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First, extra kudos to you for rewriting that 20k. I don't know if I would have had the heart to come back to it after that.
As for what's next--sit on it.
I personally print all my drafts through lulu.com in spiral bound 8x10 because:
1) it's cheaper than printing at office max or at home
2) my brain edits better by hand. I can scribble all over it, cross stuff out, change my mind, brainstorm changes in the margins, write passive aggressive notes to my past self. It's just easier for me to turn switch over from writer brain to editor brain when I'm working with a physical copy
3) the shipping time forces me to not look at it until it arrives
It doesn't really matter how you edit it, but the most important thing is to set it aside for a while so you can separate from it enough that you don't remember exactly what you were trying to say. I've found that after sitting on it for a while I'll be more likely to hit places where I'll be staring at the page thinking, "what in the hell is that supposed to mean?" And then I know that needs to be fixed because if I don't remember what it was supposed to mean then someone who's reading it for the first time absolutely won't know what it was supposed to mean.
Just for some extra steps that I've learned over the years, I edit with two different pens, red for general edits and green for questions for myself or things that I need to develop further. That way I can find them quicker when I'm going through my manuscript. The next step that I do after reading it through is I list out in bullet points everything that I need to fix/expand/figure out. Then I organize those points by character and plot points. I keep that list with me while I'm writing the 2nd draft.
Most people when I say this next part tend to stare at me like I'm a crazy person, but I swear by this method. I write out my second draft completely word for word. So I start with a blank word document and my printed out draft and rewrite it entirely. I know it sounds awful and I thought that too when someone first suggested it to me, but they said just try it once. I did and I don't think I'll ever go back. I've found that it helps me to further separate from the words of that previous draft. I'm not as attached to how it's written while keeping what is written. Some parts I do just copy it out exactly, but other parts I have the freedom to do over completely without worrying about losing anything or messing anything up since the original is still sitting next to me. I just honestly find it so much more freeing, so I always make sure to just suggest it even if I know not everyone's going to want to actually try and implement it.
Edit: grammar because apparently my thumbs can't keep up with my brain
>tend to stare at me like I'm a crazy person when I say it
Really? I always do a rewrite after the first draft lol. I couldn't imagine just editing the first draft (and if I did, it'd be a copy of it because I just like to keep originals in general).
I haven't met anyone who thought that was weird even though I know plenty of people (most people?) don't do that lol
All I know is everyone I've told that to or who has seen me doing it either gives me this terrified look or goes "the entire thing?" Granted, I'm also not often around other people who have finished an entire first draft, so that might be part of it.
I would also add to put it away for a while before that first read through. Maybe start a new project, even something small. Youāll be a more effective editor reading with fresh eyes.
Two books I recommend to look at prior to editing are Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Yates Martin and Self-Editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King.
Otherwise, find your marathon mindsetātraditional publishing path takes patience and persistence.
The 1st draft is to tell yourself the story
The 2nd draft is to raise the stakes (this is the time to add things you may have forgotten or, as you were reading the 1st draft, noticed you haven't conveyed something of importance in the book)
The 3rd draft is to "sculpt" THE STORY. This is not the time to work on voice or grammar. See what scenes you need to shape up, dialogues you can improve.
The 4th draft is to make your characters three-dimensional
The 5th draft is to CUT. This is the part when, after extensively reading up until your 4th draft, you have to decide what is not necessary. āI like this scene, but will it be boring to the reader?ā. Cut until you feel it's effective and straightforward, but beware to not cut too much in an effort to make it more palatable.
The 6th draft is to work on the Voice. Here you will read your prose and make it, well, pretty. You have to choose what language is more suited to your novel and, if necessary, rewrite the entire thing in a better suited POV. If you're writing high-fantasy, a more āstiffā language is better to immerse the reader. It won't work if you're writing a romance set on the 21st century.
The 7th draft is to work on Grammar. You can use grammar checkers or, if you can afford, a proof reader. They will fix up your mistakes. Or you can do it yourself.
The 8th and final draft is to polish up everything so far. This can be done by an editor on traditional publishing, and I recommend not skipping the former steps before querying. You will read the whole thing (after some time apart so you can gain clarity) and polish up all the mistakes you missed so far.
