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Is is better to finish a novel, or send the 3 chapters you have completed off to a publisher?
Some may answer you are under more pressure to send the 3 chapters before finishing, but I already have the middle and end in my notes and head.
I don't wish to sound rude or arrogant, but highly value the answers from published writers rather than those with less experience in being published.
Comments
Sorry I was so impertinent as to try to offer advice.
I do know the answer though. :-\"
I greatly value your opinions but I did not want loads of answers from people who have never sent off MS to publishers. I can only apologize to those who took my thread the wrong way and took offense.
^:)^
Likewise we have all had some degree of contact with published writers, from either friendships formed via social media, groups, or from listening to and meeting published writers/agents at conferences and 1 to 1 spots, and so have a lot of knowledge available between us, despite many of us not having had a novel published.
Non-fiction submission is different to fiction submission.
We all contribute to this forum and we have made friends on here, through debate and discussion and tact and discretion. Some of us are published, some have had experience with publishers, some of us even are publishers.
A little respect for the old guard really wouldn't go amiss.
But I am sure your first three chapters will be fine in their first draft, and some publisher will snap your hand off and you will make a fortune.
You didn't upset me - you annoyed me - and if you 'guessed that was going to happen' you got the replies you deserved.
The synopsis is usually the first contact you'd have with the agent/publisher. After that you'd be invited (or ignored) to submit a chapter or three.
Yes, that process might take months, but surely the manuscript would be at a 'polishing only' stage - if not dazzling with brilliance? After all, you've written the synopsis so you know the (written) plot.
I've never written a novel, but I do appreciate how the system works. You only have to delve into the TB archives - or read a copy or two of a writing magazine - to get the idea.
As you know, non-fiction works in a different way to fiction. I only have experience of writing articles - sub the idea, receive the commission, write the article and bank the cheque.
By the way, I don't have a published novel.