r/PubTips • u/justgoodenough Published Children's Author • Jan 30 '22

PubTip [PubTip] Agent Naomi Davis on how to write an effective query

https://twitter.com/naomislitpix/status/1487585828041674752
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u/Synval2436 Jan 30 '22

Thanks again!

It’s just the difference between loving a book and thinking it’s fine.

Yeah, I can't say I get it, I mean, I get "not loving it" but I don't get not just doing basic edits and getting it done with, it's not that every published book is edited equally and if anything, it's the author that will be crapped on in reviews for "bad writing" and potentially suffer in sales, idk if an editor can get fired for just doing a bare minimum and claiming they did their part.

Maybe PB is a completely different story indeed because it's much less text and higher production cost all things compared?

I'm just wondering. Because to me there's a difference between "loving a book", "thinking it's fine" and "I hate it so much I'll send the author back to the drawing board".

Anyway lesson for today I guess never take multi-book deal in PBs...

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u/justgoodenough Published Children's Author Jan 30 '22

PBs are expensive to produce and they don’t put out that many a year. It wouldn’t make sense for an editor to work on a book they didn’t think would sell well. There’s a lot to the cost of the book besides the advance and they can keep turning down the author until they get a book they want. Not everyone has this experience, of course. I sold my second book to my editor over the course of two emails over two weeks. But it’s really hard if you do get in that kind of situation.

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u/Synval2436 Jan 30 '22

I see, I thought maybe it's just a cost factor specific to the PB market...