Conflicting advice
This was my question too. I have seen conflicting advice. From the thread "Quality of slush pile items":
Nomad said:
I think a query is the best way to go, but if you don't have any other writing credits (and even if you do), you need to have at least half of the book written. There's no way I'd offer an untested writer a contract without the finished product in my hands--which is why submitting is such a Catch 22: you want to write a book about a particular subject but you don't want to spend the time and energy writing it if you can't sell it. So you write a query about it and get a good response, write the requisite several chapters and submit, and often you'll learn that there's not a big-enough market, or the idea isn't really worth an entire book, or whatever the reason.
And I submitted the first 50 pages of my
first novel to an agent (through a personal contact). He didn't seem to have a problem with it.
I've also seen advice that you can't as an unpublished or no-reputation author get an agent without the whole novel written. That seems sensible from the agent's point of view. You wouldn't want to take someone on, or make promises to them on the basis of a few chapters, which could then turn in to 250 more pages of cr*p.
The problem for me is exactly what is in the above quote. I want to write, no doubt. I would do it for free forever. But I have very little idea what someone else would like to buy (publisher), buy (reader in B&N), or enjoy generally. Like most people, I think it's brilliant and that's where it stops. I've had a very good response from my writing group, I was invited to a reading series based on the first bit, and I'm fairly sure of what's good and what's not, but getting out of the throng is a different matter. "Some people I know like it" is not good enough.
So, I would like to know from a professional source
who would actually be personally invested in it if they would consider my work for such an investment. I would
like to know before I spend another 6 months finishing the book. If that's not possible, then I will just have to finish blind. In fact, if I didn't get an agent, I would finish it.
But if there's any chance, I would like to try to get representation (or interest from rep) with the first 100 pages or so. Again, from the agent's point of view, that's definitely not ideal. So the question is this: If you are an unpublished writer who is writing a non-genre, stylistic kind of novel, is it wise to try to get an agent based on, let's say, 100-pages-to-half of the thing?
When I say "stylistic," I mean one could conceivably read part of it and get the "full" effect because it mainly does not depend on plot resolution. It is meant to be literary. When my 10th grade English teacher told us to write about the first 5 chapters of X literary work, she did not assume we couldn't because the plot is not done. Does that make sense?
But a general answer would be appreciated as well.
Thanks