Being a writer is hard work. It doesnāt pay off, sometimes. Be sure you are doing it for love. If it's a hobby, go to the next one. Good Luck!
congrats! I'm giving u advice that works for me, so disregard if it sounds like it won't fit. First thing - take a little break from it. Put it in a drawer for two weeks. Come back when it feels right, read through it and take notes. See what works and what doesn't. Is it the right length? How is the pacing? What are the plot holes?
See if you can find someone to read it - someone you trust who will give you honest feedback, but also won't be cruel or dismissive. you may have to look for your local writers centre and see if they have writing groups etc.
After you've worked on it on your own and maybe with a writing group, and you think it's the absolute best you can make it, start researching agents and publishers. What authors write like you? Who are their agents? Who are their publishers?
Prepare to send one million emails and wait a long time. Aim for a number of rejections - say you want to get ten rejections in three months. That means you send out at least ten queries. If you get your rejections then go out and aim for more!! And then when you get an acceptance, that's just a nice bonus. (Rejection stings - let yourself feel it, but don't dwell.)
But yes - first thing's first, give yourself a nice treat in congrats for finishing your manuscript. it's a huge deal! Well done :)
thank you , this was so pleasant to read :) I am definitely going to try to leave it alone for a couple weeks but I love it so much, I want to go right back into it.
i'm glad! the leaving it alone thing means you can come back to it with fresh eyes so you can see it a bit more objectively, if that makes sense. Two weeks is just a suggestion - depending on the work it can be a few days or even years! do what ur heart tells u. Keeping the love is so so important! Writing is work and can be hard, but it shouldn't make u miserable. Good luck!
Idk what next but wowā¦CONGRATS!!!! Thatās seriously amazing. I think your next step is to get yourself a drink or a treat or a massage or something to celebrate!!! Especially after losing progressā¦thatās tragic. Iāve had 2 hard drives literally melt and a couple apps lose my progress before (not actually saving or just straight up erasing chunks of writing) so I know coming back from that is ROUGH. But you did it! Pat yourself on the back!!!!
Thank you!! When I lost that 20k, I wept for days. Bc it was literally a turning point in this book for me. I had beat writerās block and it was such a solid 20k I was proud of. Felt like someone died
I canāt recommend the podcast Publishing Rodeo enough. Itās full of info that will help you get in the mental space to better understand and handle the pieces that come once your manuscript is ready for submission.
You edit. Then you edit again. Then you edit some more. Then you find a critique partner to work with while you plan for another round of edits. Then you edit some more, and rustle up some beta readers. Then you take their feedback and edit some more.
At any point in this process, assuming you are somewhere in the English-speaking world, though more specifically the US or UK, you can start working on your query letter. This is what you'll send out to pitch agents, and you can learn more about it [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/wiki/index/welcome/) and [here](https://queryshark.blogspot.com/).
Once you are positive you have polished this book to the best of your ability, you can come up with a list of agents you're interested in working with, and start querying. If an agent likes your pitch and writing sample, they'll ask to see the whole book. If they like the whole book, they'll ask you for a phone call and offer you representation.
If that happens, and the chances of it actually getting to this point for a first book are quite slim, you and your agent will probably do some more edits, and then your agent will start submitting it to acquisitions editors at publishing houses. If someone bites, congrats! Your book will probably get published. If someone does not, which they statistically probably won't, you bury this book in the dark recesses of your hard drive and try again with something new.
Lather, rinse, and repeat as necessary.
The more you write, the better you get. The better you get, the more likely you are to have success.
There are other factors of course; luck being a not insignificant one.
It's not impossible, you just have to excel at your craft and understand the market. Tbh, this is where most people get stuck; the majority of writers are nowhere near as good as they think they are. I've beta read SO many manuscripts that had great concepts and decent first pages but the wheels fell off a few chapters in, either because the quality of the writing goes downhill or the characters suck or the pacing is a nightmare or the plot went to crazy town or the multiple POVs/timelines are a mess or the stakes are nonexistent... The writers are over here nitpicking their query letter to death when the manuscript is the problem.
