I hear from writers about their struggles all the live long day. Many problems (doubt, procrastination, perfectionism) have the same solution—it takes time, patience and practice to improve your craft. However, there’s one common writing mistake that gives me chills every time because it’s harder to help.
Do not send out your work before it’s ready.
This might mean self-publishing on Amazon too soon, or maybe querying agents or editors with sample chapters before your manuscript is ready; or worse, even completed. The price such overzealous writers pay for rushing to the next step is costly. You don’t want your career over before it even begins.
Why Writers Make This Common Writing Mistake
Whether you’re on the traditional route, or plan to self-publish, QUALITY counts for everything: the writing, to the plot, the entertainment value, the book cover—it must all be your best.
The problem is, too many writers sacrifice quality in exchange for speed (they’re DYING for the magic to happen NOW because the work took years), or maybe quantity (since you need multiple books available to make a living as an author, they’re cranking out volumes like a factory assembly line).
Why This Writing Mistake Will Ruin Your Publishing Chances
Your dream agent or editor will not understand…Wait! Eleven months from now, my novel will really be ready, I just wanted your thoughts today.
Unfortunately, you only get one chance. Once they’ve said “no” to your manuscript once, 99.9 percent of the time means “no” for the future of your book's life, maybe the future of your writing career.
Some of you will read this and think, Oh! My work is that magical .01% . That silly rule doesn’t apply to me.
No, it's not and yes, it does.
This Writing Mistake Applies to Self-Publishing Too
Reviewers on Goodreads won’t be forgiving if you’ve basically published the first draft of your novel and its weaknesses are obvious (even if your mom loves your story).
The days of slapping any sort of Once Upon a Time up on the Internet and making a buck are long gone.
Quality is king.
If you lose your dream agent or editor, there are still countless other well-respected professionals out there. But, if you self-publish a book which should've died on the slush pile, then your name is Mud.
It’s harder setback to overcome. Readers shy away from bad reviews. Word of mouth can make or break you.
I know authors who’ve made this mistake and pulled their self-published books. They hired developmental editors and reworded and reworked their entire content, then republished later to better success.
Others scrapped their book and started their careers over with a pseudonym. New name, fresh start.
Quality is a Habit
Before sending your work out (either querying, or self-publishing), remember to have different beta readers give your their opinions, then seriously consider implementing their suggestions.
Next, have your books professionally edited. Not just for misspellings, typos and grammar, but for content as well. You want your prose to flow, continuity in your plot and character development, as well as entertainment value.
If you’ve signed with an agent or editor, you’ll do this important work with them, but if you’re self-publishing, you should pay for the extra assistance.
Is Overcoming This Writing Mistake Easy?
No, but it’s an investment in your career over the long term. You're trying to stand out among the millions of other books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.
You have one chance to make a good first impression, make the most of it.
What do you think the consequences are for sending out your work too soon? Let us know in the comments section.
PRACTICE
Today, focus on the terrible woes that happen to a writer who sends his/her work out too soon. Make it BIG. Make it HORRIBLE. Scare us to death, so we learn from his/her mistakes. Have fun with this!
Take fifteen minutes to tell this story, then please share in the comments. Remember, if you post a practice, please comment on your fellow writers’ work.
100% spot on! There are no shortcuts to doing things right. “Haste makes waste” is a truism that cannot be denied. Patience, persistence and perseverance are the keys to success. Editing phase certainly cannot be rushed. It requires more than a quick review and rewrite. This is an excellent reminder for us all.
Awesome insights, Coach Brown — especially the P3: patience, persistence and perseverance. What a great way to kick off these comments. Thanks!
I hear you, Mercy; loud and clear!
After setting my manuscript aside for a while, I came back and saw what needs to go and what can be improved.
Few beta readers shared great thoughts with me that inspired more of the same.
When I am satisfied, I will find an editor both for content and line by line editing, and then publish.
Thank you!
All best!
You’re absolutely on the right track, Katina. It’s no fun moving this slow, but it pays off in the long run.
And the same holds true for blogging too. I penned a particularly embarrassing post last week – that should have been in a private journal.
