When I was on an Arvon workshop recently, a fellow participant recounted the tale of a friend who had recently submitted the first three chapters of an unfinished manuscript to an agent and within a very short time had a publisher and a low six-figure deal - along with a very tight deadline.

I was curious, has anyone ever tried this route and, if so, with what results?

I'd say that friend was phenomenally lucky to have had an unfinished ms taken up. Usually, with fiction, publishers want to know that you (new, untried author) can deliver a whole novel. There's also the issue of development, that as a novel progresses you need often to go back and change what's gone before - rarely do your first chapters stay in their absolutely original state.

Clearly such scenarios as you describe can happen, but I'd have thought it was pretty unusual (unless you're a celebrity/have celebrity connections).

Yes, it's the stuff of myth, isn't it? But it is a prevailing myth and I hear a lot of people talk of their plans to send in three chapters without completing the rest. I've just never personally met anyone who's actually done it.

Well I know this happened to Cecelia Aherne with PS I Love You, but she was already fairly high-profile (and incredibly photogenic, which must have been a bonus!).

<Added>

Sp: Ahern.

Yes, I'd agree with Lammi. It happens, but it's very, very unusual, so it makes the headlines. And yes, it must help if one of the selling-points of the piece is something other than the quality of the writing, (i.e. a terrific concept, or the youth or other headline-grabbing nature of the writer) since they can't be sure about that on the basis of three chapters. They may be reckoning on doing a fair bit of editorial work to get the thing up to scratch.

It's tempting - wouldn't we all like to be be able to live on the first quarter of the advance while we write the damn thing? Two reasons for not trying that route: a) to get past first base the MS has got to be the best it can possibly be, and I don't see how you can be sure of that till you've written the whole novel. And b) generally speaking you only get one shot at each agent, and it's madness to waste that one shot with a submission that's in any way undeveloped.

And I do know of one story where someone wrote three mad, wonderful chapters in a drunken haze, got a contract, and became completely blocked and couldn't write the rest to the basic 'publishable' standard in her contract, and it was rejected. She had to give the advance back, and I don't suppose anyone will be that keen to give her another.

Emma

She had to give the advance back

Oooh that's gotta hurt.

I guess a terrific, highly saleable concept is the key.

But it sounds like a potentially tough, rocky path, unless you're very clear about what you're doing. Nonetheless, a feeling of being inside the system as you write and the money to live on whilst doing so, are comforting.

I wouldn't do it myself - the personal freedom to make my own decisions writing a novel gives me creative space and time out from being 'professional' in the film world. Whether I succeed or fail is my own business, for the time being at least. But there are times when working all alone, unexpectedly, I actually miss the feedback one is required to digest from such an early stage with film.

Kate

working all alone, unexpectedly, I actually miss the feedback one is required to digest from such an early stage with film.

I suspect this is as much why people submit [too] early as the desire for an advance. After all, 1/4 of the usual advance for a debut novel, less tax and agent's cut, isn't going to enable anyone to give up the day job for all that long. One of the things that writing groups and editorial agencies - and WW, of course - help to do is fight that feeling of writing in a vacuum.

Emma

I think you are absolutely right, Emma. The need to be reassured that we're on the right path is sometimes quite overwhelming. The pain of rejection when you've submitted too early is nasty though. Rejection in general is unpleasant, but when you know it might just be because you should have been more patient, even a little kinder to yourself regarding how long it all takes, the ouch has an even deeper bite.

The Richard and Judy 'How to Get Published' competition, which was won by Christine Aziz with 'The Olive Readers', was for opening chapters and a synopsis, I think. The Pan Macmillan editor Maria Reizt (sp?) then worked with the winner (and some of the runners-up who also got publishing contracts) on completing their manuscripts. There are some who have said that there is an inconsistency in the Olive Readers - the second half not as good as the first. This is certainly the impression I get from amazon reviews (not having read the book). EG: "The writing style began with some maturity, then deteriorated once the author was into the "had to write the second half of the book in 2 months" mode."

But I would not necessarily trust amazon reviews on this one, because they may have been written by disgruntled losers of the competition! It does happen.

Yes, and even if they're doing their best to be fair, it's hard to read innocently once you know this kind of thing about a book.

It may also

Emma

At a guess - if it was the first half of the book, written more independently, that was considered better - the writer stands a good chance of getting a go at a second book under less pressured circumstances?