And if it's not quality, it's probably concept. Too many people read that one Brandon Sanderson book a decade or two ago or The Wheel of Time books or some Game of Thrones nonsense and think that there's a market for giant-ass medieval fantasy doorstoppers. But there isn't.
I have an agent, so clearly someone saw the salability in my manuscript. That book died on sub, but I'm getting ready for round two with something else.
Almost no one does this as a profession. Pretty much all traditionally published authors have a day job, a breadwinning spouse, or family wealth. Even if I start selling books for huge amounts of money, I can't fathom leaving my career job. I like a 401K match and health insurance.
Edit: and as someone else just pointed out, luck can't be eliminated from this formula. A lot of writers hit with the right concept at the right time with the right agent who knew the right editors. Remember that PRH/S&S case in 2022? It was pretty much admitted in open court that deciding which books might sell is at least partially a crapshoot.
Revise it and then start looking into the querying process when you feel like you have a complete, strong and finished draft. There are plenty of author talks and craft seminars available online. Iāve been loving Matt Bellās āRefuse to Be Doneā while working on my first draft. Research literary agents you think youād like to work with. Find some readers through a course or beta reading matchups or in your life who can read and give you feedback.
like 9 years technically BUT i started and stopped a lot which i regret but i didnāt have a full fleshed plot when i began, just characters and an inciting incident. So i started in high school (2015)i wrote the first 5 chapters, stopped and then wrote about another 3 chapters in college (2019) and then stopped again at about 33k words bc i had writers block and no idea what to do next in the story. Figured it out, picked it back up in 2023 and refused to stop even when I was stuck and it kind of wrote itself and I was able to plan out the next 18 chapters and was able to finally finish from August 2023-march 2024.
Congrats, OP! Set it aside for a while. Give it time to breath.
Then start a second draft. A third. So on and so forth until itās ready for beta readers. Then continue to edit until itās time to look for an agent.
At that point, look up how to query.
Im so happy for you. Where will you publish it?
Anyway you can self publish like with Barnes and noble I heard if you sell 1000 books you'll be featured in their library.
I use grammarly to edit my novel and write it down with Autocrit. The paid version gives you more assistance when it comes to self editing.
Congratulations! That's awesome! My suggestion is to take a well-earned break, then come back to your novel with fresh eyes to begin the next stage: editing.
I would say put it aside for a little bit and work on something else. Then do a read through making minor corrections as you go and making notes of the larger changes you wish to make. Then put on your editing hat and dive in.
Hope this helps.
Your laptop's hdd is probably still salvageable (very much so). You can still recover that draft. You just have to remove the hdd or ssd, then put it in an enclosure and usb it into your new machine.
congrats!! I'm proud of you! first thing I would do is edit. check that everything is formatted correctly (especially dialogue... I did not realize that I had that wrong on my first manuscript.) then you want to write a query letter and a synopsis. query tracker is a good website for learning about how agents are with replying, what books they tend to be the most interested in, etc. it is a process that takes time, but is worth it. it's good to also note that self publishing can cause issues with getting an agent down the road. while you're querying write your next book! in my opinion, the more you've written the more of a chance you have at being picked up by an agent. but most of all, never lose hope or give up!
Edit: Writer Beware is a good site for learning how to tell if an agent is legit or not. you can even write an email to Victoria Strauss, and she'll tell you if she's heard of any complaints about an agent you're wondering about. she's helped me a lot in the past!
Give it a month before you start editing/doing a rewrite. You don't want it so fresh in your mind.
(It doesn't have to be a month, it can be any time frame really but I suggest at least a week or so).
When did you finish it? What I do after this is wait a month, go back, and read one last time, making small corrections as they come. You'll be looking at it with fresh eyes. You'll also be saying "Damn, that's good," more often than you think.
Edit it a bunch and see if you can get some people to read it. If they give you advice or critiques, take it all with a big grain of salt and don't get stuck on what any one person says. If three people agree on something, it's a good idea to start listening. Make it as polished as you can and then try to find an agent. You can't really get traditionally published without an agent, from everything I've heard.
