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Ripeness is All, or How to Know When Your Manuscript is Ready for Prime Time
by S.W. Hubbard

After months, or even years of work, you've finished your novel. Congratulations! Now it's time to start sending it out to agents and editors, right? Not so fast. Your chances of acceptance will improve dramatically if you take the time to re-read, revise and revamp your manuscript before you send it out.

First, set your book aside for a few weeks to give yourself some distance from your baby. Then, sit down and re-read it in one or two marathon sessions. Mark every place where the story drags, the dialogue is stilted or there's a lack of continuity. If you've been working with a critique group, ask them to read the whole book straight through, looking for problems with pacing or holes in the plot that they may not have noticed when the ms. was being parceled out to them a few chapters at a time. If you don't have a critique group, you must find at least two astute readers to review your ms. Never, ever send anything to an agent or editor that hasn't been read several times by people whose judgment you trust.

If your readers say, "Change the comma on page 36 to a semicolon. Other than that, it's perfect," you need some new readers. Don't kid yourself--no one's work is that flawless. A good reader will tell you where your story falls short, but not necessarily how to fix it.

Now, listen to what your readers tell you (this is the hard part). You don't have to act on every comment, but you should evaluate each one carefully without getting in a huff and dismissing it out-of-hand. Certainly, if several people tell you the same thing, you must look long and hard at that problem. Usually, we're grateful when a reader points out a mistake that's easy to fix, like using the same adjective twice in one paragraph. It's when readers say things like, "I don't believe your character's motivation," or "Your protagonist seems a little bland," that we stomp off in a snit muttering, "What does she know, anyway?"

Don't confuse copy-editing with revision. Copyediting is reading the ms. for spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes. While this is certainly necessary, it's really the last, and easiest, step in the revision process. True revision involves pulling your ms. apart at the seams. You may have to insert new scenes, eliminate a character, add depth and texture to your setting, and expand upon your POV characters' thoughts. Ask yourself: does each scene move the story forward? have I wrung the maximum drama from each scene? is there conflict of some type between my protagonist and all the other main characters?

This is hard work, and it's the place where many writers throw in the towel. They either say, "This book is no good. I'll throw it away and start something new," or they say, "I don't know how to fix this, or if it really even needs fixing. I'll just send it out and let the agents tell me if should be changed." I believe both these reactions are big mistakes. Fixing a flawed ms. is one of the best exercises in improving your writing you'll ever get. It still may not sell, but the effort won't be wasted because you will have learned so much. Sending a flawed ms. out in the hopes that an agent or editor won't notice, won't care, or will help you do extensive revisions is just a waste of postage.

Your ms. is competing against thousands of others. Many are worse than yours, but quite a few are just as good or better. Agents simply don't have the time to pick through a ms. that shows a modicum of promise and help you get it up to par. That's your job. Certainly a good agent will consider a ms. that's 98% ready and help you go the final 2%, but time is money, and she simply can't afford to take on projects that are 60% finished and help you figure out the final 40%.

Think of it this way: If you had an expensive designer suit and suddenly dropped two dress sizes, would you throw the suit away? Would you wear it to a party hanging and drooping? Would you try to hold it up with safety pins and still expect people to compliment you? No, you'd pull it apart and have it refitted. So, before you send your ms. into the world, get out the seam ripper and start to work!

S.W. Hubbard's novel, TAKE THE BAIT, will be available from Pocket Books.

S.W. Hubbard © 2003
This article originally appeared in First Draft, Volume 8, #1, January 2003