Writing my 1st book... advice pls?

[pinkingshears]

Last Christmas I contributed a few paras to a thread on MN.
About 10 people commented 'you can write / you should write a book'.
(maybe they were full of Christmas cheer? / booze?)
So, I am trying.

It is autobiographically based but with some Whodunnit stuff to work out and will have an (imagined!) ChickLit style.
I have got to 40K words but have rest planned.

Do I submit a chapter to an agent or wait till whole thing finished?

[GetAHaircutCarl]

Finish the book and then polish, polish, polish.

Then submit to agents (as per their website - different agencies want diffferebt things).

If an agent bites the first thing they will say is send the rest. And you don't want to answer haven't written it yet!

[Kai1977]

Once you've got a first draft, don't look at it for a couple of weeks at least, ideally more. I guarantee when you look at it again, you'll see more to polish. Once it's definitely finished, then submit.

[pinkingshears]

Thanks.
Do publishers offer advances, if they make an offer at all?

#runs before walks

[GetAHaircutCarl]

Most of the large trad publishing houses offer an advance (though often quite paltry).

Some digital publishers don't. But you get a better royalty rate.

[needtimewithwineandlesswhine]

Get yourself in Pinterest has great boards for writing. And well done you for going for it - I have numerous ideas that I think 'that'd make a great book start!' And never get round to even starting it properly. Keep going , all the best to you

[Abra1d]

Make sure several pairs of eyes have seen it before you send it anywhere. People who can critique a ms and tell you what is working and what needs more work. There is always something that can be polished.