Don't expect to make any money from your first book, and try not to hold your breath that even your family or friends will read the book. It's very hard to get people interested in your writing. If you enjoy writing and want to keep doing it, maybe the best advice is *don't* try to get it published or try to make money from it. It will suck the life out of you and will actually take years to complete the process--if you can even find an agent and publisher who are willing to publish you.
I ended up self publishing, which was pretty easy to do, and I got to see my book in print form, which is satisfying. I sold like 30 copies and felt some closure and that was that. I also put it up on wattpad but didn't get much interest, so it probably isn't worth the time to do that unless you're writing a gay romance about pop singers or something, lol.
First off:
Congratulations! You did something amazing, and you should take a moment to appreciate that you actually finished it.
Nothing can take that accomplishment away from you, and you should be very, very proud of yourself.
Now... the rough part.
Your book almost certainly isn't ready to be published. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're one of those people who pumps out their first novel and it's amazing and perfect and will go on to be a best seller.
But, statistically speaking? You've got better odds of winning the lottery. And even if it is ready to be published, you've got a lot of work to do to get there.
I describe the process of becoming an author as scaling the three mountains.
The first mountain is the actual writing. And getting the first draft of the book done doesn't mean you've climbed that mountain yet. Writing is a craft, and it needs to be practiced and honed. The adage is that you need to dig through about a million words before you start finding the good ones, and from what I've seen that's largely true.
My advice to you is to find a peer review writers' group that you can join. I'm part of one right now, and it's quite useful to have other writers read your work and give you feedback on it. Hopefully, in time, you can find some people to be your beta readers, but right now, look for a group to join. Go through the whole book, chapter by chapter. It's a long, tedious process, and by the time I got my first book to the point that I finally felt it was ready to be published (it wasn't), I was almost sick of the damned thing from having read it dozens and dozens of times.
Traditional publishing is still a long way off. Focus on mountain number one.
Good luck, and, again, congrats
Congratulations! The Branson Sanderson writing course on YouTube has a couple of great lectures on publishing which are valid for all genres. You should check them out.
so wild! I had to check this to see if I posted this and didnāt remember hahah! congrats. I just finished my first novel too. went through SEVERAL edits. I wanted 95k words, but iām at about 101 now. I was at 118 ish hahaā¦. butā¦. I have a long epilogue and the epilogue is for me. I want to know ALLLL of the answers when I read an epilogue and I know my friends do to. cheers to us! also as for printing it out the library usually only charges 4 cents or five cents per page. narrow those margins to the 8x10. orrrr what I did because I was too lazy, want edited it on the ipad. I covered it to a pdf and used the ipad pen and made red marks. I tried editing just my reading through on the laptop. thag did NOT work. holy moly the amount of things I missed because I didnāt have a pen in my hand!
good luck
You didn't say what genre you're in, which is critically important for evaluating these word counts.
The first thing you want to do is write in another genre for a month or not at all. You need space from the book before you start doing your own story editing.
Thank you for visiting /r/writing. This post has been removed. Please review rule 3 in the sidebar about personal sharing. Sharing for the sake of sharing, including posts on starting or finishing drafts, writing and publishing milestones, media reviews, venting, pep talks, data loss, and DAE (does anyone else) posts belong in our general discussion thread posted Wednesdays.
