Ruth, thanks for stopping by to comment from “the inside” of publishing. (It’s amazing how often the metaphors of love and romance come up when talking about the job market and the publishing market, isn’t it?) So, take it from Ruth: if you’re sending in a manuscript, then editors think you’re “going steady,” not still “dating around.”

In any case, I recommend that Harry (who is one lucky fella to have two UPs biting at once!) be very clear and direct with both presses. The one thing I’ve learned through my own arduous and still incomplete publication phase is that UP editors are overworked and underappreciated like the rest of us academics and really appreciate knowing what’s at stake with the work they are putting into a manuscript.

(Thanks for thinking of me, Historiann!)

Unless, of course, you tell the press that you are multiple-submitting, and they say OK, which they may well do. Most editors are very understanding of the situation in which you are on a tenure clock and can’t afford to wait for one press to come back with an answer before sending it out to another. In that case, they might say “Fine,” or they might say “Give us a 30-day exclusive; we’ll try to get our readers’ reports back and a contract offer out to you in that time. If we don’t meet that deadline, then go ahead and send it to another press.” (That’s a very quick deadline; presses usually ask the readers for reports in six weeks to two months, and readers often take longer.)

Second, having two presses may give Harry more control over what the ultimate book looks like. For example, my adviser reviewed a manuscript of PathBreaking Work for Publisher A and recommended adding another chapter to the manuscript that would allow PathBreaking Work to fully supplant one other Major Work (in the field in which it was path breaking). Manuscript Author thought the project was done and didn’t want to add this chapter. Author had already sent the manuscript to Publisher B and it wanted to publish without major additions/revisions. The presses were basically equal in other respects and she went with Publisher B. So, Harry should keep both options open and see which one best fits with his goals.

Should Harry be fortunate enough to get two publishers who want to review the whole manuscript, he will probably need to make a choice. It doesn’t hurt to ask about multiple submissions, but for a first book, you’ve generally got to pick a first choice.

Harry can learn from one of my mistakes: don’t tip your hand too early. I told dream publishers A & B that I’d have a MS ready for review by August. Come September, dream publisher B wanted to know if and when I was sending the MS, and I was forced to tell them that I had given right of first refusal to publisher A. If Harry has an almost-done MS and two interested publishers, he should tell them that there will be a reviewable MS in Semester X. Send it to first choice at the beginning of that period, giving them time to get back to him without worrying that publisher B expected the MS in January, and now it’s March and they haven’t heard, so it must be somewhere else.

IN general: be vague where you can, but never dishonest. Academic publishing is a small world.

With the second book, I sent a proposal to various places, and then the ms. itself to two presses that expressed an interest. I did not end up playing the presses off against each other, but it was good to feel as if there were options.