Before You Query

As most published authors will attest, a book isn’t finished until you’ve dissected into multiple pieces, moved every chapter around at least once, cut unnecessary content, added new content then immediately deleted it for being unnecessary, and examined every word examined under a magnifying glass until you feel you might lose your mind. And even when you think you have everything perfect, you discover that you didn’t know what you didn’t know. The goal of this section then is to help you with that.

Don’t Jump the Gun!

The biggest mistake most new authors make is jumping the gun on the publishing process. They finish a book on Friday, and by Monday they’re either hitting “publish” on Amazon, or they’re sending thirty query letters to agents and editors in hopes of getting published. If this is you, stop! You have a lot of steps to this process you’ll need to complete before you’re ready for either of those steps, and it all starts with editing.

But I did edit! you say.

Sure, but did you edit enough? Editing isn’t just a couple of quick passes through your manuscript for typos and sentence structure. A properly editing manuscript has many moving pieces. So let’s go through those steps.

Steps to a Properly Edited Manuscript

1. Find a Critique Partner

A critique partner is usually another author who’s currently working on a book or who has published one or more in the past. This person understands what types of things can be improved in the edit process for a tighter or better executed story. As such, this person can point out weak areas in your. manuscript to help improve your work.

You can often find find critique partners through online forums like Blue Sky, Twitter, or Threads (look for #WritingCommunity), or through Facebook (look for groups implying authors or writing groups) and private Discord groups (usually by invitation). If you’re still having troubles connecting with someone, take a look at Bianca Marais’ Beta Reader Matchup or the qtCritique Critique Partner Match.

2. Find Beta Readers

Once you’ve received feedback from your critique partners, and implemented any necessary changes—and edited your manuscript once more after making those changes—now it’s time to find Beta Readers.

Beta readers are your first readers. These are no industry professionals or other writers. Instead, these people are avid readers, preferably of the genre you write. These people will be a lot kinder by offering you their opinions as readers. Toward this end, I recommend creating a Google Form which can be completed anonymously, and ask them specific questions like:

How did you like the book overall? Is there anything you would change?
Was there any point that provoked an emotional response? If so, please tell me where.
Was there anything you particularly liked or disliked?
Was there any point where you found yourself zoning out or wanting to skip ahead?
Was there any point where you were confused or just “not following” what was happending?

This is just a suggestion of some of the questions you might ask. You can make up more, but the important thing is to allow your beta readers to provide that feedback anonymously so they’re free to be honest without hurting your feelings.

3. Still Having Troubles?

Now that you’ve been through your Critique Partners and Beta Readers, what if you’re still having a problem, only now it’s strictly on a line level? you just can’t remember whether the comma is paired with a dialogue tag or an action tag! Or maybe, someone suggested you tighten your writing but you don’t know how. Perhaps you’ve been told you use too. many passive sentences, but you have no idea what that means. Okay…I’ve got you. Here’s an editing document for authors to help them out with those issues. Remember: you want your manuscript to be as close to publish-ready as you can make it before you start querying.

If you’ve gone through the editing document any you still need help, Consider qtCritique. If you’ve seen or used QueryTracker to find a list of literary agents, you already have an introduction to qtCritique—both platforms were launched and moderated by the same people.

qtCritique is a community-based critique exchange platform where authors offer critiques to others, and in return receive critiques on their own work. You can learn more about how qtCritique works through this short video.

If you still prefer an industry professional, qtCritique offers a list of vetted literary agents and professional editors. To prevent a “pay for play” model, the identities of industry professionals are deliberately anonymous, so you’ll want to read their bios to find the closest match for your needs. For more information about the specifics for how this process works, you can use this link.

If you found qtCritique helpful, but you still need more professional assistance—or if you plan to self publish—then I recommend hiring a freelance editor. If you go this route, I strongly recommend hiring one with experience in publishing. Make sure you know what you need (developmental editor, line edits, or both), and make sure they’re capable of offering you the professional polish you’re paying for. If you’re self-publishing, this is especially important as a badly edited book with not only tank your ratings but will cost you future readers.

