Blog

Checklist For Determining If Your Book Is Ready to Fly

Can you spot the bird house? :-)
By Jody Hedlund, @JodyHedlund

We have a bird house hanging right outside our kitchen window. My husband built it with my son long ago, and they hung it up with pride and expectation.

For many years the bird house carried a vacancy sign . . . until finally a family of house sparrows decided to take up residence. Now they're the lucky owners of the best bird house in town. Their home is snug in a corner, sheltered from wind and rain. And right outside their tiny door is a heated bird bath and half a dozen feeders. What more could a bird ask for?

For a few weeks we watched the momma and daddy sparrow squeeze dead grass and dried weeds into their doorway as they slowly crafted their nest. Then when all of the fluttering in and out finally stopped, we decided momma bird was probably sitting on her nest.

Not many days later when we opened our kitchen window, we heard a chorus of cheeps. The daddy flitted back and forth from the feeders to his home. Every time he reached the doorway, the newly hatched babies inside would chirp with excitement.

As we watched, we were amazed at the amount of work those babies required! The daddy and eventually the momma spent most of their time flying back and forth feeding and nurturing their babies. As the creatures grew, they would pop their heads out the door and open their beaks wide, clamoring for even more nourishment.

After a week or two of constant tweeting and fluttering outside our window, suddenly one day, we awoke to silence and stillness. The birds were gone, already almost full size, ready to survive on their own.

We as writers have a lot in common with the birds! 

Most of us spend weeks building the nest–researching, plotting, and developing characters. Then we spend an inordinate amount of work nurturing our stories and crafting them with loving dedication during the first draft, just like the momma and daddy birds. Finally we help them mature with edit after edit.

But how do we know when we should push them from the nest into the wide world of agents, editors, or self-publishing? After all, we DO eventually have to let them try their wings. We can't hold them in the birdhouse forever.

How do we know when our books are ready to fly?

Over the years, I've heard many writers lament about sending their books out too soon. Agents often remark that one of the top reasons for sending a rejection is because the writing ability is not strong enough. And over the past year or so, I've read articles written by self-published authors who regret launching their books before they were ready.

Recently, I cleaned out a closet and came across the first five novels I wrote. All it took was one glance at the first page of my first one to see large paragraphs of backstory dump and setting description to know that baby had never been ready to fly. Thankfully, I never pushed it out.

With each book I wrote, I continued to study the craft of writing. And with each book, I continued to practice all of the things I was learning. But none of the books ever reached a truly mature stage. They were all just part of the necessary process of growing.

Sometimes we can do everything possible to nurture our writing, read all the writing craft books, take online courses, attend writing conferences. But ultimately, even with all of the food we shove at our writing, growth is slow and happens over time. We, like birds, have a growth curve, can only ingest so much at one time, and have to allow for a natural progression.

Maturation in our writing is not something we can rush. After all the hard work, it's easy to get excited about the next stage–seeing our babies fly. But it hurts when we push them out only to see them fall flat, get stepped on and rejected, or garner poor reviews.

So how do we know when our writing is ready to fly?

Here's my short checklist:

1. Know the techniques of writing inside and out. Make sure we have a well-crafted story that applies all of the various writing essentials.

2. Nurture our story-telling skills. Read lots of books in our genre. Spend time analyzing what makes a story work and what doesn't.

3. Allow practice to mature us. Write a couple of books to completion. There's nothing like writing a book from start to finish several times to help us grow.

4. Send a manuscript to a critique partner /group or professional editor. Good feedback from a skilled writer/editor can help us see how we're doing. Sometimes entering a contest can give us an idea of where we stack up against our competition.

5. Make a trial run. Send a query to an agent or publisher. Garnering their interest can often show that we're on track. On the flip side, however, a rejection doesn't mean we're terrible. It's often difficult to distinguish if a rejection means we're not ready or if the agent simply wasn't interested (for a hundred and one various reasons).

What do you think? Have you ever sent your work out too soon? How do you know when your work is ready to fly? 

23 comments:

  1. I never understood the whole "write a few novels, stick them in a drawer and then REALLY write your first book" theory. I'm guessing it's because I'm a professional writer, so I write all the time -- getting lots of practice -- and was confident the first novel I ever tried to write would (eventually) be ready to fly, after a slew of revisions. But I've heard a few authors say that. And sometimes I wonder if I had just put BABY GRAND in a drawer if one day I would have looked back at that book and thought, "Oh, gosh! That needed work!" But I've heard authors also say that about their first novels that WERE published, so who knows? :) I think, whatever authors decide to do with that first novel, in the end, will be the right choice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dina,

      Ultimately each writer does have to decide what they think will work best for them. As you said, some writers do a slew of rewriting and revising on their first novel. With all the rewriting and work the book almost ends up being like a second or third book as far as practice.

      As far as looking at my published novels and thinking that I wish they'd never been published. Well, I'm sure I could always find mistakes in them which is one reason I never read them again once they hit shelves. But, I can certainly tell a huge growth spurt between the first novel I ever wrote and my first published book. There's no comparison.

