Why do editors 'ghost'

I saw some recent discourse about this on the Substack app, but it’s been a topic of heated conversation within publishing, between writers and agents, and between agents and editors for the past few years. Some of you may recall Jonathan Karp’s infamous mandate that editors must respond to agent submissions within a month¹, after he learned about ghosting.

In the past few years, there have been more instances of editors simply not responding to submissions from agents. They will respond to the pitch, but after receiving the manuscript, neither reject nor ask for a call, even after multiple follow-ups and sometimes even after calls and auction rules are set.

If you are an editor I work with who follows me here, this isn’t about you. You are all perfect. Also, thanks!

Why is this happening?

The two big reasons that I’ve heard that seem the most logical to me are:

Overworked. Within the publishing house, editors are receiving dozens of submissions a week, and everyone is already expected to do the jobs of multiple people. Some of my colleagues came up in publishing when every editor had their own assistant; now editors are themselves assisting longer and if an editor gets an assistant, that assistant is working for several editors. “They don’t have the time to respond to every submission.”

Too many submissions. See above — dozens of submissions a week during busy seasons. There are more agents in the business than there were 10 years ago² and I think Lincoln Michel’s note here is smart: all of those agents have to submit and sell more to make the same money they would 10 years ago. There’s not enough time to consider all of these submissions seriously so if the submission isn’t moving quickly or the editor read a few pages and wasn’t gripped or they’re trying to buy another book at the same time or they’re pulled into meetings, they don’t respond.

I’m not saying any of this is good. But it is happening.³

Do agents keep a list of notorious ghosts? Yes.

And there is certainly some politicking involved in some of the ghosting.

But everyone is trying their best with the limited resources they have. Nobody in publishing has enough time or energy for grand conspiracies.

Good luck, writers on submission! The email that could change everything could be in your inbox tomorrow.

How do agents get paid?

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Currently reading: Owlish by Dorothy Tse, trans. Natascha Bruce, and a galley of Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America by Bridget Read

1. might’ve been six weeks? anyway — the goal was “at all”

2. a decent number of editors have become agents, following consolidation or layoffs, and the digital age & work-from-home model allows more people to agent part-time or in addition to other work than when one was required to be in an office with a landline.

3. not very often to me, though ;)