The book is finished, now what?

It doesn't seem like the best use of your time to try to submit something that may not be ready for publication...I can understand the desire to get to that point and finally start really working toward that step, but it just seems like a waste if you're doing it before you should be. Just my two cents.

 

I agree. But that is the point of this thread. The book is finished, now what? Only I know when it's completed. I've posted maybe 5 descriptive sentences, hammered each time. If you write, a time must come when you... the author... must say... IT'S DONE. Now cleaning it up during the last edit before printing is part of the submission process, but the story-line, the book, one's efforts must end or like so many others you'll die old and unpublished with great pieces of work left to children and grandchildren asking the same question which has been asked throughout time... Why didn't he/ she try to sell these books... they're great.

Now I've never published A BOOK. So whom am I to say, but, I know that before you can publish you must submit, and to submit you must be finished writing. My book is finished to my liking. It's that simple. Get the rejection from one agent, then re-write for another... if you still believe in the project.

Everybody has one you know... no not that... an opinion! LOL

So have you any submission posts to add. Seems there are only two out there willing to stand naked before the public. Me, and another. He hasn't returned for up-dates though.

 

I've only been published once, in a magazine, and it wasn't a paying thing, so I don't really have any stories of glory, no. I'll submit when my books are finished, but right now they're not. I have a lot more improving to do before they're ready for publishers' eyes.

 

if you haven't done the proofreading/editing/polishing yet, then you're not ready to submit a completed ms to agents, so shouldn't be querying till you are...

and since all they tell you is to query, calling is a waste of time and 'dimes'... so why not just query when you're ready to submit, since calling first gets you no further than a query will?

 

At the risk of revealing too much about my own personality, here is a piece I wrote to help me moderate my perspective on the writing industry and writing advice.


My Writer’s World

Delusion trills a pleasant voice, wrapped warmly in its own arrogance, and bowing to my simplest whim. It calls out on my behalf, "The world WILL bow to my point of view. It will. It will...because I say...it will!" Much like a small child, one who has yet to learn the hierarchy of life, I cling to my ego-centered misconceptions. But along comes the cold and unyielding curse of reality, threatening to sap my vigor and poison my creativity. I resist, and, thankfully, my delusion survives. It even deepens, despite ever present shadows of writer-demons, those spiritual beasts consuming ambition that flourishes in the void of my writer's mind. Please, my fair friends of the quill, offer up your experience, render wise bits of knowledge and stroke my ego with falsehoods that flatter my notions. Be careful, though, do not trample the soil on which my delusion roots, lest I strike out with derision for your perspective. Tell me only those things my fantasy can incorporate. Leave out the contrary. For, in truth, I do not seek your best guidance. I merely ask your indulgence to the extent that it will nurture and reinforce my dream world. Delusion is my sanctuary. It’s also my prison.


The point of this little exercise was to remind myself that advice and perspectives, especially those differing substantially from my own, might be necessary if I do not want my own delusions to become an unintended prison. Instead of your strong-willed insistence on imposing your agenda on the publishing industry, you might enjoy more success by following some of the suggestions in this thread...like mammamaia's observation that your novel is not ready for submission and that a query letter is premature. If she is right (and I agree with her based on what I saw), then you still have a lot of final editing to do before your manuscript is ready to compete with the hundreds/thousands of other newby-manuscripts that the best literary agents receive every year.

 

Beautiful! Delightful summation needed to reach heights unreachable by those whose inner child still fears the wrath of punishment; following the guidance of parents who sell their children into slavery, alas, the promise of riches clouds the sight of even the noble king.

Who cares if it sells. The experiment was to: Write, finish writing, give it to an editor... the rest is gravy! You mistake me for one who has never experienced publishing words for public eyes. I have, and will always be published in some degree, but on this project I am trying a different route. Only fools and the afraid stay put when it's apparent it's time to go. It's my time to "Go", whether I'm ready or not. Now to read what I have read the last 4 months on sites like this, the posted words of wit, the critique which follows, it seems to me, none, not a single post, or critique could ever make it, or the style by which it was written, into print, other then the print upon the medium in the WWW. There again, I have never asked for critique, just thought it would be an interesting thread to follow the submission process from start to finish.

I call agents directly because I CAN. Maybe some of you can't or are afraid to, or just don't know how, or don't have a private list of contacts, or have never been a salesman...or forever the excuses will be made to hinder a process that has begun. If asked what time is it? and the answer comes back , "green", do you ask that person any more questions? Of couse not.

I've been helped greatly by the "header" advice. I've been helped greatly by the. "bio" advice. I hope to be helped by SOME "query" advice. But, without being too nasty, advice as to what already has been declared finish, is repetitive noise. Discouraging noise! I can get that from anyone.

Now, The book is finished, now what? Back to the theme of this, my, thread. The agents I called, 100% said, "send query". Subliminal nugget of info: We're hungry send us anything you have. With the E-book just a few years away from replacing paper, demand for stories will increase, profit from writing will decrease. Argue that an you're in denial. Agents know this and smart ones will act on good story-lines forgoing marginal composition. YOU PAY PEOPLE TO EDIT. You pay writers for ideas. I'm submitting a marginal composition with a good story line. PERIOD!!! So since I'm at the query stage, mine will highlight the story-line and a need to fill an empty market abandoned to the darkness which has been main-stream these last 10 years.

I want to hear your stories and experiences of submitting a finished product. I could give a rats hiney about the product itself. That's between you and yourself. BUT YOU CAN'T SUBMIT IF YOU CAN'T SAY, " THE BOOK IS FINISHED!" NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? I'll show you the path, hope your product is better than mine, although not one of you... LOL... THAT'S THE FUNNY THING... knows what my finished product is!!! Yet so much negativity it's a wonder anyone posts anything with lurkers of critique lay in wait.

