Editors are conscientious, hard-working, and read all the time, but flesh and blood has its limits. What this means is, even if the editor loves your manuscript, he or she may not get to it for several months. I've not only seen a few, I've seen a few of the manuscripts in them. The bad news is, there are lots of them. People really do submit manuscripts written in Day-Glow marker on yellow pads, or send their grandmother's memoirs of the Oregon Trail to a publisher that specializes in cookbooks.
Query letters are much faster to read than manuscripts.
Rosana Madrid Gatti . All rights reserved.