Revision and Submission
getting your work ready for agents and publishers
Pick up The Last Exile and pre-order Nolan Chase’s A Lonesome Place for Murder from Bookshop.Org (US) Or pre-order from Indie Bookstores (CA)
Or from Barnes and Noble
This is from an email I sent my creative writing students the other day.
Hey,
As we approach the midpoint of our second semester, it’s worth thinking about where you want to end up after this. What your goals are for your writing.
It’s a stretch to finish the draft of a novel in this short a period, let alone revise it to the point it’s ready for submission to agents or publishers. That means there’s a lot of work to be done between now and when the manuscript is ready.
To break that process down:
Finish your draft. I can’t stress this enough. I only know of two people who ever sold a first novel without finishing it. Both were very charismatic and great at pitching. Even if you get interest, a publishing professional will want to see your book before making a decision. So get to the end.
Revise the hell out of it. I would suggest two more drafts minimum. That does not mean the first draft isn’t great, but even a great draft will have flaws and rough edges. Think of these as a macro and micro draft—the macro draft fixes huge character issues, cul-de-sacs in the plot, inconsistencies in tone, and other large-scale problems. The micro revision is about sentences and paragraphs, getting your prose as tight as can be.
Fix the grammar. Read Elements of Style (or read it again if you’ve already read it).
Show it to a friend for feedback. This doesn’t take the place of revision. But it can be very good to get feedback, just to make sure you’re on the right track, that the story makes sense, and that you haven’t left out something important. You can hire a professional to give you feedback, which a lot of people prefer. When I started I didn’t have money, and if you don’t, don’t feel you need to pay an editor.
“The Party Guest Rule”
Ever go to a party and get pinned down by some bore (or boor)? Revise like you’re trying not to be that person. Your goal with writing, with revision, and with the query letter is to be interesting.
Does your novel need that extra chapter about the hero’s backstory? Does an agent need three paragraphs about your high school newspaper follies?
Any topic can be interesting, yes, but the opposite is also true: even great books can be boring. (Samuel Johnson said of Paradise Lost that “Nobody ever wished it longer.”)
Submission: When it’s as good as you can make it, and you want to send it out, you’ll need two things.
One, a list of where to send it. Do some research. Find a list of agents and see who they represent. Do they work in your genre? Are they selling books regularly? Do you think you’d be a good fit? Take your list and prioritize it—top five, next top five, etc.
Two, you’ll need a great query letter. Short as can be—2-3 paragraphs max. Tell them who you are and what the book is about, and maybe why you think they’re the agent best suited to represent it.
That’s basically it!
Best,
Sam
Next Month I’ll post some of the questions I received (and my answers).
Pick up The Last Exile and pre-order Nolan Chase’s A Lonesome Place for Murder from Bookshop.Org (US) Or pre-order from Indie Bookstores (CA)
