The End Product
Thursday, September 2, 2010 Question of the day: I know that I have to submit a finished manuscript to an agent, but I'm curious if published authors have to do the same. In other words: did you write all of your books in their entirety before selling them?
Great question, and one that I actually don't think has ever been asked here before! Yes, you already seem to know that to submit to an agent and then a publishing house, that your manuscript (at least fiction) has to be complete. Why? It's too easy to start a book and never finish it. It's also similarly easy to start a book well and finish it badly.
So that's that.
As far as what comes next, most authors do NOT have to write the entire book to make a sale. Most of our contracts have something built in which requires us to write the first three (or so) chapters, along with a proposal, for consideration. The publisher then has right of first refusal on that submission. That said, my agent has always encouraged me to write more than the bare minimum because the more they see of great work, the more excited they'll be about the book and their offer. (Translation: potentially more money.)
With Time of My Life, because we were changing publishers, I believe that I wrote the first 100 pages, which we then shopped around. With The One That I Want, I did indeed stick to three chapters, which is something I regretted, and am unlikely to do again. For me, part of the problem with my struggle to write that book was knowing that I was contracted to do something and really not having an iota of how I was going to do it. Psychologically, it felt harder than having those first 100 pages down and feeling good about them. Instead, I pretty much had the entire book looming, and I KNEW I had to deliver it. It was a little paralyzing. With The Memory of Us, again, I had, I believe, 150 or so pages done, before anyone laid eyes on it. Not because I had to but because I learned from experience that I respond best to circumstances in which I feel like I'm in control: once you've written that much of a book, the end is in sight, and you know that you can get there without too many problems.
So that's how I like to do things, regardless of what my contract states. I'm curious: writers, do you sell on the first three chapters? If so, why? If not, are you like me in that you like to have a better handle on things before you ink a deal?



