Ready to publish

celticroots · Feb 27, 2012

How do you know when you're ready to try and get something published? I am not planning to try and query my novel yet (it's a first draft), although I've been writing for 10 years.

I am just curious when one's writing is considered good enough to be publishable.

smellycat6464 · Feb 27, 2012

im afraid the answer to this is the evil, all to commonplace, but oh-so applicable answer that answers 99 % of all writing questions.

it depends.

but I say, only one way to find out!

Susan Coffin · Feb 27, 2012

Your story/novel is ready for submission for possible publication once it's written and self-edited to the best of your ability.

jjdebenedictis · Feb 27, 2012

You'll know your writing is ready for publication when somebody accepts it for publication. That's honestly the way most of us find out.

But it can't happen until you start querying your work. Get on that.

blacbird · Feb 27, 2012

smellycat6464 said:
im afraid the answer to this is the evil, all to commonplace, but oh-so applicable answer that answers 99 % of all writing questions.

it depends.

but I say, only one way to find out!

To which the answer may well be: No, you're not.

With the addendum, after sufficient tries: . . . and never will be.

The above is first-hand knowledge.

caw

Hip-Hop-a-potamus · Feb 27, 2012

Have you had anyone beta read it for you yet? If you haven't, don't even consider trying to submit to anyone.

You have got to have another pair of eyes see it. Preferably several. If it's still a first draft, rewrite and rewrite until you have polished it beyond belief. Until your eyes have crossed and you can't even look at it anymore. Then set it aside for a month or two, come back to it, and edit some more with a fresh eye.

Then start the beta reading process. You might be able to find some here. Or join a local writers group where you live to get more feedback.

It's amazing what beta readers can find that you haven't even considered. Honestly.

Zombie Kat · Feb 27, 2012

From personal experience, it can be hard to know when you're really ready to submit. Even when a book is polished and revised to the best of your abilities, it still might not be a very good book. But that is something that you won't realise until after you've subjecting your work on poor, unsuspecting agents!

However, you've been writing for 10 years so I'm guessing you have a good grasp of what works and what doesn't. So revise until you think there's nothing more you can improve, get someone else to read it, polish it until it's perfect (in your mind) and send it off. Plenty of writers submit several books to agents before getting it right, so agents are used to seeing novels that aren't quite there. You won't know until you try.

Anne Lyle · Feb 27, 2012

Seconding the recommendation for beta-readers. Not your best friend, or your mother, or anyone who loves you, because they will be a) biased and b) impressed that you've actually written that much. You need other writers who read in your genre and who are willing to offer constructive criticism.

If this sounds scary, remember that getting published involves people you've never met sending you form rejections, and then even when you're published, people you've never met will rip your book to shreds, in public, on the internet.

Baby steps, though. Get some beta-readers.

Becky Black · Feb 28, 2012

It does help if other people have read your work before and liked it. I don't mean just the one you're planning to submit, but have you been sharing other work? I wrote fanfic for a few years and people liked it. I started doing some original too, "published" on my website and people liked that. That at least gave me the confidence to know that I could write something coherent and effective enough that people enjoyed it and wanted more. This helps with the always nagging fear that I might be entirely delusional in believing I could write.

So with that, I suppose you could call it, validation, I had the nerve to start working on one for submission. Of course I still couldn't know for sure that it would be good enough for publication, but I had more confidence than if nobody else had ever seen what I'd written. Also working with writers groups and critique partners who didn't just read my work, but gave it a good kicking to knock it into shape helped me grow the thick skin needed!

Jamesaritchie · Feb 28, 2012

You should be ready to submit as soon as whatever you're writing is finished. You can't get published without submitting work, and the submission process is more than half the battle. Finishing work but not submitting it because you don't think you're ready is just not wise.

You'll probably never be ready until you learn to finish what you start, and to submit everything you finish.

Now, I don't think beta readers know any more than mothers, brothers, and the man in the moon, but if it makes you feel better, let others read it. Of course, it may make you feel worse, and everything they say is bad may be the same things an editor loves, but have at it.

But you'll gain absolutely nothing until you start putting your work in front of editors. You won't even have a clue whether the beta readers were right or wrong until you put the work in front of editors.

No one on earth can tell you something you write is publication ready except for the person who can write you a check. Your friends can't tell you, beta readers can't tell you, and you sure can't know yourself.

Anne Lyle · Feb 28, 2012

Jamesaritchie said:
Now, I don't think beta readers know any more than mothers, brothers, and the man in the moon, but if it makes you feel better, let others read it. Of course, it may make you feel worse, and everything they say is bad may be the same things an editor loves, but have at it.

