Old Hack: How to convince writers that they should wait? And how to define what's ready and what isn't? That's the hard thing.
Just thinking back to my *ahem* first . . . and second . . . and
third. . . I wrote in such a rush, riding that wave and of course, as soon as I typed "The End" (okay, no I didn't, I typed three hashtag thingies
) I wanted to get 'em out there. I thought they were done. FOOL. But I rushed headlong into the process of finding an agent, with no idea what I was doing. I wrote HORRIBLE queries and actually sent them to amazing agents like Janet Reid, Jane Chelius, Donald Maass--I cringe at the thought. The fact that one of my novels garnered a full request is unthinkable. Nothing happened there, good thing because that novel wasn't ready, my God. . .
This writing business is very odd. I've never experienced anything like it and I know my experience is probably a lot different than most, but I have to believe that there are a ton of newbies out there, riding that high from finishing their novels, rushing headlong into trying to get the thing published, grand visions clouding sound judgment. If I had known about AW back then, I wonder if I would have put on the breaks? Even now, I know the feeling of finishing and thinking you're done, wanting to BE done, wanting to get it out there, hoping. . .
Sending out less-than-stellar work is partly due to that rush factor and you're right, Hack, partly due to writers who are too inexperienced to recognize that their work isn't quite up to snuff. Skills need practice, and especially for those writers who fail to get their work beta'd, iow, who write in a vaccuum and crit their own stuff--it's like being your lawyer and having a fool for a client. I did it, wrote by myself. Nobody but family read it. I thought it was good to go.
That's another reason AW is so important to writers. You can post your stuff, get crits, find betas, crit others' work; there are opportunities to witness really good writing and not-so-good writing, and see how writers improve over time. You have a lot of opportunities to write and thus, improve your writing, which takes time. If new writers would avail themselves of that, I think they wouldn't be as likely to rush headlong into sending out first drafts. They'd see the wisdom of waiting, give themselves time to learn, to get better. . .
Lots of ifs.