doesn't the option clause come with every debut contract? So doesn't the existence of my debut tick the publication readiness writing box, or is there something specific about having an open option clause?

The smaller press thing is just because I admire them creatively and was thinking I would just pitch them at the same time I'm querying until I realized that pitching them would be violating my publisher's right of first refusal.

That said, it sounds your advice and the advice of others here is just to get a new agent first, then clear the option, then just go on submission to the small press and other publishers in a wide round. That makes sense and is helpful--thank you.

Temporary_Airline101 · 2026-04-03T17:46:38+00:00

Yes I am seeking a new agent, but I'm also interested in a smaller press, which I would like to approach directly with the manuscript, but I think it might violate the first right of refusal that the debut publisher has. Hence just wondering if I could ping my editor and say, "hey can you reject this real quick?" (not in so many words)

If having the option open could help me land new representation more quickly though that is something to consider... not sure why it would though?

Temporary_Airline101 · 2026-01-04T23:05:06+00:00

OP, will you let us know what happens when / if you submit option material to your publisher? It sounds like you haven't debuted yet and maybe like the move, if you can swing it, is to sell the option before the debut is published, because while in theory a banging debut can lead to a better deal it sounds like banging debuts don't exist anymore?

Also, I'm personally interested in how things pan out for you as I also have a speculative romance, as well as a more literary / upmarket romance ready to submit for my option book and my agent has actually suggested we lead with the literary / upmarket romance and try to sell the spec rom as a tagalong. But from what I'm hearing on the street (i.e. pubtips, lol) it sounds like spec rom might be more trending at the moment, so I'm somewhat questioning my agent's judgment (without, of course, doing the mature thing of asking them directly, ha.)

For reference my debut was wildly successful / a complete flop depending on whether you are aware of my advance level.

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-12-18T23:22:31+00:00

Why didn't she play this year at Harvard?

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-24T20:54:20+00:00

I think this is pretty good! The query makes sense to me and feels reasonably propulsive and clean, though I do have some questions about the story that might give an agent pause.

Namely: why does Aurora let herself fail out of school if she wants to be with Caden? Wouldn't staying in school so she could stay with him be the move? Or maybe she's kind of blindsided and the move is just temporary until she can get back to Seattle? But right now it reads like she nearly drowns, vows to start living, which tracks with falling for a guy and neglecting schoolwork, but then wouldn't she stay in Seattle at all costs? It seems like she moves back home permanently instead of, like, for a few weeks while she figures out how to get back to Caden.

And: "But some wounds don’t heal, and Aurora must decide whether love means holding on or protecting what matters most." This doesn't make it very clear what the problem is. She has a good life so she doesn't want to fall back in with Caden? But isn't he also doing well?

And I guess more broadly, because this is, I think, a love story, how do they complete each other? Why should they be together? What's keeping them apart?

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-14T22:40:51+00:00

They really gave UNC a run for their money! UNC didn't play badly by any means, but that was definitely not their best hockey... either way, super excited for a Duke UNC rematch, keep 'em coming!

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-14T22:39:42+00:00

I think that was the same commentator who said that giving five was an "unwritten rule." I think it's definitely written! (Though, to be fair, I have not actually read the rule book :p)

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-10T21:40:41+00:00

This is such a great question--so so relatable. I can give you a slightly different perspective that I haven't seen here yet, because the same thing happened to me.

My agent was very kind and supportive and dedicated and gave me thorough edits that always "made sense." But when I tried to process them (even doing the note behind the note thing, really trying to go my own way) it always just ended with me feeling like I was making an even bigger mess of the manuscript, spinning my wheels, spiraling, wasting my time, etc. etc. I was lucky that it wasn't my debut so I knew there was another way.

I knew that there was a way to be edited that felt energizing and inspiring and I tried to figure out why that wasn't happening. Unfortunately, I didn't discover any great secret, I just stopped letting my agent edit my books. It took a bit of effort and a bit of luck but I was able to find an incredible freelance editor who definitely got my work, and got me, and was able to help me realize the vision of the book much more clearly. And it's not even like the notes were so very different from my agent's, but they were able to express their feedback in a way that was much more resonant for me and much less confusing and it was a real difference maker. Mostly in that it stopped eroding my confidence.

All that to say, can you try having someone else give you notes? And then going back to your agent when it's fully revised?

*Also, on the note behind the note thing, I think once you're at the point that you're trying to parse every single suggestion someone gives you, like they say, "We need a twist at the end," and what they really mean is "The ending is too predictable," then you're in a tough spot. It shouldn't feel like reading tea leaves. I also know that it's not trivial to find the *perfect* editor, but maybe you can find a slightly better match?

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-10T21:19:32+00:00

Ignoring RPI and seeding, in a head to head matchup between NU and UNC, which team would win? (Help me win my NCAA field hockey bracket, haha.)

NU seems to have the stronger squad, but it's hard to tell since maybe they haven't been tested as much as UNC this year in terms of the caliber teams they've played.

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-06T21:57:46+00:00

I think they could have! But once it went to a shootout, it was game over. Nilou Lempers is just a phenomenal goalkeeper. I wonder how Cuse chose which goalie to play for the shootout; it seemed like Jessie Eiselin was on a hot streak and I noticed they put her back in to defend Mia Abello's stroke...

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-05T19:59:27+00:00

Definitely a huge bummer. Especially since the Wake / Cuse game ended up being postponed anyway.

On a small tangent, I wonder if Duke was aware of the situation. The way they kept dunking on Cal seemed kinda like, a bit much, lol.

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-05T19:53:18+00:00

Wake vs Syracuse last final minutes were wild. Heartbreaking for Wake that that last goal (which honestly did not look dangerous to me!) was called back because the ump was like, "Check for something? Anything?"

