First the editor, then the agent? Advice on process.

[janeseymour78]

Hi everyone. I'm a published short story writer and tried my hand at writing the first draft of a novel 2 years ago. I completed the first edit last year. I'm now half way through the second edit and I reckon it may need a third edit to tighten it up and polish it - which I'll also aim to complete this year.

As I am new to this, can someone tell me:

• is it best practice to send my novel to a professional editor once I have edited to make sure it is truly polished?

• can someone explain to me a little about when editing/getting an agent/querying comes into the process?

Any help appreciated.

Professional editors are for self-publishing, really. If you’re confident you’ve made the book the best it can be, query agents rather than paying for an editing service: a good agent will give you edits anyway, and they’ll be free (well, if they sell the book they’ll get 15%), and may prefer to work with material that hasn’t been tinkered with by someone already. Don’t waste your money! (I say this as a professional freelance editor.)

Three structural edits and a fourth polish edit (what I always call the “jokes!” edit – where your structure is finally sorted so now you can make the language sing) and a proof, sounds right. That’s what I did to get my agent, and have done on some subsequent novels - though some material I just send her early on, when it’s still shite.

When you can’t improve it any further, start querying: you’ll need a good cover letter and a synopsis. Make a list of agents – Twitter is good, find people who represent books you like – and query, say, 6 or 7 of them. Follow their query guidelines RELIGIOUSLY: my agent likes 10 pages pasted into the body of an email. Another likes 10k words on paper, like the 90s. Another likes first 3 chapters as an attachment. Etc.

Make a spreadsheet of all the agents, their requirements, and the date you queried. The reason to query 6 or 7 is if you get all form rejections: a form rejection being “no”, without any personalised note of encouragement or feedback. They’re not inviting you to query again so even if you rejig the book, they won’t open your query. But you should have other agents on your list, so you can rejig the book, send out to the next 6 or 7, and so on. Same goes if your first 6 agents all give you similar feedback but don’t want to see the book again: take the feedback, edit the book, send out to the next 6. Etc.

You might not have to do this – I struck gold on my first batch of querying and have been with the same agent ever since.

Great advice here. Some useful resources:

Query Shark is run by an agent who critiques cover letters. Not updated very much any more but the archive is really useful. She's American, so there are perhaps sometimes some stylistic differences to writing in the UK.

Query Tracker is an agent database. Again, it's an American site so skewed that way but lots and lots of UK agents are listed too. People post their experiences of querying, how long it took to get a response etc. There's also a forum where people post their query letters, synopses etc for review.

Jericho Writers has a list of around 300 UK agents which you can still access without being a paid member. Each has a profile with some detail on what they're looking for.

The UK Writers and Artist Yearbook lists out all (or nearly all!) UK agencies. If you buy a copy you can then visit each agency's website and read the profiles of the individual agents to find those who might be interested in your novel.

Thank you @stuntbubbles - this is very helpful. I remain on the fence about editing and again would welcome your thoughts - this is my first novel and although I may get to a point where I think it's ready, I am a first time novelist. What I'm really saying is - would it be better to have it edited given I am new to the whole process for that extra level of assurance?

I could send out my first queries and then discover it does need more edits/regret not taking that step as now I can't send to them again. Do you see what I mean? Or is it the case that if an agent thinks what you've written is compelling and saleable, it may not matter so much?

The crux of it is I want it to be the best I can be and I think self editing probably gets you so far. I have shown the first 4 chapters to a couple of editors. Feedback was positive from both and editing was minimal - they both said it seemed 'polished' and the main issues were with exposition in a couple of parts and adding more action to dialogue.

I do take your point about agents not having wanted someone else to have tampered with your work too much. That is very interesting and good to know.

Do you know of any good templates for querying/a reputable resource for this part is the process? Thanks again

Self editing does only get you so far – but then your agent will edit you, then your editor. My agent did 2 rounds of edits with me; my editor 3. Then copy edits. Then proofing.

But my agent still signed me based on the document I queried with before all those edits: she signed for the concept, the voice and the execution, even if there were elements of structure that were whiffy. Voice is everything! The IDEA is everything. Plot snags can be resolved but I think both agents and editors want to see the raw potential and do the edits themselves, not be battling with manuscripts that show some tinkering already.

Query templates: Query Shark as recommended above is brilliant. Read all the archives! I think my query went something like:

Dear agent

Main character is facing plot dilemma. Her emotional status is XYZ. And then catalyst.

Another brief plot paragraph with how character reacts to catalyst.

It will appeal to readers of comp titles such as this book and that book, with a genre twist.

About me: I’ve previously done relevant XYZ and won the inaugural blah blah writing award. I’m querying you because (reason - like “I loved the book you represented”, “I saw your manuscript wish list on Twitter and mine fits the bill”, etc).

Best wishes
Stuntbubbles