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:

• Point of view and tense. Have you chosen the best way to tell your story? Think about the narrator and the tense. On the non-fiction side, are you present as the writer of this non-fiction book, or are you invisible? Is it working, or should you insert yourself a little bit more or less? Additionally, when is the 'present’ in your story? Is it the best point in time from which to tell your story or your non-fiction book? It may seem obvious on the fiction side, but it is as important in non-fiction, especially when it comes to memoir.

• Characters/People. Are they all active participants with distinct personalities? Do their journeys make sense? Do we get the feeling that they've suddenly sprung to life when we opened the book, or do we feel that they have had full and active lives before we join them for the story you wish to tell? On the non-fiction side: have you described people in an engaging manner? Is your writing about real people prejudiced in some way? Have you described them fairly? Have you put enough information about them so that the reader isn't lost when coming across them on the page?

• Structure. Is the plot compelling? Do your character’s actions move the story forward? Do you have enough setbacks, tentpole scenes and a thrilling/satisfying climax? On the non-fiction side: are you taking the reader on a journey that makes sense? Have you threaded all your themes in a cohesive manner? Are all your chapters in the right order for the narrative you're trying to convey?

• Pacing and tension. Have you mixed up the length and intensity of your scenes? Have you given the story the chance to breathe? Do watch for overwriting as this tends to be one of the biggest issues for new writers. On the non-fiction side: are you being a bit too descriptive? Does the narrative feel unbalanced at times? Are you pacing the reveals / new information / new insights throughout the narrative? You don't need to include every tidbit of information you've come across in your research. And if there's information you do want to include, think carefully about where you do so. Holding back certain thoughts to reveal them in a more impactful way later on will often make your narrative more engaging.

• Beginning and end. Start with a bang and tie up all your threads and make the ending satisfying. For the start, get the reader hooked by your story or intrigued by your non-fiction book. Think about the books you've enjoyed: how did they start, and how did they leave you feeling when you finished?

• Dialogue. Is every character's dialogue consistent with their personality? If you are writing in a specific accent/vernacular, are you genuinely really good at it or are you not able to get it quite right? Are you choosing not to put speech marks because you want to look fancy³ or do you have a valid reason for doing so? On the non-fiction side, do all the conversations you are transcribing need to be there, or can some of them be summarized? Do they fit seamlessly in the narrative?

• Descriptions / setting / atmosphere. Are you setting the scene and mood for the book in the best way possible? Does the reader immediately know where (and when!) they are… or are you intentionally keeping things vague?

• Show, don’t tell. (Or scene vs summary, active vs passive, drama vs narrative.) You need to find ways to share information with the reader without explicitly telling them. 'Telling’ can be the quickest, easiest way, but it is often boring and uninvolving, weighing your story down and making it drag. If you're worried about info-dumping⁴, can some information be imparted through action and dialogue? If there is a big moment that the entire book has been leading up to, you will almost always want to see it on the page and in detail. It's the pay-off, after all.

Writing Sample

Once you've finished editing your book and you’re ready to submit, you’ll need to carefully evaluate your first 50 pages / three chapters for fiction:

• How strong is the opening? If you only read the first two to three pages, would you want to keep reading? Is it standing out in a crowded market?

• Do the first few pages establish the characters, tone, setting and story? If not, are there shorthand ways you can do that? Sometimes a few strategically placed adjectives and some sensory information will do the job. (Of course, sometimes you'll want to deliberately withhold information about character and setting until later — just make sure you're doing this intentionally rather than accidentally.)

• Is the most interesting/exciting thing happening on page 38? If so, you may want to consider bringing it forward to grab the reader's attention.

• Are events just happening to your characters or are they an active driver of the story? This is a big one. Passive characters can be frustrating on the page. But, again, there are ways to write them brilliantly! Just make sure you're actively making this choice, and that it's the right one for the character.

Tip: For inspiration, request a sample of the ebook of your comparative titles⁵ on your e-reader provider of choice and see how effective the openings are.

On the non-fiction side, you don't have to choose the first 50 pages:

• Showcase the best of your writing, as well as the chapters you feel are most representative of the book.

• What are you starting your proposal with? Is it engaging and relevant for readers who don't know anything about the subject? Remember to take the reader by the hand. Try to start with relatable and universal things and some contextualisation before you get into specifics.

• Don't have a writing sample with 30 short extracts of your best writing — an agent/editor will want to know that you can weave a narrative thread over a full chapter, so maybe include one full chapter and a few extracts.

• Make sure that if you have two strands (i.e. a memoir strand and a science strand), you include sample writing for both of these. You want to be able to show that you have the range!

• If you are pitching a book about nature, for example, and 20 pages of what you send turn out to be about a train journey (no matter how beautifully written!), then you've chosen the wrong extract. The bulk of your proposal writing sample should be about the main topic of your book.

I hope that's all clear, and not too intimidating. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions — there are no silly questions. Publishing can be opaque at the best of times, so if there's anything I can do to make it more transparent, I'm happy to help!

Coming up next week is a discussion on writing your synopsis and timing your submission.

Until next time, keep on writing!

Caro

1. At your peril, obv.

2. All bets are off when you're published and have an audience (within reason!!)

3. Just because it works for Zadie Smith, that doesn't necessarily mean it works for you.

4. Info-dumping — aka the action of supplying a large (typically excessive or unwieldy) amount of information at once — is a love language for some of us so it can be super hard.

5. A comp, or comparative title, is a book that would sit next to yours on bookshop shelves. It'll be the same genre, age range and/or tone. This is an industry shorthand for getting a quick snapshot of where your book would fit in the market and how many copies you can anticipate to sell.