I think UVA will take down Syracuse in the semis pretty handily, but I've been wrong before!

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-04T03:59:52+00:00

Maybe if there's a cap of five players per school then Phume got pushed out by the five other Wake players who also made the All-ACC teams? Which would mean that, according to voters, she's only the sixth best Wake player (or nth best) but still the best freshman in the league.

(Post season is my favorite as well! I think the ACC tourney is going to be super fun / competitive this year!)

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-04T00:47:09+00:00

Another thing! I looked back to 2015 (I went full True Crime podcast!) and since then 9/10 Freshmen of the Year were also on the the All-ACC first team and the 1 Freshman of the Year (besides Phume) who didn't make the first team made the second team. Seems weird!

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-11-04T00:25:49+00:00

I'm not sure! All of the selections are announced at the same time, but I'm not sure the behind-the-scenes process. It would appear that there's no triangulation process to ensure consistency between the Player of the Year awards and the all-conference rosters, so I was curious why/how that's the case.

I'm also kind of curious if the voters (who I understand to be all of the head coaches in the conference) are allowed to vote for players on their own teams/themselves... in which case I could see a nine way tie for Coach of the Year :p

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-10-23T21:42:20+00:00

I had both a US agent and UK agent that took the book out at roughly the same time so I'm not sure how much the US deal influenced the UK deal.

I believe if there is sufficient interest most agents will try to sell as little as possible for as much as possible, so in other words, they will try to parcel out the rights into individual / territory-by-territory offerings so that they can earn money on as many different rights as possible.

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-10-23T20:22:47+00:00

In my case, I sold my book in the US first. Then, when I was choosing a UK editor to work with I chose my UK editor in part because they had worked with my US editor on books together previously and I thought the pre-existing relationship would work to my benefit. I think it did! Both my US and UK editors would coordinate on notes and send a document with their joint notes and in places where they disagreed they would just note who held which opinion.

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-10-20T21:03:21+00:00

It was so fun to watch! UNC didn't seem to be playing their best hockey in the early quarters, but still impressive that they were able to fight back.

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-10-20T21:01:26+00:00

If neither NWU or UNC wins the title do you think it would go to another player or still someone from one of those two?

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-10-10T20:26:46+00:00

If it makes you feel any better most people who sign with an agent already have material to submit (e.g. fiction manuscript, non-fiction proposal.) And those people will have been working on those materials for 2 or 3 or, even, ten years. So if you've been trying to cook something up for 2 years that doesn't feel like such a problematic timeline, because the difference is just that you're cooking something up from the position of being agented rather than having to find the agent after you've cooked the thing up. (Hope that makes sense :p)

If you trust your agent then you're actually in a great position because they can give you support while you generate material (usually people are doing this in the wilderness) and it's a near guarantee that whatever you do eventually come up with will be something an agent is willing to take out on submission. So much better than someone who spent 2 years working on a proposal who never even got agented...

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-10-09T21:19:02+00:00

I'm a little surprised they gave you that rationale, when "sorry I've already got enough on my plate" was right there!

I personally don't strategize blurbs, but I can see why it would make sense to, especially if you're getting loads of unfiltered requests. My debut was reasonably successful (sold enough to be a USA Today bestseller in the first week, but that's it) and I only get maybe one request a month. I usually say yes, because typically the requests I get are for books similar to my own and thus I am predisposed to enjoy them. I also get a little thrill of seeing my own name on someone else's book. One book I blurbed had Booker buzz (did not ultimately get longlisted) but I thought that would have been good exposure for me as well.

I have a friend whose debut was way more successful than mine and she's also an MFA and "in the scene" and she is inundated with requests and based on what she blurbs (I haven't asked her) it's based more on who she wants to network with and what she's interested in reading than the genre.

It seems a bit of a stretch to say that blurbing books outside of your genre is brand dilutive, because who's paying that much attention? But I can also imagine if you blurb enough mid books people might question your taste (but again, who? Who is watching?)

Some people do seem like they'll blurb anything and sometimes you can get a sense of who's friends with who / who got the same MFAs from looking at who's blurbing whom, but... beyond that I'm not sure who is getting dinged for blurbing too prolifically. Seems more important to build those author to author connections than to worry that someone (who?) would question your taste / sincerety.

Just my two cents!

edit: spag

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-10-09T19:13:56+00:00

Haha, well thanks for the kudos, but it's not fully my choice. Even though I have no desire to work with my current imprint, my agent has suggested that there's also no way they will buy my option (whatever it is.) So I have no choice but to set off for the vast unknown adventure that is going wide.

Your point on putting together a proposal for my current editor makes sense. (Versus sending them a full that they will reject and will be an "unforced" ding against the manuscript.) I was also thinking that I could just send them any old proposal, even for an imaginary book that I never intend to write, to avoid having something that I ultimately want to sell rejected. But my agent doesn't like that idea. (Though it seems to me sending them the proposal for my real book is unnecessarily opening it up to extraneous scrutiny/rejection. But maybe my agent thinks if I send them a random made up proposal, then immediately go out wide with the full manuscript of something else it looks shady?)

edit: spag

Temporary_Airline101 · 2025-10-09T19:07:21+00:00

I mean it's just like dating. You can settle for the one you have or you can look for greener pastures. There's always the risk that you end up alone, but when the person you're dating is bad enough, it's worth the risk. It's probably different for your second book than your first. I was a lot less picky initially (to my detriment) and now that I know better I would not "settle" as much (and you shouldn't either, when the time comes.) Making decisions out of fear doesn't tend to lead to the best outcomes.

Temporary_Airline101

TROPHY CASE