Your article coerced me to take it out and also taught me an important lesson: every post must provide value to your READERS, else let it remain private in some Word or Evernote file 😉
Thankfully, I am not famous yet 😛 hehe
LOVEE YOU
Kitto
Hey Kitto!
I hadn’t even thought of blogging as I wrote this, but you’re 100% right. Readers do connect with vulnerability, but there can be a fine line between that and TOO MUCH INFORMATION. You touched on what the difference is…even if it’s personal, as long as it teaches others a lesson, it can work. If not, it can just be embarrassing.
Thanks always for the sparkle you share here at TWP.
This is so true! At a writing conference I attended in NYC the editors and agents implored us to wait and not jump the gun. I had an agent there like my first few pages and she asked me to send her the manuscript. Needless to say I was thrilled, BUT, my draft was far from complete and despite my desire to get more feedback, I (wisely) waited, despite family members urging me otherwise. A year and a half later I’m closer to being ready than ever, and that woman’s card is stil in my wallet 🙂 Whether she remembers me or not isn’t the point, but whether my words still capture her attention and interest.
Great story, Dana. You bring up an excellent point. I bet that agent will remember you because you’re going to help remind her. I’ve been in that same situation and wrote something like this:
Hi NAME,
I really enjoyed meeting you at the CONFERENCE NAME in New York in YEAR. You really liked the opening pages of my novel, NAME, and the pitch line. Plus, REMINDER HER WHAT GREAT THINGS SHE SAID ABOUT IT.
My “quick polish” took a lot longer than expected, but I’m so pleased with the end result and hope you are, too. GIVE HER ALL THE DETAILS: genre, word count, if it’s won any contest awards, etc.
Tell her again why you were so interested in her and end with all your contact info.
This email/letter would need to be smoothed out more, but you understand what I’m saying. POINT BEING: Agents would rather wait a long time and get a really great final product, than yet another rushed piece they have to reject. GOOD LUCK!
Have not had the misfortune of embarrassing myself yet, of course I do not Blog! I just need to write and get it to my critique group. However when I am ready for a next step, I would like to know more about Beta readers! I have heard the term but have no idea what it means! Perhaps you could give us more information in another post in the future. I find your post and advice so helpful!
That’s a GREAT idea, Dawn. My next post here on TWP will be about Beta Readers. My off the cuff explanation is they are your first critiquers who read your world, from start to finish. For example, I read a chapter or two each week to my critique group. However, when I’m “done” with my novel, I then seek Beta Readers who are fresh eyes to read my book from page one until Then End. More on that later.
Thanks for you comment + your wonderful idea.
Thank you, Marcy! I am getting to the point where I am tired of re-working, editing, and re-writing some more. I was beginning to think, “Oh, this is good enough,” self-publishing, and just getting it out. Thank you for reminding me that only my best is good enough.
I’m curious, Dorothy…have you had beta readers read your work? They really tell you if you’re work is ready for the “next step”, whether it’s querying agents/editors, or publishing yourself.
Good for you for reminding yourself that you only want your best work out there.
Thank you again, Marcy. I have only sent a few chapters to a friend, who is also writing a book. I guess her book took precedence, because I haven’t heard from her. I’ll work on getting more beta readers.
More isn’t always better, Dorothy. I would only have 2-3 beta readers whose opinions I TRULY value. Otherwise, it’s too much for me. Check with that friend of yours and see where things stand on your book. Good luck.
Thank you again, Marcy. I just called my chief beta reader, and she said she had never received my chapters. So I am sending them by e-mail tonight. I have one other person who has just published her own book, so I will send to her as well. Thank you for the reminder!
So, there you have it. She wasn’t ignore you. The woman never received them. That’s why it’s always important to never assume. Good luck with your two beta readers and your manuscript.
Many thanks, Marcy. You’re OK! I’m contacting my beta readers today. PS: Just got Steven Pressfield’s “The Authentic Swing” and realized no one else can write my story but me.
It’s been awhile since I read “The Authentic Swing”, but you summed it up beautifully, “No one else can write my story, but me.”
Lovely!
