Submitting to Publisher / Agent of unfinished Book.

fatboypee

Hi all,

Is it correct to assume there is no place I can submit my book to in an uncompleted form ? I'm about halfway through and would like to know if its of any interest. Easier sand than done in these lean times to get the time to complete the whole thing ASAP....

suspect not but worth an ask ...

thanks

fbp.

pickarooney

Nope, waste of time submitting it to a publisher if you're not sure of being able to finish it. You'd be much better off asking people to read it and give you honest feedback. Feel free to do this here, or if you would prefer not to post it in a public forum, PM me for access to the private writing forum.

fatboypee

pickarooney wrote: »

Nope, waste of time submitting it to a publisher if you're not sure of being able to finish it. You'd be much better off asking people to read it and give you honest feedback. Feel free to do this here, or if you would prefer not to post it in a public forum, PM me for access to the private writing forum.

Thanks for the reply. I can definitely finish it, am really enjoying writing it, just making money is taking a priority and as such I'm behind on my writing. I'm also not very confident about sharing it publicly though, not as much an aversion to criticism as I don't really want to open myself (or the book) up to influences (yet).

Suppose I'm fearful that I will get demoralised about it to the point of not then having the capability or interest in finishing it because of any negative (albeit constructive) critiques.

Will definitely think about sending the PM tho.

Thanks

fbp.

pickarooney

In that case you'll just need to grind it out to the end and rewrite it a couple of times before letting anyone see it, I reckon.

fatboypee

guess y'er right...

Thanks

fbp

Ellian

IMO. you should send it to an agent and not a publisher direct. A lot of agencies will ask you for the first one to three chapters and a covering letter. The Writers and Artists Yearbook will give you the submission requirements for each agency. And they won't give you any criticism - they will either say thanks, but no thanks or "please send the full manuscript". Usual response times are about eight to twelve weeks. So the advice I would give is have the first three chapters as good as you can make them and be sure to be sure you can submit a full manuscript within those time parameters.

EileenG

Do not submit to anywhere until you have the whole thing not only finished, but edited and polished. Your first draft is going to be raw, and you can do so much better with a bit of thought and rewriting. If you submit a first draft, you will cringe six months later when you see what you sent out as your best effort.

In the unlikely event that a publisher or agent likes your first draft, and wants to see the rest of the book, you won't have anything to send.

Eoin Purcell has a lot to say about this in the How to get Published thread.

The possible exception to this is if you are writing non-fiction and have a few completed chapters and a very detailed plan for the rest of the book.

EileenG

If making money is the priority, I'm sorry to say that writing a novel is the worst way to make it. The general feeling is that you need to have at least six novels in print before you can quit the day job. The advance for a first novel in Ireland is often under €1000 and you could be waiting for another year for royalties to kick in. And that's assuming it sells.

fatboypee

Thanks for all the replies. I do appreciate them. Do I wanna be a millonaire'?

Of course.

Do I think it will come instantly with my first (or any) books ?

Not a chance. I can merely hope it goes somewhere in the future.

Yet hope springs eternal of course and I have aspirations for my writing (although based squarely in naivety) but for now, I need to earn money, so my writing is taking a back seat.

I do find though that writing gives me an outlet in these dim times and trying to concentrate on weaving the story in the book, though challenging is increasingly preoccupying my thoughts, whether I'm at work or otherwise...

What does bother me tho, is that I don't know if I'm doing anything the right way.. (steaming ahead either way of course ). The book is fantasy but draws on some common mythology and I've done little in terms of research other than looks for explanation of concepts etc from the dreaded tinternet....

Time will tell if this is sufficient I guess...

thanks again


fbp

EileenG

Well, the great thing about writing fiction is that you get to make it up. Especially if you are writing fantasy. As long as the characters are true to themselves, no-one cares if you are being strict about your classical archotypes.

If you want to make money writing now, then think about writing for newspapers. They need a lot of copy every day, and they pay reasonably well. Much better than novels, at least.

There's an private writing group here where you can post some of your stuff and get a reaction/critique.