Cowboy Confessional

A fellow writer and I were discussing why some agents and publishers decline to accect simultaneous submissions (manuscripts sent to multiple agents/publishers at the same time).  There certainly are a number of economic reasons why either group would not want to compete for a valuable manuscript.

Which is why writers should ignore these “restrictions”.

First, let’s be practical.  Writers have the deck stacked against them, having to navigate a maze of slush pile readers, editors, publishers, and lackadaisical marketing departments — just to reach readers, much less zoom to the top of the Amazon.com charts.  We must exercise every advantage we can find.

Peddling a manuscript is a lot like dating.  You need to date a lot of people before finding a match.  And most of us will date multiple people simultaneously until we resonate with just one (unless you are Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, or other power drunk people — in which case continued field-playing is not even limited by marriage).

Second, what would an agent or publisher do if they wanted to take on your work, but had to compete?  If your work is great, they will fight for it.  If it is less than great, you can be dropped on one suitor and keep the other.  Heads you win, tails you win.

Lastly, though ignoring these restrictions may have a slight immoral implication, the odds of an agent or publisher ever discovering your duplicity is very small.  Low risk, high reward.

My fellow pen(wo)men, crank up your laser printers and fire manuscripts into the ether like lead ball from a shotgun.  Take as many targets as one shot can fell.

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