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Q&A Submitting a partially complete draft?

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, h...

posted 9y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T20:06:03Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/21357
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:08:02Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/21357
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T05:08:02Z (about 5 years ago)
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](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Google will find you this advice over and over: an unpublished author should not query an unfinished novel.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](http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?57672-Any-agents-who-accept-unfinished-manuscripts) [2](http://www.gracebooks.org/book-publishing/query-unfinished-manuscript/) [3](http://www.rachellegardner.com/should-you-write-the-whole-book/) [4](https://litreactor.com/columns/ask-the-agent-a-review-of-when-to-query-agents)

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.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-03-16T22:18:04Z (almost 9 years ago)
Original score: 11