1. When you've done everything you can think of to the novel.
2. When you honestly have no niggling feeling in your stomach that there's something wrong somewhere.
3. When your writing critique friends are telling you to get on with it, it's good to go.
4. When deep down you know you're putting off the moment because you're worrying about rejection.
5. You're sick to death of it.
This is of course assuming:
1. You've finished it.
2. You've put it away, then come back to re-write with fresh eyes.
3. You HAVE come back to re-write - at least once, if not twice, thrice....
4. You've done some research on suitable agents and have a target list to send out to.
5. You've asked for feedback from writer friends.
6. You've had some professional feedback (if you can afford it, you really should get professional feedback).
You don't want to send it out too early, before you've re-written it, but on the other hand, don't wait until the right moment, or when it's perfect. The right moment will never come, and no novel is ever perfect. If you've done the work, let it go...
5 comments:
I was guilty of sending mine out to early, but have learnt my lesson. It'll be left to settle for a month this time, before a final print-out, read-through and tweak!
*too* early. See? I even posted my comment without checking it first!!
LOL! I think we all do it - I know I did...But sometimes you don't know what you don't yet know, if you know what I mean. Good luck when you do send it out.
Ooh, I know, I know! (Waves hand in air like brown-noser student at front of class.)
As soon as you've started your NEXT novel. So you have something to chew on instead of hitting refresh on your email all day long.
Oh yes, gotta get going on the next one, and the sooner the better. Anthony Trollope used to write every morning before going to work and if he wrote The End during his writing session, he just picked up a fresh piece of paper and started the next one.
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