He was shot in the walk-in freezer, which occupies a small corner in the back of a busy bar. And there he lay. (Lie? Lied? Actually he laid a lot and lied a lot–that’s why he was shot.) A celebration is going on in the bar. It’s fun and lively, but super sleuth Sally misses the man, gets suspicious, and wanders behind the party scene to check up on what might be going on in the back rooms.
Sure enough, she finds him. As he lies there bleeding (to death or not to death—that is my question) he whispers the name of his wife. Is he calling for his wife to say a last goodbye or trying to inform her that it was his wife who’d shot him? Either way, the wife needs to be located. There are a number of undercover police at this celebration, but for some reason super sleuth Sally never thinks to notify them that there’s been an attempted murder, that a man is bleeding back here in the freezer, that he may need medical care. (Like, someone call an ambulance, eh?)
Anyway, Sally searches for said wife — now hiding in one of the back storage rooms— and confronts her. Not so wise if the wife has just shot her man. Sally uncovers the truth, the motive, the smoking gun. But now that Sally knows, she herself is threatened and marched off at gunpoint to be dispatched elsewhere. (Maybe the freezer?)
Thankfully she’s rescued from the murderous hands of the wife, who’s arrested. Then Sally and her sweetie, who showed up to get in on the action, go back to the party that’s going on and forget all about this poor guy in the freezer. Everybody forgets about him. (He’s stiff by now in any case, right?)
But surely the writer could have taken care of him somehow — along with about a dozen other inconsistencies in the story line. Have you ever wished you could take a writer by the arm and say, “Let’s look at this plot again and try to fix these holes”?
How would I feel if, once my book is ‘out there’, readers start writing to complain about legitimate inconsistencies? “Hey, you forgot about this body!” Or, “You said the apple trees were in bloom, and a few pages later you write that it’s the end of June. Where do you live?!”
Marcy is right: if our bloopers are big enough we don’t get a second chance. We all need an editor, other (non-biased) eyes to read our work. The above-mentioned writer may take better care of these minor details in her next novel, but I won’t be buying it, or recommending her books to reader friends.
Christine,
This made me smile all over the place…lay? lie? lied? Especially, your funny side notes (he’s stiff by now in any case, right).
I don’t what you write “for real”, but I hope humor is part of your calling card. You have great wit. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed my “weird sense of humor”–as my family calls it. Yes, I like writing humor. If you’d like to read another, here’s a link to one of my best, the tale of a genie’s woes as she tries to please a teenage girl.
http://christinecomposes.com/2014/07/07/the-hazards-of-wish-counselling/
Oh, I totally did this about 13 years ago! I wrote my first book, proofread it and sent it out. All in the space of a few months. It makes me cringe to think of it now. Though weirdly, I got more encouraging comments from agents about that manuscript than any one I’ve submitted since. I attribute this to agents being much busier nowadays, because my writing can’t have got worse. (Trust me, there was nowhere for it to go but up! 🙂 Anyway, a good lesson to us all. And if its already too late, changing your name could be the way forward…
Thank you for sharing your story, Catherine. I’m glad you learned your lesson, and it sounds like it didn’t do too much damage. And, I forgot to mention….just because an agent/editor rejects Book ABC, doesn’t mean they’ll reject Book 123. Each one stands alone. Author Suzanne Collins wrote quite a few games before The Hunger Game series made her a “not-so-overnight” success.
You just have to keep writing and trying. Good luck to you!
I pinned this article to my writers helper board on pinterest.
Very helpful information Marcy, Thank you. I’m still in the process of ironing out my writing to where it could be considered decent to editors and readers alike. But I’m getting there. I made it passed grammar, POV, and keeping tenses straight. I do need more work on making smoother transitions from one scene to another, and improve my characters descriptions along with their desires, and weaknesses some more.
You’re doing GREAT, Susan. Even though you haven’t officially published a novel yet, I know from our conversations that you are writing, then sharing with others. THAT is how you learn and grow. Good for you and keep up the strong work.
Truly, Marcy, I think I’m on the other end of that spectrum – can’t “let to” and send out until I look at each and every word and make sure it sounds as good as it can. Even when I “let it go” I still look back and see something I would have liked to change.
Same here.
