Submitting a partially complete draft?
I'm 50,000 words into my first book. Based on my plot and roadmap, that's about 25% of the way into it, so about 200k.
I have roughly 110 pages in a good place, as I've already re-drafted three or four times, polishing it up to get it ready for submission. This part is ready, but obviously the remaining 3/4 of the book isn't even drafted yet.
The question is: do I need to have a first draft completed to the ending in order to start talking to or submitting to publishers or agents? Is the first five chapters enough?
(Aside: I've done my research and I recognize that 200k is very long for a debut novel. But it's not unheard of, so I'm writing it first and I'll worry about word count later.)
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/21354. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Do not try to query with an unfinished manuscript.
Dear Query Shark,
I have an incomplete fantasy novel
here's where I stop reading and send a form rejection letter
-- Janet Reid, http://queryshark.blogspot.co.il/2009/09/134.html
Google will find you this advice over and over: an unpublished author should not query an unfinished novel. e.g. 1 2 3 4
An agent or published have no reason to take any risk or spend any effort on a writer who has not yet completed one book. It costs them time, and puts them at risk of you not finishing the book, or finishing the book poorly.
Finish the book. Edit the book. Polish the book. Get the book as perfect as you can, so the moment someone says "OK, let's take a look," they'll have nothing but a marvelous read ahead of them. Then you can start querying.
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