The Biggest Mistake New Writers Make
I wrote the first draft of my novel by hand, which I realize is slightly insane. Every morning I would wake up at five o’clock (or as I like to…
I wrote the first draft of my novel by hand, which I realize is slightly insane. Every morning I would wake up at five o’clock (or as I like to call it, o’dark o’clock), write three pages, and then go on with my day. Well, that’s a very simplified version, but for the sake of brevity, let’s say that’s what I did.
Order a copy of Frosted Cowboy by Charlene Ross today.
When I was done I typed the pages into my laptop and considered my book edited and finished; ready to shop to agents in hopes of signing a book deal.
Are you laughing at me? (You should be.)
Fortunately I went to a seminar on queries given by a former literary agent. She told us the number one biggest mistake new writers make is querying their book before the manuscript is ready. We are so happy to be “done” and so excited to share our masterpieces with the world that we send our work out too soon. A well-crafted query letter will get you nowhere if you receive a request for a partial or a full and send an agent a manuscript that is a hot, poorly-written mess. She urged us to have our books professionally edited if at all possible. (And hey, she just happened to be an editor-for-hire, please be sure to take her card on your way out!)
I will admit to you that I can be terrible at listening to good advice and only hear what I want to hear (and I certainly didn’t want to hear “pay for my editing services after attending my seventy-five dollar seminar”), but for some reason this advice did resonate with me. Maybe my book wasn’t ready to query. (See above, it most certainly wasn’t!)
Hiring an editor wasn’t an option for me financially, so I asked two friends for the favor of a lifetime: to beta read my book. And thank all that is holy and good that I did. If I had queried my original “finished” manuscript, I would have never signed a book deal.
When I received my manuscripts back from my two readers I reminded myself that the red marks were given with love. I took their suggestions to heart and re-edited my book. Then I edited it again. And again. (And again after that!) Then I sent it back to my beta readers and got the thumbs up.
It’s hard to know when a book is ready to submit, which is one reason the outside perspective of a beta reader (or two) is so important. The original “finished” manuscript I sent to my betas was over 124,000 words. The draft that got me a publishing deal was 83,000. Quite a difference!
Writing is hard and editing is even harder. Waiting to send my book out was the hardest thing of all. But hard things are worth doing and good things are worth waiting for. Ugh, that was so cliché. For that I apologize. But clichés are clichés for a reason: because they are true. And so is this: sending your book out before it is ready is a huge mistake. Don’t make it!
Charlene Ross is the author of FROSTED COWBOY (February 8, 2016, Velvet Morning Press). She is also the author of the novella, LOVE ON THE ROCKS(WITH SALT), a contributor to the nonfiction book, THE MAKING OF A PICKYEATER and has been featured on NPR’s This I Believe series. She lives in the suburbs of Los Angeles with her husband and two teenage children. You can find Charlene at charleneaross.com and on Twitter.