I’m like you, Jack, and I think that’s normal. I have author friends who have hit the NYT who are self-publishing older novels that are no longer under contract with their original publishers. All, re-edit their books before selling them on Amazons. Others, have done MAJOR rewrites.
Just got thru reading the article (ok, so I’m WAY behind on my e-mails!) and your response is spot-on for me too. Even when it’s good, to me it’s just not good “enough”.
It is the same for me. I have years (decades?) of unpublished, work, but I am petrified of letting it out of my sight until I deem it worthy of being read by another pair of eyes. It’s only with the filter of 10 or more years that I see any merit in the pages I’ve written. It’s only in the past three years that anyone else has been allowed to read my work (a very bad experience when I first started writing).
Twelve years ago I wrote a short story in the pub. Four weeks ago, I took it out of its disintegrating plastic folder, polished it up and published it on my website. It went through three edits, two proofreads and a couple of anonymous critiques before it went live.
I published.
A week later, I was on the webpage and found five issues that needed fixing.
My problem is that it is never good enough. If I wait until I believe something is up to scratch, I will NEVER let it go.
My website is pretty safe (very little chance for embarrassment), no one reads it, I only have it as an exercise in ‘letting go’
it is so hard not to jump the gun, especially when you’re an impatient person (guilty)! Although I think being a perfectionist, I have the added benefit of not allowing anything to get out before it is severely edited by myself. Those two forces clash way too often!
Believe me, Reagan. I so relate the clashes between those two strong titans. That’s why I think it’s so important to get feedback from other trusted readers. They help me see flaws I never noticed and let me know when my work is awesome (and I thought it sucked). It’s a balancing act, but never an easy one.
I didn’t experience in sending my works to any editors or
agents yet, but this article will serve as my bullet proof vest in the future.
Thanks for sharing writers.
Ha, Jean. I like that comparison…a bullet-proof vest for writers. Now, I feel bad ass!
Excellent advice, Marcy. Thanks so much. I’m the opposite of being in a hurry to publish my mss. I read, reread, edit, put it away and then go over it again, with a feeling that it isn’t ready for the Internet.
I’m sure a reliable editor is my best bid. He/she will point out the flaws, suggest where to cut or amplify, and other details to produce an interesting story.
Thanks for your thoughts, Lilian. Your comment reminded me of a Q&A I just read with Lisa Genova (NYT best selling author of the novel, Still Alice). When asked for advice for aspiring writers she said, “If you don’t find a literary agent falling into your lap quickly enough, if you feel like your work is done and is ready to be shared with the world, self-publish. Give your work to the world. Let it go. And keep writing. Freedom.”
That’s what Lisa Genova did. Wrote and published Still Alice. It became huge. Got an agent and was rerelease through a major publisher, then turned into an Oscar-nominated movie. Not bad.
I completely agree! I have been giving this advice myself. I did make the mistake of sending my ms out too soon, but what it did for me was make me realize that getting an agent, then a publisher for your book could take from a couple years to NEVER. So, when I knew it was ready (though it still could have used one more edit) I sent it to an editor (referred by a fellow author). Luckily this guy, even at his lower prices, gave me a 2nd edit for free. And still I had the formatter make about 10 corrections. She was quite upset as she said it was already uploaded. So I had to pay her extra to un-upload and make the corrections.
The moral is the same: Do not let your ms out before it is ready EVER! You don’t want to be in that group that is embarrassed about their first book.
I still have found some errors, but they are mostly words that should have been italicized. I plan to write a prequel so I will make corrections and re-release this novel a few months after the prequel comes out.
Sherrie
Do you know a/b my debut novel “Secrets & Lies in El Salvador”? A young American woman goes to war-torn El Salvador: http://tinyurl.com/klxbt4y
My husband made a video for my novel. He wrote the song too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P11Ch5chkAc
Thanks for sharing your story, Sherrie and GOOD LUCK on your novel.
Just imagining how it would feel to have something out there that discredits you, is a reminder to really care about your writing. Ultimately, everyone wants to create their best work, and provide the best value for anyone who reads their content – so patience is definitely key. Thank you for reminding me that negative visualizations (like the Stoics did) – can be highly beneficial when used appropriately.