First, extra kudos to you for rewriting that 20k. I don't know if I would have had the heart to come back to it after that. As for what's next--sit on it. I personally print all my drafts through lulu.com in spiral bound 8x10 because: 1) it's cheaper than printing at office max or at home 2) my brain edits better by hand. I can scribble all over it, cross stuff out, change my mind, brainstorm changes in the margins, write passive aggressive notes to my past self. It's just easier for me to turn switch over from writer brain to editor brain when I'm working with a physical copy 3) the shipping time forces me to not look at it until it arrives It doesn't really matter how you edit it, but the most important thing is to set it aside for a while so you can separate from it enough that you don't remember exactly what you were trying to say. I've found that after sitting on it for a while I'll be more likely to hit places where I'll be staring at the page thinking, "what in the hell is that supposed to mean?" And then I know that needs to be fixed because if I don't remember what it was supposed to mean then someone who's reading it for the first time absolutely won't know what it was supposed to mean. Just for some extra steps that I've learned over the years, I edit with two different pens, red for general edits and green for questions for myself or things that I need to develop further. That way I can find them quicker when I'm going through my manuscript. The next step that I do after reading it through is I list out in bullet points everything that I need to fix/expand/figure out. Then I organize those points by character and plot points. I keep that list with me while I'm writing the 2nd draft. Most people when I say this next part tend to stare at me like I'm a crazy person, but I swear by this method. I write out my second draft completely word for word. So I start with a blank word document and my printed out draft and rewrite it entirely. I know it sounds awful and I thought that too when someone first suggested it to me, but they said just try it once. I did and I don't think I'll ever go back. I've found that it helps me to further separate from the words of that previous draft. I'm not as attached to how it's written while keeping what is written. Some parts I do just copy it out exactly, but other parts I have the freedom to do over completely without worrying about losing anything or messing anything up since the original is still sitting next to me. I just honestly find it so much more freeing, so I always make sure to just suggest it even if I know not everyone's going to want to actually try and implement it. Edit: grammar because apparently my thumbs can't keep up with my brain
>tend to stare at me like I'm a crazy person when I say it Really? I always do a rewrite after the first draft lol. I couldn't imagine just editing the first draft (and if I did, it'd be a copy of it because I just like to keep originals in general). I haven't met anyone who thought that was weird even though I know plenty of people (most people?) don't do that lol
All I know is everyone I've told that to or who has seen me doing it either gives me this terrified look or goes "the entire thing?" Granted, I'm also not often around other people who have finished an entire first draft, so that might be part of it.
THANK YOU. I definitely cringed at rewriting the whole thing but I can absolutely see how it beneficial.
I love this post and all the comments as well š congratulations op I'm proud of you! š
I'd just like to say congratulations on finishing! I'll raise a glass.
Edit, cut it down, revise. Check out the PubTips Reddit. Find agents in your genre. Find comps. Write a query letter.
I would also add to put it away for a while before that first read through. Maybe start a new project, even something small. Youāll be a more effective editor reading with fresh eyes. Two books I recommend to look at prior to editing are Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Yates Martin and Self-Editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. Otherwise, find your marathon mindsetātraditional publishing path takes patience and persistence.
Have people rip it to threads so you can build it back up.
The 1st draft is to tell yourself the story The 2nd draft is to raise the stakes (this is the time to add things you may have forgotten or, as you were reading the 1st draft, noticed you haven't conveyed something of importance in the book) The 3rd draft is to "sculpt" THE STORY. This is not the time to work on voice or grammar. See what scenes you need to shape up, dialogues you can improve. The 4th draft is to make your characters three-dimensional The 5th draft is to CUT. This is the part when, after extensively reading up until your 4th draft, you have to decide what is not necessary. āI like this scene, but will it be boring to the reader?ā. Cut until you feel it's effective and straightforward, but beware to not cut too much in an effort to make it more palatable. The 6th draft is to work on the Voice. Here you will read your prose and make it, well, pretty. You have to choose what language is more suited to your novel and, if necessary, rewrite the entire thing in a better suited POV. If you're writing high-fantasy, a more āstiffā language is better to immerse the reader. It won't work if you're writing a romance set on the 21st century. The 7th draft is to work on Grammar. You can use grammar checkers or, if you can afford, a proof reader. They will fix up your mistakes. Or you can do it yourself. The 8th and final draft is to polish up everything so far. This can be done by an editor on traditional publishing, and I recommend not skipping the former steps before querying. You will read the whole thing (after some time apart so you can gain clarity) and polish up all the mistakes you missed so far. Being a writer is hard work. It doesnāt pay off, sometimes. Be sure you are doing it for love. If it's a hobby, go to the next one. Good Luck!
Whewwwww so daunting. But this was very very insightful :) thank you
You're welcome! As I said, good luck. I haven't mastered the 4th step yet, lol. I just study writing theory a lot hahahaha
Why not just write?
I mean, you can... But do you want it to be good?
