Hi everyone,

Just looking for a bit of advice here.

I sent out submissions to seven agents at the start of this week. The next day I got an email from one of them asking to see the whole MS.

While I was obviously extremely pleased with the interest (even more so since I have had a standard rejection from another agent the day after)I thought it would take a long while for anyone to reply, giving me a bit of time to work on the MS and polish it up into something more readable.

I have contacted the agent, who seems very pleasant and helpful, and explained the situation. The agent told me to send the MS when it was ready.

My dilemma is this: should I take as much time as possible to get the MS in the very best shape, or should I do a quick rewrite and edit in order to get the MS to the agent more quickly, before they lose interest.

Any thoughts would be great, thanks.

Ooh, this is a tricky one. Many agents are now demanding that work is as highly polished as it can be before they look at it, as on the whole they just don't have the time or the staff to do editing themselves. On the other hand, if they've asked for something, they want to see it as soon as possible as the market changes so quickly and they move onto the next thing.

To be as professional as possible, I'd be tempted to get a good, local editor (either through word of mouth via local writers' groups or via the website, www.sfep.org.uk), explain the situation to them and ask for a quick job (check prices though!) to be done (which you will of course then have to action equally quickly). If the worse comes to the worse, you can always get it done in batches and send the polished product off to the agent like that, promising the rest of it asap.

Others might have other advice, especially Writewords' range of experts?

Whatever you decide, good luck with it!

LoL

A
xxx

Not tricky at all. The better it is, the harder it will be for them to reject it. So work on the novel, get it right, then send it. What you have here is a lifeline; a written request for the full manuscript and a name to send it to. Even if it takes eight months, it would be better to send them a good novel that has been revised and polished rather than something they can reject.

How far off being finished is it?
Why not upload some of it?

Colin M

Thanks for the replies so far.

I should just clarify that this is not a novel but a travel narrative. As for how far off from being complete...well the rough draft is done (about 120,000 words) but there is probably a minimum of a month's work to do to lick it into a fairly decent shape. Having said that I could probably spend an eternity tinkering with it!

I'm not too concerned about sending it off for editing, I've a good idea of what's needed to be done, I just didn't want to lose the opportunity presented by the agent go to waste by spending too long on sorting out the book.

Sleek,

I had an agent request the finished mss of my novel a year ago after they read the opening and I'd been getting worried, but I've been reassured by a friend who works in the industry that it's not really something to worry about too much. It can take two years from getting taken on by an agent to a book hitting the shelves (if you get a publisher). If it's only going to take you a month or two to polish it up enough I really don't think there's anything to worry about.

Catherine

<Added>

Probably didn't put that very clearly - the agent knew mine was nowhere near finished, but anyway, my point is, if it's only going to take a few months, don't panic, and as everyone else says, get it as good as you can!

DON'T DON'T DON'T send it off until you're happy that it's as good as it can be.

Set a realistic deadline to do the final edit. then be honest with yourself and add on a fortnight...

Tell the agent you will post it to him/her the following day.

Make damned sure you do it!

Good luck.

Dee

Hi sleek
I have exactly the same dilemma as back in Feb an agent asked to see the rest when I had just spent a month polishing the 2 chapters that I sent. I have opted for the 'it takes as long as it takes' attitude, as i feel if the rest doesn't match up it will be rejected anyway.
The agent gave a very firm NO to my suggestion that I send installments.
I get very anxious that it is taking me so long (nearly 3 months now) and I can't go any faster as I work full time and am already spending every non-working/sleeping moment on it. I reckon that there is another 3-4 weeks work left before it will be ready to go.
Then we shall see!
Good luck
Sue n
Are you going to post a sample up in the travel writers group?


<Added>

PS I hope our agents aren't the same - otherwise the race is on!

Sue, if the agent asked to see the full manuscript, they obviously think there is potential in your writing and will be prepared to wait. Have the confidence that, if they haven’t given you a deadline, then you don’t have one. However long it takes – I’m not talking years, obviously, but months – just make sure it’s as good as you can get it before you send it.

