As some of you may or may not know, the REUTS blog is tended by many of our staff, which is why we usually stick to the royal “we,” writing on topics from the stance of a company rather than an individual. Today, I’m breaking that mold. Hi! **waves** I’m Kisa Whipkey. Most of you will know me as the Editorial Director, but what you may not know is that I was the company’s first hire. Which means I’ve had the privilege of seeing REUTS Publications grow from the seed of inception to the spry young sapling we all know and love.
Founder and Creative Director Ashley Ruggirello will say that the tree metaphor wasn’t her intention when she selected our name, but I think it’s the perfect metaphor for our little company. Born of inspiration and watered with love, REUTS Publications has seen a lot of growth over just these few years, continuing to evolve and branch and bloom. And the time has come for it to happen again. Which brings us to the point of today’s post.
In an effort to streamline and improve the experience authors can expect when working with us, we’re restructuring our acquisitions department. My job as Editorial Director has undergone some slight modifications, merging with that of the Acquisitions Director and resulting in my new title: Acquisitions & Editorial Director. No, I’m not superwoman (though some of you may try to claim otherwise), but this post also isn’t about me. As part of my new position, I’ll be working with Ashley and the third member of our acquisitions panel, Marketing Director Summer Wier, to address one of the problem areas in our process — submission response times.
To do that, we have to temporarily close our doors to new submissions. This is important, so pay attention:
Between July 1st and September 1st, 2015 REUTS Publications will be closed to unsolicited submissions.
Our submission form will disappear from our website while we work behind the scenes to implement a new submission process. Details on this shiny new system will be revealed later. For now, here’s what you need to know:
- Wait times for queries (and hopefully full manuscripts) will be significantly shorter
- We will still respond with a personalized response to each and every query (A lack of response does NOT equal “no”)
- We will still accept manuscripts without agent representation
We’re all very excited about this new system and look forward to unveiling it in a few months. But don’t worry, there will still be ways to catch our eye during our submission hiatus. Several of us will be attending various Twitter Pitch Parties over the next few months, and I will be attending the Willamette Writers Conference here in Portland OR for face-to-face pitch sessions. And of course, we are always open to agented submissions.
So that’s it! Thank you for your patience as we go through our latest evolution. We wouldn’t be able to do this without all of you, and your support means everything to us. Here’s to bigger and better things in the coming months. And remember, you still have a few more days to sneak your query in before the window of opportunity closes. 😉
