I have made a submission of the synopsis, first three chapters of the MS and so on, to a multinational publishing house a week ago. Though they mention in their website that they have no objections if I make submissions to other publishing houses as well, I wonder if secretly they would feel offended and threatened if I would do so. Since I am a first time author my experience in this case is limited. The wait for a response is so cruel. Any suggestions, please?
Do not limit yourself. As there is a lack of agents in India, I would send submissions to agents and agencies in other countries.
I would draw up a list of agents from the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, and from The 2013 Guide to Literary Agents. Check that the Agents / Agencies websites to see if they accept your genre. Then I would send out 10 submissions each week.
I hope that helps.
Good Luck.
I think you should take them at their word. If they say that they don't mind authors making simultaneous submissions to other publishers, then that's what they mean. They won't feel threatened or offended.
Some UK agents will take submissions by email, you know. Might be worth trying that route as well, as there are so few publishers who will consider unsolicited manuscripts from an author.
There is nothing wrong submitting directly to a publisher, though it cannot be a certainty that they will even consider your work if they request agent submissions only, but as you say that is another question.
Publishers, and agents, are professional business people, they want to find new authors to publish.The idea of exclusivity is to give them time for the process to complete. If it has been put before a panel and discussed in-house and a request sent for the rest of your MS, and only then they find out that you have accepted someone else, then you can understand the problem.
I sent seven email submissions to agents and spent a year waiting for replies. Four replied in the end, and only one even acknowledged receipt of my email, so yes it is a cruel process. In hindsight, 50 submissions at once with a note to that effect in my cover letter and hope that even one of them will ask for more.
Good luck with your search.