Shannon Szczepanski

WELCOME TO PUBLISHING, THE LAND OF “HURRY UP AND WAIT”

This is super normal. There’s a huge approver chain in publishing, (editor, publisher, author, author’s agent, author’s friends, author’s cat, marketing, sales, sales reps, store buyers, etc) so things take a long time if they get snagged in that process. To compensate, I don’t set hard final deadlines - I’ll tell an artist “we need thumbs in 2-3 weeks, then we’ll set another deadline once I have feedback. We’re aiming to have final art in time for this big sales meeting 3 months from now.” I expect work back roughly within 1-2 weeks of feedback given. My artists know not to freak out if things slide.

How to deal with this on the artist end? Know this is normal and not hearing does not mean there’s something wrong with your work. Remember, an AD is taking your work, then cheerleading it down that huge approver chain. At the outset of a job, you can say how long roughly should I expect to wait for feedback? Or if you’re just getting nervous about a previously set deadline coming up quick, you can email the AD and say:” I’m concerned about the deadline we initially set. If feedback doesn’t come in time, can we push that deadline back a bit?” Usually the answer is yes, bc the delay is not your fault. But often, sending that email helps the AD bc they can forward it to their approvers and “shake the tree” a bit.

As always, communication is key. If you’re getting anxious, just let the AD know. Not in a “How dare you not give feedback don’t you know the deadline is coming” way but in a “hey, feeling anxious about this, is everything ok over there” way. Which is good advice for any AD, not just publishing.

—Agent KillFee