Double Whammy
Posted Mon, 11/01/10
This has to be a first for me. No sooner was the ink dry on my publishing contract for Passion Forsaken, when I received another offer for the same book.
How often does an author have to send a letter of decline to a publisher? It's usually the other way around. The author receives multiple rejections and chalks it up to occupational hazard.
I have no desire to burn bridges behind me, so I was as professional as possible:
Thank you for your consideration in selecting "Passion Forsaken."
However, I have to respectfully decline the offer as I have already signed the book with another publishing company.
One of the oft-stated submission guidelines from publishers is that an author doesn't submit their book (s) simultaneously to another publishing entity. In plain language, this means only submit your work to one publisher at a time, and then wait to hear if you're rejected or accepted before submitting somewhere else. If we all followed that edict, the waiting could stretch into years considering publishers sometimes take several months to respond in the first place. This applies to literary agents as well.
However, I'm very flattered that someone else wants to offer me a contract for Passion Forsaken. It beats rejection letters any day.