So what does a professional editor cost? While the exact cost varies depending upon whether the editor charges by the hour or by the word, it’s important to know that hiring an editor is not cheap. For line edits only on an 85K word fiction manuscript, you can expect to pay at least $2,400, with some editors charging as much as $6,500. The current going rate ranges between roughly .04 cents and .10 cents per word. If charging by the hour, you can expect to pay around $60 to $80 per hour. So while it’s not necessary to pay as high as $6,500 for a editing an 85K words, paying less then $2,400 may require a closer inspection of the editor’s credentials.

When hiring an editor, I strongly recommend you pay close attention to the edits they recommend and why so you can learn from them. If your writing improves from watching and learning, it can be the best money you’ve ever spent. But if you don’t learn through this process—if you just take every suggested change without understanding why and asking questions—it may be the most expensive bill you’ll ever pay without a guaranteed return on investment. So pay close attention and learn—and, in the best possible world—you’ll learn enough from the proccess to apply the information to your next project.

And authors, please remember to vet these editors. Some are better than others, and some will better match your personal needs. One size defintiely doesn’t fit all.

4. Double-Check for Word Count

Now that your manuscript is fully edited, it’s time to check for word count, and believe it or not, word count is important. Too many words and an agent thinks you’re not willing to make edits. Too few words and the agents thinks you don’t understand your genre, or maybe you’re doing more “telling” than “showing.” But what is the right word count for your project?

Every genre has its own word count parameters, and I’m sorry to say you can’t use well-loved authors like Steven King and Diana Gabaldon to be y our compass for word count. You have research to do.

In the most general terms for most genres, anything over 120K words is hard no for most agents. Yes, I know you think you need every one of those 150K or 200K words, but if you don’t find a place to cut words, not only will you have difficulty finding an agent, but any agent who takes you on will have equal difficulty finding a publisher. In short, the more words in your manuscript, the more pages required to publish the book. The more pages in the book, the more expensive the book is to publish. The more expensive your book, the harder it is for an editor to justify to their ed board that they should buy that book because, at the higher price-point, they need to have a marketing campaign that will convince readers to purchase your book when there are 200 other books with similar content that they can purchase for left. Why would they spend $25 for a book by an unknown author when they can spend $20 to buy the latest book by one they’ve read before and liked?

All that to say that you can keep your words if you want to, but you keep them at the very real risk of an agent or editor never reading even the first page to learn how fabulous your book is. In most cases, they simply aren’t going to read those first five or ten pages to understand what a brilliant piece you’ve written because they have a hundred more manuscripts in their queue that don’t exceed the threshhold of genre conventions for word count.

Now don’t get excited, I wouldn’t leave you hanging without a means for both knowing whether your word count is acceptable or some type of guide to cutting words if you need to.

The Manuscript Academy offers a wonderful article on word count that might be helpful, so give this link a try. And if you find that you need to cut words, here’s my document to help you cut words without cutting content.

Understand the Publishing Industry

Now that your manuscript is ready to go, you’re ready to either query for agents or publish your manuscript. But first, you need to understand the publishing industry so you can make an educated decision.

Start here: I strongly recommend getting your hands on a copy of the Writer’s Market 100th Edition: The Most Trusted Guide to Getting Published. Most libraries will have a copy, or you can purchase it online in ebook or paperback format. If you do nothing else to prepare yourself for the ins and outs of publishing, get this book. It will help you avoid some of the biggest mistakes most new authors make when beginning their publishing journey.

I should point out that I do not get any compensation for recommending this book, but it’s the book that gave me the foundation for most of what I know. As each new edition releases, I buy a new copy; and I recommend this book to every author who asks me, “How do I get published.” In it you’ll find tips for query letter, how much you should pay (or charge) for editing, available contests, and more. And you don’t have to read it in order. Just skip through to the passages for which you need information like you would any other type of instruction manual. Good luck!