Don't give critique unless asked, it makes some look foolish. It's biblical. Don't sit in the front pew for you may be asked to move by one greater then you making a fool of yourself... paraphrasing but dead on... MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wow intense.

But winding down this first stage...final edit and print. The header is in, I went name, page number, title. Easier for the agent I heard if the page number was last, but I printed 60+ pages keeping that format.

Still after editing x ?, the final printing had errors too. I found it has now become easier to dig for tiiny, smalll, aand accidental[ errors correcting them, then print that page over. Rip up the replaced final error pages. Or mark them well... it can confuse. I now have two complete printing. Rough, 132 pages, 32,360. Final edit, 140 pages, 32, 990. After everything I added a few lines I guess.

Now the query letter: 1st paragraph. Asking for their representation and why my book would fit in nicely with their target audience? Build the case for a transitioning market away perhaps from the gory to a good story? Mock my own writing firmly believing in the story-line? Taboo I hear is dropping names.

Now verbally, a name WILL get you past the receptionist. It's junior who is the real gate-keeper. Usually a personal secretary, Jr. Assistant go-getter, or sometime luck pays off and bingo, you are talking to the agent.

I am not making this up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But you got to make calls if you want to try it bullheaded. If I, you, can sell Jr. the excitement without revealing the story, Fed-Ex straight to the agent. If you get the agent, pretty much your query is in what you say, so that's when I again I think it's time to drop names like WW2 on Hanau Germany.

Since this is a book, I really can't storm my way into the party, so researching the target is my first task. Who out there are publishing similar stories, selling well? First stop.... B & N ... I've been told a whole lot of stuff can be gleaned for a query from pages of the published. Well, I'm saying that. It can I hope.

So... there you go! The book is finished, now what? Edit...DONE!!! (really, bad, good, who cares at this point,... yahoo) Next...QUERY LETTER... in research-writing mode. Then AGENT... foray into sellers market showed willingness to accept queries. Can't start the process until that letter is written, but it feels like everybody is looking, few signing, all hoping, and most waiting... for the next good seller. First of the year, fresh manuscript (at least without mechanical errors) who knows. They want stuff for the Fall, it's bought in the winter. Just like any other industry servicing the general public, you buy this year, for next.

I'll let you know about the glean pages of the published, or whatever I just said. Maybe tomorrow, or the next... we'll have some money.... watch the Christmas selections parents make for their kids. Watch what cover pictures children pick for their parents to buy.... come back and write that son of the daughter of my dogs mother.

Merry Christmas AND NO OTHERS ARE POSTING THEIR PROCESS... this is vanity i guess but on with the show until the end....

 

what we're trying to get across to you is that one can't just 'give it to an editor'!... to get to that point, you first have to have a polished ms to offer, then you have to query agents till you find one who'll take on your ms and the agent 'give it to an editor' if s/he can interest one or more in the book...

or, you query publishers first and if one or more request the ms, then you 'give it to an editor'... get it?

wrong!... not all agents are 'hungry' for 'anything'... in fact none want just 'anything you have' as they all rep only certain genres and don't want to be deluged with stuff they don't even rep... all that response means is 'don't bug us with useless phone calls, send a query!'

1. no agent is going to try to sell just 'good story-lines' to publishers, if the writing stinks... they can only sell what the publishers want and can afford to pay for, which is completed, polished marketable book mss that don't need much, if any editing...

2. you may do so, but agents don't pay people to edit... and publishers only pay their editors to work with the authors they take on, in re minor glitches and errors in the ms and not to rewrite it, if poorly done...

3. agents don't pay people for ideas and neither do publishers

in which case, no one will even request the ms... and if you send in a sample that's as poorly written and in need of a rewrite as the excerpt you posted, it'll immediately see the inside of their round file... sorry to be so blunt, but you don't seem to be getting how this all works in the real world...

i don't see how you can possibly show anyone else 'the path' when you so clearly have no idea of what it really is yourself...

if you don't want a critique, you should not have posted an excerpt... that's what people do here, y'know... they post bits of their work for fellow members to comment on... you did, so we did... simple... cause and effect... what's 'foolish' is to complain, when you set the process in motion yourself...

wrong order... should be: last name / key title word / pg #

that's why the number must be last, against the right margin, so one can flip through to find a page easily... you really should change it to what i showed you earlier in this thread, before sending out sample chapters... but again, you shouldn't be sending out anything but the query, anyway, unless some agents' guidelines say to send sample pages or chapters with it...

yes...

no... none of that belongs in a query...

which'll do you no good, unless you have a polished ms to offer that's in a genre/market they represent...

sorry, but that's naive to the max and not how agents work... first of all, no jr. reader/ass't can give the go-ahead to fed-ex a ms to the agent... and second, all the best A-list names in the world you can drop won't get you and your book accepted, if the material isn't written well enough to sell to a publisher as is... or at least without major editing/rewriting...

everyone but you, apparently... the agents will care... and the publishers will care... and all seasoned writers would care...

that's just plain silly, since it can take many months for the agent to find a publisher who wants the work... and it takes anywhere from 18 months to 2 years from the date of signing a publishing contract, to seeing the book on the shelves...

nothing to do with vanity, i suspect... others are simply too busy working on 'their process' to bother doing what you want them to do...

 

Such wise words from Mammamaia. Thank you for saying everything I was thinking far better and kinder than I ever could have.