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?

So, while I was on vacation, a little thing called #Franzenfreude broke out all over the internet. I mostly sat in the bleachers watching, sometimes nodding, sometimes shaking my head. I'm not going to get into the commercial vs. literary, man vs. woman aspect here on the blog because I think it's been beaten to death, but I will say that one of the things that cropped up for me - while reading about female vs. male authors - is the idea of maiden vs. married names, and how important it is to feel comfortable with your personal identity as a writer. I mentioned something about this on Twitter, asking simply if my fellow women writers have kept their maiden names and was met with a huge flurry of responses.

It's something I've been thinking about for a while, and I believe I even blogged about it well over a year or so ago. When I got married (many moons ago), I immediately adopted my husband's name, tacking it on to mine without giving it much thought to my long-term career. But to be honest, I never quite made the leap. I still answer my work line as "Allison Winn," my website, quite obviously, still has the same maiden name address, and to most of the people who know me or knew me in my pre-married life, I'm still Ali Winn, sans the Scotch.

And now, maybe it's because 95% of my energies are spent devoted to my family, but I've been thinking about trying to retain a bit of control over the one thing that I do for myself: writing. Which leads me back to my maiden name and wondering why I changed it (professionally) and whether or not it was the right decision.

When I tweeted about this, the majority of women who replied opted NOT to change their names. A few called it old-fashioned; many simply felt as I do now - that it's about grabbing hold of your life up to now; and @rosiemolinary put it wonderfully: that all the experiences she had that allow her to write were part of the life she embodied with her maiden name. Why on earth would she change it? Why on earth indeed.

None of this has anything to do with my marriage or my family. In fact, in some ways, I think it's about how fully devoted I am to them - so much of what I do is about them, that I'd like to have one thing for me. I suspect a lot of women and moms know of what I speak, even if the issue for them isn't about a maiden name. Maybe it's about time or a hobby or SOMETHING that we can call our own. I'll still be Scotch for my kids and for their school and for anything else that covers that aspect of my life, but for this, I kind of think that I'd like this to be my own.

So yesterday, when I got home from vacation, I called my agent and asked: can I go back to it professionally? How difficult it is anyway to make that leap? I might be too far into my career to do so, and that will be that, and I, of course, will deal. But still, it's something I long for - the complete and full definition of my professional identity, one that has nothing to do with any other aspect of my life. Sure, I write about motherhood and marriage, so maybe that's not entirely fair or true, but I'd just like to be able to own this. If that makes sense. 

Anyway, it's something I encourage new writers to really think about: your professional identity and where you'll be, not just in a year from now when your first book is published, but many years from now. How do you want to respresent yourself? 

Other writers out there: what say you? Did you change your name? Why or why not? Do you regret it? Ever think of doing things differently?

Ahhhhhhh! That sound you hear is me exhaling after some much-needed time away from work. It's amazing - you don't realize how plugged in you are in this day and age until you actually stop being so plugged in. Leaving my cell phone in the hotel room. Not checking Twitter like I didn't have anything better to do. Jumping in the pool instead of holing up reading status updates on Facebook. And what these unplugged days have given me is some serious excitement about returning to my one (hopefully) last draft of edits to my manuscript. I mean, I am really, really, really stoked to dive back in - and it's something that I thought a lot about on the trip. We've discussed here before if an author's enthusiasm for his or her work is felt in the final product, and way back when, when we were discussing it, I think we were mostly unsure, but felt pretty firmly that what went on behind the scenes didn't affect the outcome.

But you know what? I'm rethinking this. Because throughout the process of The Memory of Us, I have been super-stoked to tackle the manuscript, and now, with this mini-break, my enthusiasm is even higher. And I'll tell you what: early readers are giving this ms a big thumbs-up...I'd say it's in the same shape now - after three drafts - that The One That I Want was after seven. And I can't help but think it's because I am so damn excited to be writing it. With The One, which I remain super-proud of and fully believe in the finished product, there was a lot more hair-pulling, a lot more stress, and a lot more pressure. This one is just purely from a place of joy, a reminder of what I love what I do, and I really, honestly wish that I could just put it out into the world RIGHT NOW to test my theory. :)

Anyway, this could certainly lead into a bigger discussion, which we did delve into many months ago, about what translates to a reader from behind-the-scenes, and this is a subject that I hope to revisit on the road to the publication of The Memory of Us. For now though, I'm just happy to be so pleased with the manuscript and happier still to return to it. Sometimes, work really just feels like work (writers always need a reminder of this), but I'm elated that this one doesn't. Maybe my next one will. But for now, I'll take what I can get. :)

Writers - I'd love to hear - have any of your books come more easily to you than others? Do you think it affected the final version?

Ahhhhhh...that sound you hear across your wireless/modem/ethernet connection is me exhaling at having completed my revision of The Memory of Us just in time for a little R and R with my family. I'll be taking next week off from the blog because, well, I haven't done so since December (WOW!), and I need a little breathing time to unplug and disconnect.

In the meantime, if you have lingering questions about the publishing industry - from magazines to agents to editors to whatnot - feel free to post them below. Now's a good time for me to play catch-up, so I'll address them as soon as I get back.

Hope you all enjoy your own last gasps of summer too!

Question of the day: Is it advisable to submit to more than one agent from the same literary agency? Eg. Can I submit to Bob from C&C ltd AND Sheila from C&C ltd in separate letters?

While you can and SHOULD submit to multiple agents at once, the general rule is that you should NOT submit to more than one agent within the same agency at the same time. There are exceptions to this rule, but to play it safe, I would research the agents thoroughly and then decide which one is the best fit. If he or she subsequently rejects you, in most cases, you can then query your next choice within the agency, and so on. 

That said, there are a few exceptions to this rule, I believe. I want to say that Trident is one of the agencies who doesn't stick to this rule, but that's going from memory, and I may be wrong. I'm hopeful that blog readers who have been on the query wagon more recently than I have will chime in with the agencies who welcome multiple queries. Anyone want to help out this reader?