The last few years have been spent in the intense throes of parenthood. My daughter was born in 2021 and the years after were a joyful mix of newborn snuggles and first milestones to toddler tantrums to now welcoming my son just this year. With all the fierce emotions that bubble up while becoming a new parent, it only makes sense that the novel I started writing during the postpartum haze would be a thriller around motherhood (and one that I’m editing as I go through my second postpartum phase with my son).
Today’s post is all about what the submission process looked like for me with this novel. Now, if you’re not familiar with the phrase “going on submission”, this is essentially when you take the novel that you’ve poured your heart and soul into to publishers and hope for the best. In my last post, How I Got My Literary Agent, I mentioned that I signed with my literary agent in October 2024.
So, what happened after that?
TWO MORE ROUNDS OF EDITS WITH MY AGENT
Soon after I signed with my agent, I got my first round of edits for NOT A GOOD MOTHER. I do want to mention that by this time, I’d already revised the manuscript close to ten / fifteen times already. This is just how the process goes. I revised and polished the novel with my critique partners and beta-readers for two years before the novel was picked up by my agent.
But there’s always more polishing to do!
Over November and December I did one large round of edits and then a smaller round of follow-up edits to get the manuscript in good shape for submission. But that’s not the only thing I worked on at that time.
GETTING THE PITCH READY FOR BOOK 2
My agent had explained to me earlier that when we were going on submission with Book 1, it was good to have a few sample chapters as well as a synopsis ready for my next idea as well. At this point in time, I already had a few ideas for book 2 and was having trouble narrowing it down to one. This is where my agent’s guidance was absolutely invaluable.
When I sent her the ideas for Book 2 (I had a short summary written up for each), she offered her thoughts on each of them and eventually we narrowed it down to the one we both felt strongly about. Once my edits for Book 1 were complete, I got down to work detailing out Book 2, writing the synopsis and the first three chapters. Once these were ready, my agent had some more feedback on these and I revised accordingly over January and February of 2025 to polish these up.
GETTING READY FOR SUBMISSION
With the edits done for Book 1 and the pitch package ready for Book 2, we were officially ready to go on submission. At this point, there wasn’t much else for me to do. My agent was ready to start sending out the manuscript to editors at various publishing houses around the world.
The nail-biting phase was going to begin and my agent very rightly told me to continue working on Book 2, which was a great way to stay occupied.
I was also heavily pregnant at this point in time (my due date was in May 2025), and I thought I’d use the couple of months before the baby arrived to get some work done on Book 2.
GETTING MY FIRST EVER PUBLISHING OFFERS
The day after my agent went on submission with NOT A GOOD MOTHER, I woke up to the most wonderful email of my life. Simon & Schuster Canada had made a pre-emptive offer for my book. I knew how rare it was to get an offer in a day and I remember staring at the email in absolute shock.
I had to read it multiple times before I could respond to my agent. The note from the editor was incredibly kind and I was so glad that she’d understood the book’s themes perfectly. It was such a surreal day, I felt like I was in a dream. I got ready for the office, caught the train and went about my day as usual but inside I was screaming. Later that day I accepted the offer but it still took many days for it all to truly sink in.
The offer from HarperCollins US came around two weeks later, which was also a pre-emptive offer. Bedford Square UK made their offer soon after. All my editors across Canada, US and UK had such lovely things to say about my book and I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. Those few weeks went by in a rush of euphoria and while I really should have made more progress on Book 2 during that time, I felt like I couldn’t concentrate on anything.
WELCOMING MY SON INTO THE WORLD
The weeks and months after getting my publishing offers were a whirlwind of discussions around contracts and deadlines. It was also an extremely busy time for me as my son came a little early and was born around the end of April. My agent and everyone at the agency were all so helpful during this time and made sure to guide me in this process.
The actual publishing contracts take some time to make their way to you after offers are finalised. I’d already received my first edit letter from my editors and started working on revisions before my contracts were actually signed. This is quite normal in publishing, and contracts do tend to take time. That’s because they are usually 20-25 pages of detailed terms and conditions which you really should read through and make sure to understand properly. I was happy to have my agency guide me accordingly through this process.
I started working on edits a couple of months after my son was born. And while this was a hectic phase for me, it’s also difficult for me to stay away from writing for too long and so it was back to the pages for me. Of course, I did make sure to take things easy and give myself lots of time to rest as well. My editors have been incredibly flexible around deadlines and so understanding through the entire process.
HOW THINGS ARE GOING NOW
I am once again in the postpartum phase as my son just turned six months. And the same book that I drafted when my daughter was a baby is now undergoing final rounds of revisions. When I look back now, it’s difficult to fathom how far I’ve come. How I managed to keep going with all my responsibilities. It really is because of the encouragement and guidance from everyone around me, and especially my agent.
If you have any detailed questions about my offers, timelines, responses from editors, contract negotiations etc. you can always reach out to me or comment on this post. I haven’t detailed everything out in this article but would be happy to share my experience if in case you did have any specific questions.