When submitting your story to a publisher how much do they need to see?

Do they want a finished novel or would they be interested in a great synopsis and a few beginning chapters to show your ability as a writer?

Agents' and publishers' requirement vary: it's always best to check with the Writer's Handbook or the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, and follow the instructions for each house to the letter. You can always phone or email, too, and check that way.

Even if you submit a full ms, though, publishers usually want to see a synopsis. And with fiction, they much prefer you to have finished the novel before you approach them.

Scott, there are others here who are much more knowledgeable than me, but I've gathered that, as a first timer, it's a really bad idea to submit 3 chaps and a synopsis of a novel if you haven't finished it, because if they do like it they'll ask for the rest of it.

Apparently lots of people start novels but can't finish them, or write 3 good chapters but the quality isn't sustained throughout the rest of the novel (eg, problems with plot or structure or inconsistency), so if you don't wait till you've finished yours, and you haven't got a track record, how can you expect them to take you seriously?

Seems the done thing with a novel is to wait till you've finished it before submitting. I believe non-fiction is different.

It also seems widely suggested to submit first to agents, and once you've got one let your agent submit to publishers, but I realise that's more of a personal judgement.

Deb

<Added>

Sorry if 'how can you expect them...' sounded critical. It wasn't meant it in the slightest. I just meant 'they probably won't take you seriously'.

How far through writing your novel are you, or have you finished it?

Scott, welcome to WW. Generally speaking, agents and publishers only want to see a synopsis and sample chapters (three, unless they say otherwise) to start with. If they're interested they'll ask to see the whole novel. They have submissions details on their websites, which are more up-to-date that the reference books Lammi's mentioned, but the books are much the easiest way to get a comprehensive list of all the agents you might like to try.

BUT, for a first novel it's not a good idea to send anything out at all until you've finished it and revised it within an inch of its life, and left it in a drawer for a while, and revised it again. For a start, the odds are so incredibly high against its being accepted by an agent (and even higher, next-to-impossible, by a publisher) that you need the samples to be as good as they can get, and you can't be sure they are until the whole book's written. Your ability as a writer is important, but basically they're taking on a book, not a person, and that book, as someone once said, has to be pretty much 'oven ready'. Generally speaking you only get one crack at each agent, though you can ask to resubmit, so why go there with anything less than your best? As Deb says, if they ask to see a full MS and you haven't got one, the chances are they'll just say, 'come back to us when you have.' You're then under a lot of pressure to produce it, which isn't the best state for writing in. If an agent not only takes you on but manages to sell your unfinished work the pressure can be unbearable, and if you don't deliver, you have to give the advance back. It has been known. More often known is that the book just isn't as good as it could be...

Books do get taken on by agents and then sold to publishers on samples and synopsis, but it's incredibly rare for fiction by an unknown, though very common for non-fiction.

Fundame

<Added>

"Fundame" Huh? Think I must have been starting off another para with 'fundametally'.

Emma