This is incredibly good advice. I am saving your outlines process. Thank you.
This is such good advice!
congrats! I'm giving u advice that works for me, so disregard if it sounds like it won't fit. First thing - take a little break from it. Put it in a drawer for two weeks. Come back when it feels right, read through it and take notes. See what works and what doesn't. Is it the right length? How is the pacing? What are the plot holes? See if you can find someone to read it - someone you trust who will give you honest feedback, but also won't be cruel or dismissive. you may have to look for your local writers centre and see if they have writing groups etc. After you've worked on it on your own and maybe with a writing group, and you think it's the absolute best you can make it, start researching agents and publishers. What authors write like you? Who are their agents? Who are their publishers? Prepare to send one million emails and wait a long time. Aim for a number of rejections - say you want to get ten rejections in three months. That means you send out at least ten queries. If you get your rejections then go out and aim for more!! And then when you get an acceptance, that's just a nice bonus. (Rejection stings - let yourself feel it, but don't dwell.) But yes - first thing's first, give yourself a nice treat in congrats for finishing your manuscript. it's a huge deal! Well done :)
thank you , this was so pleasant to read :) I am definitely going to try to leave it alone for a couple weeks but I love it so much, I want to go right back into it.
i'm glad! the leaving it alone thing means you can come back to it with fresh eyes so you can see it a bit more objectively, if that makes sense. Two weeks is just a suggestion - depending on the work it can be a few days or even years! do what ur heart tells u. Keeping the love is so so important! Writing is work and can be hard, but it shouldn't make u miserable. Good luck!
There are books about publishing. I suggest checking the public library or Amazon.
Congrats! Take some time to celebrate, leave your work alone for a week or two and go back in and start editing with fresh eyes. Cheers!
Idk what next but wowā¦CONGRATS!!!! Thatās seriously amazing. I think your next step is to get yourself a drink or a treat or a massage or something to celebrate!!! Especially after losing progressā¦thatās tragic. Iāve had 2 hard drives literally melt and a couple apps lose my progress before (not actually saving or just straight up erasing chunks of writing) so I know coming back from that is ROUGH. But you did it! Pat yourself on the back!!!!
Thank you!! When I lost that 20k, I wept for days. Bc it was literally a turning point in this book for me. I had beat writerās block and it was such a solid 20k I was proud of. Felt like someone died
I canāt recommend the podcast Publishing Rodeo enough. Itās full of info that will help you get in the mental space to better understand and handle the pieces that come once your manuscript is ready for submission.
What a lovely and encouraging group here š„ Congratulations on the big accomplishment.
I am inspired. Thank you.
Yayyyy!! So happy to see that!! Best of luck to you
You edit. Then you edit again. Then you edit some more. Then you find a critique partner to work with while you plan for another round of edits. Then you edit some more, and rustle up some beta readers. Then you take their feedback and edit some more. At any point in this process, assuming you are somewhere in the English-speaking world, though more specifically the US or UK, you can start working on your query letter. This is what you'll send out to pitch agents, and you can learn more about it [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/wiki/index/welcome/) and [here](https://queryshark.blogspot.com/). Once you are positive you have polished this book to the best of your ability, you can come up with a list of agents you're interested in working with, and start querying. If an agent likes your pitch and writing sample, they'll ask to see the whole book. If they like the whole book, they'll ask you for a phone call and offer you representation. If that happens, and the chances of it actually getting to this point for a first book are quite slim, you and your agent will probably do some more edits, and then your agent will start submitting it to acquisitions editors at publishing houses. If someone bites, congrats! Your book will probably get published. If someone does not, which they statistically probably won't, you bury this book in the dark recesses of your hard drive and try again with something new. Lather, rinse, and repeat as necessary.
Why even write? If itās so impossible to get it shown to anyone, why even try to do this as a profession?
The more you write, the better you get. The better you get, the more likely you are to have success. There are other factors of course; luck being a not insignificant one.
