Don’t publish or query too soon & how do you know your ms is ready?

I read two self published books fairly recently that shouldn’t have been published in the state they were in. They both needed editing and one needed revising and rewriting. It’s often easier to see the mistakes others make than to see your own, but if you use what you see in others as a lens to look back at yourself, you can learn from their mistakes. In this case the experience confirmed and cemented what I’ve already learnt.  Don’t put your book out there before it’s really ready.

The problem is, of course, how do you know it’s ready?  This is what I’ve come to.

•  I’ve read several blog posts written by agents who say that most ms they get are submitted too soon. Some suggest a minimum of 5 drafts before submission. I’ve done 7 major revisions and about 22 edits.
• Make sure you have the ms read by ten people (Richard Harland suggested that figure and I agree). Include target readers and other writers or English teachers (try the local high school) that you can trust to say what they really think. Make sure they understand that you want a critique not an ego pat – a ms can always be improved. I asked my target readers to tell me the following and I even wrote them down on a form for them to fill in.
  • Where it gets boring
  •  Anything they don’t understand
  • Anything that reads a bit funny
  • Any dialogue that seems contrived
  • Any place where the characters do something unrealistic or unbelievable.
  • What they liked
  • What they didn’t like
  • Any grammar or punctuation mistakes that leapt out at them..
• Ordinary readers will still miss a lot, so either pay for a professional to do a manuscript appraisal or swap appraisals with another writer whose opinion you trust.
• Consider the feedback, ask for clarification if you don’t understand it ( I find this important) and make changes where there is agreement from the readers and where, even if it breaks your heart,  deep down you know they’re right. 
• Make sure you have put the ms aside for several months and re read it critically before sending it off. If you re-do it, then put it away again and repeat the process.
•  Read lots of other books so you know what reads well and what doesn’t, this will help the problems in your work stand out when you read it after that break.
• Be brutally honest when you read it after that break. Wherever a sentence reads a bit clunkily (is this a new word?), don’t ignore it because you aren’t sure how to make it better (I’ve done this in the past, but the clunkiness doesn’t go away until you fix it and others will notice it.), instead, go back to those writing books and find out what’s wrong with it. This is where you use the writing rules.
•  Read books about writing. Learn about punctuation and grammar and all those things.
• Leave it alone and read it again before submitting or publishing.
• If you’re going to self publish – please, please, please – EMPLOY AN EDITOR. If you put your book out there without it being properly edited, you do the whole self publishing industry a disservice and you send your career as a writer to the grave before it even starts. There is a reason why agents and publishers rejected it, make sure it isn’t because of poor writing. Find an editor who will teach you what’s wrong and how to fix it.  Consider what you pay your education. This may seem harsh, but I really feel the money will be worth it in the long run. Your book won’t get good reviews and won’t sell if it’s not properly edited. Even top writers have their work edited before publication. Shouldn’t those who aren’t top writers need an editor even more?

Of course, I’m not published yet, but one of the main things I’ve learned on this journey so far is not to rush. You need enough space from it to be able to look at it through the eyes of the reader.

Do you agree? Have you read published books where it’s obvious that it hasn’t been edited?