Hello all,

As some of you know, I am writing a novel - which straddles quite uncomfortably, at the moment, between young adult and literary (I strive to make it both, if possible.)

I am over two thirds through, and want to pitch it to some agents. I have no money to become a full member of the site (seriously; if I had some, I WOULD use it here first, as I am serious about my writing). Is there any other way to get any kind people here to read what I have, and tell me what they think, as the site won't let me upload any work?

Thank you in advance to anyone who can offer any help,

Mark

Welcome to the site, Mark - hope you're able to become a full member soon.

Actually, my advice is finish (and edit or have edited) the novel first before you pitch it anywhere. Agents/publishers don't generally want unfinished work - they want something they can use now.

Good luck with the rest of the book!

A
xxx

Mark, I'd second HollyB's advice very strongly. You only get one crack at each agent, so it's madness to send out your work until it's as perfect as it can possibly be, and you can't possibly know it is until you've written the whole thing and revised and polished it over and over again.

I know you hear stories of mega-deals struck on the basis of a few chapters, but it's incredibly rare. You never hear about the hundreds of good writers' work that the agent could tell was nearly good enough to take on, but not quite...

If your concept is so brilliant and original, and your personal news value so A-list that it doesn't matter how you write because they can always get it ghosted, that's another matter. The rest of us mortals have to concentrate on writing a brilliant book brilliantly.

Emma

I’ll third that. Don’t even think about sending it out until it’s finished and thoroughly edited. Take it from us, you can't really know that the first few chapters are right until you’ve written the last one.

If you're serious about your writing you’ll also want to be professional, so wait until it’s polished before putting it on show. Hopefully by then you’ll have saved up enough to join WW and we can help you polish it even further.

Good luck

Dee