      Delete
  2. I completely relate, Jody! Like you said, I haven't been willing to push with queries and proposals until very recently after completely rewriting my 7th novel. For the first time in ten years of daily hard work, I felt semi-good about pushing that send button and getting it out there. :) Writing is not one of those things you can do well on the first try, even if you have a natural gift for words.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Miranda,

      Yes! It definitely sounds like you've put in the time and practice and are ready to give that baby her wings! :-) And I have to agree. Even if we have the natural talent, we still have to work hard to hone it, just like an athlete or musician does.

      Delete
  3. I feel a little spoiled getting my agent so quickly--when I barely had that first manuscript finished. It makes me often wonder if my second, third and fourth will measure up. But I'm pretty sure that's how most writers feel as they send new proposals out to their agents. It's a vicious circle, actually. Getting an agent really only puts you on another level of waiting and wondering. And I like what you said about rejection. Getting a rejection doesn't mean the writing/story/manuscript is "bad".... only that it either (if you're still looking for an agent) hasn't been made into all it can be, or (if you're still looking for the right editor/publisher) that it hasn't found the trail of people who will eventually spur it on to being published. Thanks for this awesome blog, Jody. It's seriously one of my favorites. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Dawn!

      Yes, your agent-story is definitely not the norm! But it just goes to show that every writer is unique! (And it must say something about your giftedness and story-telling ability!)

      Thanks for swinging by, Dawn! I appreciate it! :-)

      Delete
  4. I know I've said this here before, but no, I didn't send out my first "real" novel too soon. I had taken my writing as far as I could go by myself and then with the help of a crit group. I knew it was as good as I could get it, so I sent it out to contests and one publisher, and I hit gold. :-)

    But I wasn't panicked or wondering if everything was good enough. I KNEW it was the best I could do, so I didn't have a lot of fear. My fear looked more like "If no one likes this, then maybe I need to stop writing because I know it's my best. If my best doesn't work, then I'll need to be done pursuing publication."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Naomi,

      I like hearing how you pushed yourself to be as good as you possibly could before you sent your book out. You knew you'd put in the time and effort to learn and study and get feedback!

      But, I do have to say for anyone else whose done the same but gotten rejected by everyone, not to give up. I really think stories/themes/plots go through cycles. So what may not be popular among the publishing industry now, might cycle around in a few years. In the meantime, I'd say write something else. You never know WHEN you might get an open door for any of your stories.

      Delete
  5. My first and second books will never see daylight! I honestly don't know if I would have started them if I'd believed they wouldn't be publishable, but in retrospect I'm thankful for the learning experience they provided. Does that mean I'm confident my later books are publishable? Definitely not! The more I learn about the craft of writing, the more I believe there is to work on, and I've become more insecure. I shy away from showing my work to people. I think I probably need to make better use of outside resources... the ones you suggest in #4. It's a hurdle I'm working on. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Carol,

      I hear what you're saying about not being too pessimistic when writing the first couple of books. We don't want to fill our heads with negative self-talk and convince ourselves that those first couple of books won't ever be publish-worthy. They could be--as I mentioned above in Dina's comment--with a LOT of rewriting and editing. But I do think we need to view the whole process realistically and realize that most of us have a learning curve before we reach a point where our books are ready!

      Delete
  6. This is EXACTLY what I have been needing, Jody. Thank you SO much for posting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So glad it was helpful, Amber! :-) Hope that you're soon reaching a point where you'll be ready to send your baby out there!

      Delete
  7. Perfect timing, Jody! I'm reaching the point where I'm wondering if I can begin sending my "baby" out to agents and now, thanks to you, I've got a list to double-check myself. Thanks!

    Blessings,
    Andrea

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Andrea,

      Thank you for alerting me to the missing comments on my giveaway post! After you mentioned it, I checked the blog spam folder and a WHOLE bunch of comments had gone there without my realizing it. I think I've gotten them all out now! So thank you!!

      And how exciting that you're reaching a point where you might be ready to send your baby out! Hope that it goes well! :-)

      Delete
  8. I have my own checklist for publishing an eBook, which includes checking all my links, updating my "Also by" page to include any interim titles, making sure all items in my notes (usually regarding inconsistencies) have been addressed and doing a search for any special editing marks, like brackets and the "at" sign. Because editors are not infallible, I do another check of my manuscript and leave marks to remind myself of what needs fine tuning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Bettye,

      Yes, editors are human too! It sounds like you have a great system in place for preparing your work for flight! :-)

      Delete
  9. Jody, one of the comments of mine that got deleted last week was on a different blog. Should I alert the host there, too?

    Thanks for the well-wishes! That means a lot!

    Andrea

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You could alert them. I see and read all the comments that come in via my email, so when a comment goes to spam I won't know unless I specifically check my spam folder.

      Delete
  10. Great post. One of the most humbling things a writer can do is go dig up an early ms and read it. Gah! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  11. Do you have any editors that you would recommend to proof the 'finished copy' that we may think that we have?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sonya,

      I'm sorry I don't have an recommendations. I've been using in-house editors for a long time now so I'm not up on current good editors. Sorry that I can't help you with that! But you might put out a shout on Twitter or Facebook for ideas.

      Delete
  12. Hell, the closer I come to pushing that proverbial button, the more I think I'm not ready.

    ReplyDelete

© All the articles in this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without prior written consent from the author. You may quote without permission if you give proper credit and links. Thank you!