Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Frequently Asked Questions Series: Installment Six

Welcome to the sixth installment in our new series of Frequently Asked Questions!

Over several years of dealing with queries and submissions, we’ve found that some questions get asked more frequently than others. So, over the next few months, on every alternate Monday, we’re putting up two or three of these, together with (because we’re nice like that) their answers.
The comments section will be open for anyone who’d like to ask for clarification, and Samhain staff will be along to provide further details or answers to supplementary questions.
If you’d like to view our full collection of FAQs, go here. At the end of this series, any extra questions and answers will be added to our current FAQ page and kept as a permanent resource.

(click here to view installment one)
(click here to view installment two)
(click here to view installment three)
(click here to view installment four)
(click here to view installment five)

Topic Three: Hearing Back from Samhain Publishing

3.1. How long will I have to wait for a response?
As soon as you send your manuscript in, we send out an auto-response email to confirm receipt. Sometimes, this goes astray in cyberspace or gets caught in an author’s spam filter, so if you don’t receive it please feel free to email the submissions address to check we got it.
Once a submission has been received, although a number of authors get a reply within a few days, responses can take up to 12 to 16 weeks.

Topic Four: Rejections

4.1. I previously submitted my manuscript to Samhain and it was rejected. May I resubmit it?
Sorry, no. Our acquiring editors do make editorial suggestions and request revisions on manuscripts that are not quite working for them. (If you receive a response requesting you to revise and resubmit, then that’s a big compliment—it means an editor likes your work enough to want to contract it, if you can fix certain things she believes need work.)
Also, if an editor thinks a manuscript has merit, but it’s not personally to her taste, she will often pass it on to another editor for a second consideration.
If your manuscript is rejected, it doesn’t mean it has no merit—this is a very subjective industry—but it does mean that, after careful consideration, one or more of our acquiring editors feel that Samhain is not the right publisher for it. And although the editor might want to see other manuscripts of yours, she doesn’t want to see that one again.

4.2. I previously submitted my manuscript to a Samhain anthology call and it didn’t make the final cut. May I resubmit it?
Again, sorry, no. Our anthologies normally have specific themes, so if a themed story isn’t chosen for the anthology, it would be counter-productive for us to release the story separately, because it over-saturates the market with that type of story, and makes the anthology less “special”. Occasionally the anthology editor will pass on a stand-out story to another editor for consideration, but this is at the editor’s discretion, and she’ll let you know she’s done so. Once you’ve received a rejection letter on your manuscript, we’re afraid that’s it as far as publication with Samhain is concerned.

4.3. I previously submitted my manuscript as part of a multi-author anthology and it was rejected. May I resubmit it individually?
Again, no. Our editors’ schedules don’t allow for reconsidering manuscripts we’ve already rejected. Send us something new instead!

4.4. You rejected my book, but didn’t give me any feedback. May I email and ask the editor for advice?
Samhain used to give feedback on most of the manuscripts we rejected. Unfortunately, this led to our staff receiving a number of disagreeable emails from disgruntled authors. It’s depressing to spend time on a rejection email only to get an angry response, so we switched to a form letter and no longer require our editors to provide feedback. On occasion, an editor will give personal feedback, but this is entirely at her discretion—it’s time consuming (and unpaid!)— so if you don’t receive any feedback with your rejection email please don’t email and ask.