Can you get a trad publishing deal if you serialise on Substack?

Blimey, I’ve had 126 comments and gained about 50 new subscribers from one particular post I wrote about serialising my novel. To be honest it slightly did my head in — I’m not used to having lots of readers! 🫣

Some of the comments were along the lines of “How can you query a novel you’ve already posted? Won’t publishers reject you outright?”

So, to put this subject to bed, I asked a big 5 editor and one of the big agencies. Here’s what they said -

The editor said, “It’s a non issue. As long as you can delete it and Substack has no claim to ownership.”

The agency said, “As long as you can delete the work off Substack then it shouldn’t be a problem. And you wouldn’t need to mention it to an agent.”

So, we’re golden. You will need to delete your work, which I always intended to do.

My aim, as I explained in said post, was to write the novel, get feedback, and stay on schedule. It was a truly brilliant experience. And now I am on to the book proper and more short form fiction.

Huzzah!