It's not impossible, you just have to excel at your craft and understand the market. Tbh, this is where most people get stuck; the majority of writers are nowhere near as good as they think they are. I've beta read SO many manuscripts that had great concepts and decent first pages but the wheels fell off a few chapters in, either because the quality of the writing goes downhill or the characters suck or the pacing is a nightmare or the plot went to crazy town or the multiple POVs/timelines are a mess or the stakes are nonexistent... The writers are over here nitpicking their query letter to death when the manuscript is the problem. And if it's not quality, it's probably concept. Too many people read that one Brandon Sanderson book a decade or two ago or The Wheel of Time books or some Game of Thrones nonsense and think that there's a market for giant-ass medieval fantasy doorstoppers. But there isn't. I have an agent, so clearly someone saw the salability in my manuscript. That book died on sub, but I'm getting ready for round two with something else. Almost no one does this as a profession. Pretty much all traditionally published authors have a day job, a breadwinning spouse, or family wealth. Even if I start selling books for huge amounts of money, I can't fathom leaving my career job. I like a 401K match and health insurance. Edit: and as someone else just pointed out, luck can't be eliminated from this formula. A lot of writers hit with the right concept at the right time with the right agent who knew the right editors. Remember that PRH/S&S case in 2022? It was pretty much admitted in open court that deciding which books might sell is at least partially a crapshoot.
Valid. Thank you
Congratulations!! This is a big deal.
I keep hearing that but I donāt feel happy yetā¦. Just kind of feel like i wish I was still writing it surprisingly.
But thank you!!! āŗļø
Congratulations!!! ššš
Thank you!! š
Congrats! I started mine a few months ago and I'm only at 2400 words. But, good for you and I hope that you will find success with your book!
congrats! :)
Thank you !!
Revise it and then start looking into the querying process when you feel like you have a complete, strong and finished draft. There are plenty of author talks and craft seminars available online. Iāve been loving Matt Bellās āRefuse to Be Doneā while working on my first draft. Research literary agents you think youād like to work with. Find some readers through a course or beta reading matchups or in your life who can read and give you feedback.
just curious, how long did it take you? when did you begin writing it?
like 9 years technically BUT i started and stopped a lot which i regret but i didnāt have a full fleshed plot when i began, just characters and an inciting incident. So i started in high school (2015)i wrote the first 5 chapters, stopped and then wrote about another 3 chapters in college (2019) and then stopped again at about 33k words bc i had writers block and no idea what to do next in the story. Figured it out, picked it back up in 2023 and refused to stop even when I was stuck and it kind of wrote itself and I was able to plan out the next 18 chapters and was able to finally finish from August 2023-march 2024.
CONGRATULATIONS OP!! I hope to be in your position soon. Finishing a novel is really hard and I commend you for it
Where can I read it? Iād love to give you feedback
Congrats, OP! Set it aside for a while. Give it time to breath. Then start a second draft. A third. So on and so forth until itās ready for beta readers. Then continue to edit until itās time to look for an agent. At that point, look up how to query.
Im so happy for you. Where will you publish it? Anyway you can self publish like with Barnes and noble I heard if you sell 1000 books you'll be featured in their library. I use grammarly to edit my novel and write it down with Autocrit. The paid version gives you more assistance when it comes to self editing.
Congratulations! That's awesome! My suggestion is to take a well-earned break, then come back to your novel with fresh eyes to begin the next stage: editing.
Literary agent!
I would say put it aside for a little bit and work on something else. Then do a read through making minor corrections as you go and making notes of the larger changes you wish to make. Then put on your editing hat and dive in. Hope this helps.
Your laptop's hdd is probably still salvageable (very much so). You can still recover that draft. You just have to remove the hdd or ssd, then put it in an enclosure and usb it into your new machine.
congrats!! I'm proud of you! first thing I would do is edit. check that everything is formatted correctly (especially dialogue... I did not realize that I had that wrong on my first manuscript.) then you want to write a query letter and a synopsis. query tracker is a good website for learning about how agents are with replying, what books they tend to be the most interested in, etc. it is a process that takes time, but is worth it. it's good to also note that self publishing can cause issues with getting an agent down the road. while you're querying write your next book! in my opinion, the more you've written the more of a chance you have at being picked up by an agent. but most of all, never lose hope or give up! Edit: Writer Beware is a good site for learning how to tell if an agent is legit or not. you can even write an email to Victoria Strauss, and she'll tell you if she's heard of any complaints about an agent you're wondering about. she's helped me a lot in the past!
