Hey all, I'm new here . I'm currently working on my first novel. I'm hoping to be finished by around Christmas and then send it out in January. My question is if anyone has sent their first three chapters out without having the whole novel finished? I'm asking because I am reading online that many agents take up to three months if they are going to get back. I was thinking of maybe sending my first three chapters out and to one agent now and by the time they (hopefully) get back letting me know, I'd have it finished if they wanted MS. Just wondering about any ideas on doing this? Thanks in advance!
That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Imagine an agent actually buys into your query letter and sample pages/chapters. But your writing isn't progressing as fast as imagined for a number of reasons and the agent moved quicker than you think. Now you look incompetent as you have to explain it isn't actually finished. Sounds like a nightmare to me.
Play for the long game. You get only one chance with each agent. What if you do not have the novel finished/polished if it's requested? What if you complete the novel with a different path/ending than 'advertised' in the query letter? What if you decide that there needs to be changes to the first three chapters by the time you reach the end. A writing career can extend into decades. Being impatient over several months? Maybe not a prudent move.
I have no idea what your novel looks like, but my first eight serious and complete novels were not worth publishing, and when I finally did publish, that wasn't worth publishing either. I pulled it, rewrote it, and the publisher was happy to see it back. Even then, it's not even close to my current work, some thirty novels later. I think that this industry is the only one on earth, wherein folks do something one time and think it's automatically professional. Further, should a publisher take the offering and publish the book, how does that book make you feel, ten years later? My first fantasy series offers another insight worth thinking about. I loved the first book, but before even attempting to find a fantasy publisher, I wrote the next one (took another year). That 2nd book was 100% better than the first one, so I had to keep editing that 1st book to death. While I was editing the 1st and 2nd books, I wrote the 3rd book. It was 100% better than the second one. By then I was two years past finishing the first book, and those first two books were editing out well enough to be close to book 3, but I then wrote the best one of all, book 4. By then I realized that I was seriously tired of fixing books 1-3, and wished to hell I could just publish book 4 without all the fuss. Ultimately the publisher took books 1-3, but that series panned out there, and they never saw the best book of all. Since, I've learned to either not write a series, or to write them in ways where I could publish out of order. But, I am a little off topic. My primary points are these: 1) Your first book ought to be your worst book. If it isn't you are not growing as a writer. 2) It represents you, nonetheless. For life. 3) People severely underestimate how big of a job editing is. Writers create whole strategies toward the process of continually editing, to the degree that 3/4 of our writing days is editing (minimum). 4) Generally speaking editing a first book takes years, a fifth book a year, a tenth book six months, a twentieth book three months, etc.. Even now, dozens of novels down the road for me, and actively in several peer groups, I'd not even consider sending a novel to a publisher without at least giving myself three months of space (and that would be a major rush job). I did that once. 5) You want to send the first three chapters and those are, ironically, the three most likely to need major work. This has been true with every single book I have ever written.
I wouldn't do this unless I was already published. It is common for career authors to do this, but they have established themselves in the field prior. Also if you send it now, that is before you had the chance to edit it and you dont know if the first three chapters will look the same once your book is complete. My rule of thumb these days is if it's truly a good story and one you are proud of, then take the time and do the work. Don't rush it. Christmas is a great deadline to finish your book but sending it out by January might be a stretch.
That agrees with my understanding of the business. Unfinished work is sent to the publisher only upon the publisher's request. And it's usually with the understanding that the remainder will be delivered according to a schedule.
Unless they've asked for proposals (the idea for a book sketched together), don't send unfinished anything. The other, well, fault is thinking you can having it done in December and send out in January. That's a bad idea. Edit. Edit. Edit. And when you think you are done, edit some more. My first book was written during the month of NaNoWriMo. My god was that a rough written novel. I wrote it in '04. Let it stew for a few months and did my own editing for roughly a year as I worked on other things. Sent it to a "free agent" editor in late '05. Worked on her edits for about another year. Submitted it in mid '06. Was edited through them in late '06. It was published early '07. Now I am in the process of releasing it again self-published and, yep, editing was much needed. My writing style has greatly matured since then. This round of edits went much faster (since we had a good working base) but still took 2 months to ensure it was more than "good enough". So keep at it. Don't let go of chasing that brass ring, but realize you may have to go through a lot of carousel rides to get there. You can do it.