Well said, Samy. I can’t add anything more.
The best advice is, ‘Don’t send out your work until it’s ready,’ and this means a lot of revison and editing.
You’ve got it, Lilian. It’s a lot of work, and so frustrating at times, but WORTH IT in the end.
It had seemed like a perfectly reasonable mistake. After all, it was just a few code names…
Jerome had been writing a story about a terrorist attack, but thought that it had lacked a certain authenticity, so he had called up an old friend from high school, and invited him out for drinks.
Darren worked at the Department of Homeland Security, doing analysis of the threats of various nations. At first, he had been reticent about the nature of his job, especially when Jerome had told him that he was planning on writing the details into a book. “I’d be court marshalled! They’d draw and quarter me if they found out I’d be giving away classified information to a civvie!”
After a couple hours’s worth of alcoholic beverages, as well as reassurances that he’d change the code names and certain details, Darren gave up the motherlode. There was a Russian spy satellite that the Americans were pretty sure had nukes, classified as Crow Claw. There was a home-grown terrorist organization, sponsored by Al Qaeda, called “Mongoose.” Finally, there was a Chinese assassin that had landed recently in Seattle, codenamed “Red Demon,” and they had no idea who he had been sent to kill.
Those ideas combined in his head, and Jerome had his story. He paid for Darren’s drinks and called him a cab, and sent him on his way, his mind still trying to process the idea. This could make him rich, and his agent would finally get off his back. Debbie had been pestering him for weeks to tell her the idea for his new story, which had been hard, since he hadn’t really had one, but now he’d show her. He decided to get cute, and send it as if it were an intercepted government document.
Jerome started writing the document, a dismal thing where Mongoose had stolen the weapons codes for Crow Claw, and had hooked the trigger mechanism to a deadman switch. The leader of the Mongoose cell had keyed the nukes so that if he died, America went kablooey. Of course, the Red Demon didn’t know that, and was on his way to kill the head of mongoose, unaware of the cataclysm it would unleash.
His job done, he sent off the email, before realizing that he hadn’t kept his promise to change the code names and the details of the programs subtly. Oh well, he’d do it in a later draft. Besides, who would believe such a ridiculous name for a terror organization as “Mongoose?”
He awoke to a muffled thud in the distance, and a flash of light. “Odd, the weather reports didn’t say anything about a thunderstorm…” He then was knocked out of his bed as a shock wave, this one much closer than the first, shattered his windows in a rush of hot air. His meagre possessions clattered to the ground as the building shook beneath him, and he spotted some sort of electronic device on the bottom of his lamp, now lying beside him on the ground, its bulb shattered.
A message appeared on his computer screen. “Thank you for letting us know that our plan had been compromised. Now we can destroy America on our own terms, not some assassin’s.” The power went out suddenly, and the room was plunged into darkness, except for a hellish orange light outside.
He stood up, not even noticing his foot being cut by the glass of the broken bulb, and saw the mushroom cloud rising into the air nearby. It was all a mistake. A perfectly reasonable mistake. He reached for the phone, to call someone, to tell everyone that it was all fiction…
There was a hot, white light, and then nothing.
—————————-
Moral: respect your sources!
Very interesting read, if I may add. This is definitely a piece of advice I, and perhaps many others, should abide to, because for me I’m quite impatient when it comes to writing longer works.
Luckily, the way I publish my work for the world to see is through archive sites like FanFiction.net and Fictionpress.net as practice for myself until I grow in my skills as a writer/storyteller; so the repercussions for impatience are not as severe as self-publishing or traditional publishing. (If anything, making a name for yourself in those sites is quite easier done than said if you cater to the audience’s trends.)
No matter how many times we edit our books we can always find mistakes. Eventually there comes a point when you have to publish. No book is ever perfect. Do the best you and your proofreaders/editors can. When errors are found – fix them for the next edition. If you are producing an e-book, it’s not hard to update it.
There are some mistakes which are inexcusable though. of/off, your/you’re, to/too/two, there/their/they’re. Beware too of Word 2013 and the cloud. It will sometimes overwrite an edited version of a document with an unedited version from the cloud.