Good luck

Dee

I liked the idea of installments. Funny that.

It worked for Charles Dickens!

Thanks! Sorry can't stop - got an MS to finish!

Thanks to all for the replies.

The agent said they will take a look when it was ready, so I have a self-imposed deadline to finish it by the end of next month.

Deadlines are good. Just don't take them literally.

Congratulations!!!

I would have said get it polished first, but I have a friend in exactly the same position as you and he just sent as is. The agent came back with some minor modifications - hardly anything, and that was that.

If your agent is saying send when ready, then have an serious attempt at getting it the way you want it as quickly as possible but don't panic too much. How about setting a deadline?

There's a few lessons in here: 1) make sure what you send out is what an agent will fully consider. With fiction, this almost always means that you have to have a finished manuscript ready to send. Alternatively, you could send the first few chapters in the best form you can get them, with a synopsis and explanation about what stage the ms is at. That way, everyone's in the clear and you aren't under pressure for giving false impressions. With non-fiction, normally a proposal is the best way forward - e.g. marketing plan, what it's about, why there's a need for it, plus chapter by chapter breakdown plus a couple of sample chapters. 2) Never write under false pressure - deadlines are fine if they're mutually agreed, part of the project and you know you can write to them. But to force a deadline because you weren't up-front in the first place about where the book was is to virtually guarantee the book will not be well written. 3) What's the panic? Slow down. You should be writing this book because YOU want to write it. Not because an agent has expressed an initial interest - and don't forget, at this stage that interest doesn't cost them anything and isn't any promise that they will take on your book. A month doesn't sound like nearly enough time to me, to produce the kind of book that, as Colin says, they can't say no to.

One good thing about publishing is that it works over long time spans. For example, I showed the first few chapters of a book to an editor with a major children's publisher about nine months ago. She really liked it, was excited about the main idea, we had a meeting at which she had quite a few suggestions and she wants to see the first 80 pages or so plus synopsis when ready. After that, I re-wrote the first 30 pages six times, then I worked on it with a freelance editor (who suggested major changes), then I showed the re-write to three writer friends, who all made suggestions, then I re-wrote it again. I estimate that those first 80 pages will take another few months, what with other work I have to do, which means that editor won't be seeing it until a year after she expressed interest. But it doesn't matter: she'll remember it when I mention it again (as your agent will too, or should do if they're really interested) and my intention is that it will be ten times better than what she originally saw.

Someone else here mentioned you should work with a freelance editor. I would agree, but then you'd expect me to say that being I am one. But believe me, there are so many ms out there that have promise but very few that really hit the mark, and the difference is almost always in getting good editorial input before you submit the FINISHED item. And I emphasise finished because an agent may express an interest in an idea, but they know there's a long way to go between that and something that can sell.

Terry

But to force a deadline because you weren't up-front in the first place about where the book was is to virtually guarantee the book will not be well written.

I can only hope the you used in this context was generic and not specifically about me.

Similarly the comment about 'giving false impressions'.

As I have said in previous messages the book is travel literature, one of those genres which falls between two stools. Yes it's non-fiction, but it's also a narrative, which is why I decided to complete a draft version of the book AND put together a non-fiction style proposal of sample chapters, marketing brief, chapter breakdown, author CV and synopsis. I also stated clearly what stage the book was at on the proposal documents.

I agree to some extent with your point about deadlines, however my circumstances may be slightly different from some others. I've been a journalist for 15 years writing features and articles for anything from The Independent to GQ via Take A Break (for my sins). I've also run an international press agency, so I've got a good idea of both sides of the commissioning fence. Getting things done quickly and to deadline has always been part of my working life, though I'm learning that things are certainly much slower in book publishing.

I'm not entirely sure where you've got the impression that I'm writing the book FOR the agent, but I do accept the point that taking time to write the book as well as possible is important.

Sleek