Before we begin:
- You can publish a novel with a traditional publisher.
- I believe in you.
I say this up front because what follows is a little on the snarky side, and I need you to know that I am nothing special. I was just like every other aspiring writer when I got my first agent and first book contract. If I can do it, you can, too. (If that’s the direction you choose to go. There are lots of reasons to go straight to indie publishing, which we’ll cover at another time.)
Also, congratulations! I’m serious—you’re on a site called FictionMentor.com for crying out loud, which suggests you take your writing seriously, and that’s the thesis of this article: Take writing and publishing your novel seriously if you want to see your book on store shelves.
How do I know without reading a single page of your novel that you’re not ready to submit the manuscript to an agent? Easy:
You haven’t finished writing your novel.
I’m guilty of this. I once sent a query to an editor while about halfway through a novel, thinking, “Why not, it’ll just be rejected, may as well get used to it.” Surprise! I got a request for a full manuscript. So I spent the next ten days feverishly working to finish the thing. And no, it did not get picked up. Shocking, right?
Always finish your novel before taking another step. Hundreds (thousands?) of people do this every November during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which is great, but too many of them neglect the next step:
You haven’t revised and edited your novel.
Typing “The End” does not mean you are finished. There’s still revision and editing to be done.
Here at FictionMentor, I define revision as the broad, sweeping changes needed to ensure your continuity is correct; the plot is seamless and interesting; the dialogue fresh and moving the story along; the characters compelling; i.e., big changes. One or two revisions is not enough. Three or more is common . . . for working, published authors.
I define editing as correcting spelling, grammar, and formatting errors. Editing requires two, three, or more passes through the entire manuscript, whereas revision can take . . . well, as many passes as it takes to make the story shine.
Note: Editing also includes at least one pass with a hard-copy (printed out) manuscript. Research shows we catch more errors reading on paper than we do on a screen. Put your best foot forward on every single page before submission. The occasional typo won’t doom your manuscript – nobody’s perfect – but it’s your job to make your copy as clean as possible, especially those first ten pages.
When do you think your novel is ready to send? Drop a comment @tomleveen and share your journey!
Keep an eye out for Part II…