Finish the #%$ Book!!

This week, I posted at the Manuscript Mavens about what I've learned from the books I've written and set aside. One of the lessons I learned is to finish the #%$& book.

Recently, there's been chatter on one of my loops about finishing books. Because of edits, I freely admit that I haven't had time to read all of the postings, so I could be totally misjudging the discussion. But the gist of what I read has essentially been: why finish the book when you don't have to?

Generally, the reasoning behind this thought is that it takes forever for agents and editors to respond to queries and partials, so why not send the partial when it's ready and then finish the manuscript while waiting for the response or not at all. As the argument goes, this can cut down on the amount of time wasted working on an idea that just might get form rejected at the partial stage.

Trust me, I understand how this is a compelling argument. Remember, I was there. I accidentally pitched my project when it was just a partial and I was stuck wondering whether to finish the book or just send the partial.

I'm here to tell you: finish the book! There are tons of reasons why: because you won't know if you can finish a novel until you write the words The End; because you don't know what may come up in your personal life keeping you from writing (for me it was a new dog with a broken leg); because you don't know if your plot outline will work or if you'll be able to tie everything together until you do; because you don't know how long it will take to edit, or how long it will take your CP to read and get back to you.

These are all good reasons to finish the book before querying, but for me, the ultimate reason is that you want to be able to send the book -- in the best possible shape you can make it -- the day you get a request for it.

Take my experience with The Forest of Hands and Teeth: I started querying that book in mid-August and had a two book deal in mid-October. The day any agent requested the full, I sent it, hoping to capitalize on their momentum. My first request for a full came within 1-2 weeks of querying, I had requests for pages even before that.

What I'm saying is that requests can come quickly and you want to be able to capitalize on them. You don't want to put the agent on hold and let them forget you while you scramble to finish your book and skimp on the editing and polishing. Furthermore, you want to take the time to really polish your book not only because it makes a better impression, but also because it can speed the process. Because I spent so much time editing before querying, my agent was able to submit the book rather quickly and my editor has bumped it up in the publication schedule.

I know how hard it is to spend a big chunk of time working on a book when you're not sure if it will sell or grab the attention of an agent. I've been through that tons of times with various abandoned projects. But as I said in my Manuscript Maven post, with each book that you write and finish, you're learning skills that will make the next book that much better.