For a writer who has reached a reasonable standard by themselves, maybe - but for a newbie who isn't even aware that their grammar is execrable and their plot stretches the bounds of credibility, I think they will save a lot of wasted time and heartache

Hip-Hop-a-potamus · Feb 28, 2012

Anne Lyle said:
For a writer who has reached a reasonable standard by themselves, maybe - but for a newbie who isn't even aware that their grammar is execrable and their plot stretches the bounds of credibility, I think they will save a lot of wasted time and heartache

This.

Self-confidence is great, but not if it is misplaced. Not everyone is cut out to be a writer. I'd rather have a person whose opinion I trust give me the bad news about a WIP before having a professional look at it if it's not up to snuff.

Orchestra · Feb 28, 2012

Beta readers are very useful if they know what they are doing, you are willing to work with them and you have the skills to solicit and make use of their feedback. Otherwise they aren't useful at all. Being experienced or inexperienced has nothing to do with it. Some writers are open to this type of collaboration and others are not.

Anne Lyle · Feb 28, 2012

I rather feel that if you're not open to feedback, you're going to have a tough time of it in publishing. No-one likes a Special Snowflake.

Jaligard · Feb 28, 2012

When you think you're close, plunk some money down on a writer's conference. There's usually an opportunity for editors/writers to read your stuff and they'll let you know what works and what doesn't. When you get an editor to go, "Wow," and tracks you down later on, you're probably ready.

If you're not as close as you thought you were, you might have a rude awakening, but you'll be around kindred spirits and you'll learn a lot.

HoneyBadger · Feb 28, 2012

Becky Black said:
It does help if other people have read your work before and liked it. I don't mean just the one you're planning to submit, but have you been sharing other work? I wrote fanfic for a few years and people liked it. I started doing some original too, "published" on my website and people liked that.

While that's wonderful and well and good, shipping a novel to betas is a different story completely.

People who really know and love good examples of your genre need to like the piece you're hoping to publish. Writing good fanfic or good blog posts is to writing a good novel as humming a TV theme song pretty well is to composing a symphony- the basics are there, but you need a lot more than a pleasant hum.

Becky Black · Feb 29, 2012

HoneyBadger said:
While that's wonderful and well and good, shipping a novel to betas is a different story completely.

People who really know and love good examples of your genre need to like the piece you're hoping to publish. Writing good fanfic or good blog posts is to writing a good novel as humming a TV theme song pretty well is to composing a symphony- the basics are there, but you need a lot more than a pleasant hum.

Of course, but if you're writing in isolation, you don't even know for sure if you've got the basics down! Once other people have seen your stories and can follow them and enjoy them you can at least stop worrying that you're just deluding yourself about being able to write at all. That gave me the confidence to go on working at it and improving until I felt ready to take the submission plunge. I wouldn't like to have done that with nobody having ever read any of my writing before.

mulcahy67 · Feb 29, 2012

i would agree with the beta readers. find some people who like to read what's in your genre, and see if they like it. it's always helpful to get some other eyes on it before you query it out.

HoneyBadger · Feb 29, 2012

Ideally find smarter eyes than your own.

In my head, I am the best dancer who has ever lived.

To people who can't dance, I can dance in a pleasing manner.

In reality? I should be banned, by law, from dancing. I'm that bad. According to one ballet instructor, this old Russian broad who was probably a million-years-old, I fell down more in one semester than all her other students combined. Ever.

If I only ever danced for people who'd never seen real dancers, couldn't dance themselves, and had zero understanding of theory and technique, of course they'd think I was great.

brb dancing

The Lonely One · Feb 29, 2012

For beta readers, though I rarely use them, I go for people of similar styles to mine. If someone's hating your work on a superficial level it's probably not going to go well.

Ready to publish

celticroots

smellycat6464

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

jjdebenedictis

is watching you via her avatar

blacbird

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

My rhymes are bottomless

Zombie Kat

Bacteria are your friends

Anne Lyle

Fantastic historian

Becky Black

Writing my way off the B Ark

Jamesaritchie

Anne Lyle

Fantastic historian

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

My rhymes are bottomless

Orchestra

practical experience, GTFO

Anne Lyle

Fantastic historian

Jaligard

tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper

HoneyBadger

terribly loud, emotionally distant

Becky Black

Writing my way off the B Ark

mulcahy67

Got the hang of it, here

HoneyBadger

terribly loud, emotionally distant

The Lonely One

Why is a raven like a writing desk?