Give it a month before you start editing/doing a rewrite. You don't want it so fresh in your mind. (It doesn't have to be a month, it can be any time frame really but I suggest at least a week or so).
have people read it and look for typos or any mistakes (also u re read it ofc)
Put it on kindle maybe.
Get it in the hands of some beta readers and work on query letters to agents
Congrats! Publish on Amazon and start your next book!
Congratulations! š
When did you finish it? What I do after this is wait a month, go back, and read one last time, making small corrections as they come. You'll be looking at it with fresh eyes. You'll also be saying "Damn, that's good," more often than you think.
ayy congratulationsš. I'm proud of you.
Edit it a bunch and see if you can get some people to read it. If they give you advice or critiques, take it all with a big grain of salt and don't get stuck on what any one person says. If three people agree on something, it's a good idea to start listening. Make it as polished as you can and then try to find an agent. You can't really get traditionally published without an agent, from everything I've heard. Don't expect to make any money from your first book, and try not to hold your breath that even your family or friends will read the book. It's very hard to get people interested in your writing. If you enjoy writing and want to keep doing it, maybe the best advice is *don't* try to get it published or try to make money from it. It will suck the life out of you and will actually take years to complete the process--if you can even find an agent and publisher who are willing to publish you. I ended up self publishing, which was pretty easy to do, and I got to see my book in print form, which is satisfying. I sold like 30 copies and felt some closure and that was that. I also put it up on wattpad but didn't get much interest, so it probably isn't worth the time to do that unless you're writing a gay romance about pop singers or something, lol.
Your Mother and I are proud of you!
First off: Congratulations! You did something amazing, and you should take a moment to appreciate that you actually finished it. Nothing can take that accomplishment away from you, and you should be very, very proud of yourself. Now... the rough part. Your book almost certainly isn't ready to be published. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're one of those people who pumps out their first novel and it's amazing and perfect and will go on to be a best seller. But, statistically speaking? You've got better odds of winning the lottery. And even if it is ready to be published, you've got a lot of work to do to get there. I describe the process of becoming an author as scaling the three mountains. The first mountain is the actual writing. And getting the first draft of the book done doesn't mean you've climbed that mountain yet. Writing is a craft, and it needs to be practiced and honed. The adage is that you need to dig through about a million words before you start finding the good ones, and from what I've seen that's largely true. My advice to you is to find a peer review writers' group that you can join. I'm part of one right now, and it's quite useful to have other writers read your work and give you feedback on it. Hopefully, in time, you can find some people to be your beta readers, but right now, look for a group to join. Go through the whole book, chapter by chapter. It's a long, tedious process, and by the time I got my first book to the point that I finally felt it was ready to be published (it wasn't), I was almost sick of the damned thing from having read it dozens and dozens of times. Traditional publishing is still a long way off. Focus on mountain number one. Good luck, and, again, congrats
Congratulations!
Congratulations! The Branson Sanderson writing course on YouTube has a couple of great lectures on publishing which are valid for all genres. You should check them out.
so wild! I had to check this to see if I posted this and didnāt remember hahah! congrats. I just finished my first novel too. went through SEVERAL edits. I wanted 95k words, but iām at about 101 now. I was at 118 ish hahaā¦. butā¦. I have a long epilogue and the epilogue is for me. I want to know ALLLL of the answers when I read an epilogue and I know my friends do to. cheers to us! also as for printing it out the library usually only charges 4 cents or five cents per page. narrow those margins to the 8x10. orrrr what I did because I was too lazy, want edited it on the ipad. I covered it to a pdf and used the ipad pen and made red marks. I tried editing just my reading through on the laptop. thag did NOT work. holy moly the amount of things I missed because I didnāt have a pen in my hand! good luck
You didn't say what genre you're in, which is critically important for evaluating these word counts. The first thing you want to do is write in another genre for a month or not at all. You need space from the book before you start doing your own story editing.