Submission-Ready Course - Session One

This session is all about polishing your manuscript or book proposal, taking a close look at your first 50 pages (fiction) or writing sample (non-fiction).

Hi everyone,

This is the first session of the Submission-Ready Course and today is all about the finished book, or book proposal for those of you writing non-fiction. It will include some tips on editing and how to assess your writing sample in preparation for submitting your book to agents or editors.

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The Finished Book / Proposal

Writing

Finish your book or book proposal and get it ready for submission:

• Finish writing the book (fiction) or book proposal (non-fiction). I know, funny I mention that, right? You'd be surprised! You should absolutely have finished writing the book for fiction and you should have thought about the entire book for the non-fiction proposal for the purpose of your chapter outline. Don't even think about submitting your work until you've done this!

• Edit it to make it as good as you can. It’s rare for a first draft to be great, so expect a few drafts before you think about sharing it with other people for feedback. Same goes for non-fiction: it is rare for a non-fiction writer to nail the structure and the weighing of the different strands of narrative in one go.

• Read widely in the genre you’re writing in (if you haven’t already). Reading books is the best education on how to write them. Reading widely, and — more specifically — reading critically, is essential. By looking at the craft and interrogating why an author has made specific choices, you will be able to read your book critically and see where it could be improved when you start editing.

• Get feedback. You can join writers’ group, sign up for a course or even ask family and friends¹, but make sure the people you're asking for feedback know about books and the genre you're writing in. I can't emphasise this enough; getting feedback from people who don't know anything about what you're writing will be a useless exercise at best, and a dispiriting one at worst. Think about getting a few readers from different demographics, too.

• Edit your book using the *useful* feedback. If you've asked several people, look at the points of convergence in their feedback — are they all having strong opinions about one character, did they all guess the killer, did their attention wane at the same point in the story? For non-fiction, did anyone stop reading after a while? Did some people not understand the point you were trying to make?

• Consider word count. The normal length of a novel or a narrative non-fiction book is between 70,000 and 90,000 words. With the rising cost of paper, printing and transport, publishers are being cautious about long books so avoid going above 100,000 words if this is your debut².

Editing

If you're starting to edit your book and don't know where to start, this list may help you prioritise: