The start of another month means one thing: Fiona Cassidy’s next installment about what it takes to become a published author. If you’ve missed Fiona’s previous entries you can read them here: Where It All Began and What’s The Story? and Agent Provocauthor and You’ve Got Mail. We now present to you the fifth article of twelve… enjoy! Our thanks, as ever, go to Fionnuala for writing this series for us!

Okay…so we’ve discussed how to begin writing, who to contact, what to send when submitting a manuscript and how to deal (badly and impatiently) with having to wait for a response. We’ve also talked about rejection and how soul destroying yet useful it can be in terms of learning from your mistakes and how it happens to us all (well nearly all apart from the selected chosen few…..What? Jealous? Me? Never!)

So….what happens when someone shows an interest in your work and asks to see the full manuscript?! It’s always a good sign to have an agent or publisher request your novel in its entirety as basically it means that they’ve read what you’ve sent them with interest, see potential in it and want to assess if the promise they’ve spotted in the first few chapters lasts throughout the book! This is usually why when submitting to an agent or publisher they will normally ask for the first three – six chapters as this is usually enough to help them decide whether or not the novel will be appealing to the public. For a book to be successful it needs to have a strong storyline that will instantly capture a reader’s attention and make them want to continue turning pages. As readers we can usually decide quite quickly if a book is good and keeping us hooked or whether we’re having a difficult time focussing and getting frustrated if it’s not moving fast enough for us (which is usually the part where I give up and throw it at the wall!)

Before submitting a full manuscript I would advise having it carefully edited and presented in exactly the way the publisher / agent requests. Some will want the full MS posted in hard copy whilst others will accept email submissions or submissions on disk. Take your time when editing. If asked, I’m sure they’d rather have high quality work as opposed to a quickly delivered MS that is full of mistakes or hard to follow. It’s important that your work is grammatically accurate with careful punctuation, a consistent storyline and correct timelines. Some people will say that grammar and punctuation are things that can be tidied up by an editor if it ever goes to print but I believe that if you’re going to do something you should take pride in doing it to the best of your ability whilst leaving as little as possible for someone else to do. I feel that it will also impress whoever is reading it and leave them confident in the knowledge that if they do decide to work with you at a later stage that you will always do your best in every aspect of your writing! (My parents were both teachers so it’s not my fault I’m as obsessed with grammar and punctuation as I am!)

Although it’s fantastic that an agent / publisher is showing an interest I would advise any writer in this position to view the fact that someone wants to see their full manuscript as simply ‘a step in the right direction’. Nothing more. Nothing less. Just because someone wants your full novel don’t be fooled and lulled into a false sense of security or go round telling everyone that you’ve landed yourself an agent or a publisher - because you haven’t. Keep the champagne on ice! The decision they will make very much depends on how much they like your work, whether or not they are taking on new writers and how marketable your book will be. You could be the best writer in the world but if the subject matter of your book is out of date, controversial or deals with a difficult topic then they may have to examine whether or not they would be able to sell it on your behalf.

In my own personal experience I’ve been so close to a publishing deal on several occasions that I felt I could taste it only to be let down at the last minute. I was also very nearly signed by a few different agents but again was to be disappointed. One agent told me that I was 98% of the way there but that I needed to find the missing 2% in order to be ready! I was gutted (and exhausted…where the hell was the elusive 2% hiding?!) I didn’t write for months afterwards as I tried to decide if a writing career was worth pursuing or not.

I look back now and remember how truly heartbroken and disillusioned I was (not to mention seething mad…voodoo doll at the ready) but now realise that the time wasn’t right for me. It was the best thing that could ever have happened! I needed to ‘grow’ as an author and alter my style of writing in order for my books to be ready for publication. It’s funny really….I spent about two years endlessly sending out manuscripts by the dozen to various agents and publishers whilst anxiously waiting for a response but to no avail. However, it was only after I had taken a break to re-evaluate (and recover from the bashing my self-esteem had taken) and decided to change my writing that things dramatically changed for the better! As I had been having no luck in getting an agent I decided to cut out the middle man (and stop adding to the growing pile of rejection letters I had collected) and try and approach a publisher on my own again. I sent a brand new book, in a different style with a storyline that I had never explored before to a publisher…and guess what…keep guessing…you’ll find out next month!

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