How to know when you’re really ready to submit or publish

This is a question I receive quite a lot from people who are writing their first book: “How do I know when I’m finished?” As in, when will I know when it’s time to submit for traditional publication or move toward self-publishing?

It’s a deceptively difficult question. Even after you’ve tackled major issues, gotten feedback, and incorporated the changes, it’s absolutely possible to fiddle endlessly with a manuscript. No matter how many times you read your work, you’re going to spot things you want to change. I even spot things in my published novels, many, many years too late.

On top of that, when you’re in the throes of revision fatigue, you may be in a state of mind where you think your book is a steaming pile of word garbage that no one in their right mind would ever want to read. This is the mess you’re supposed to share with the world?

But if you’re pursuing publication of any kind, at some point you have to call it and send your baby out into the world. Here’s some advice for thinking it through.

The basics of being done

Let’s start with the basics.

If you’re pursuing traditional publishing, you need a completely finished and polished manuscript for novels and (often) non-celebrity memoirs, and a polished book proposal with 50-75 sample pages if you’re writing nonfiction.

You may have heard that agents will work with authors on edits prior to submitting to publishers, and yes, some do, but you can’t count on them to polish a mess into a diamond. Agents may try to take a project that’s 99% of the way there to 100% of the way there, but they’re not going to rehabilitate you.

Particularly in a wildly competitive publishing landscape, it really, really pays to take your time, polish as much as you can on your own (I have a revision checklist for novelists), get good feedback, incorporate said feedback, polish again, consider a second round of feedback, incorporate that feedback, give it another few reads on your own, and then, maybe, you’ll be done. Don’t rush.

If you’re pursuing traditional publication, this doesn’t mean you have to catch every single typo or grammar error. If your book is acquired by a publisher, it will go through at least one round of editing with an in-house editor, then there will be stages for copyediting and proofing. Agents aren’t sweating typos unless they interfere with basic readability.

On the other hand, if you’re self-publishing, you have to manage every single one of the above steps yourself, and I’d highly recommend hiring an outside editor to be sure you’re putting your best foot forward. When the manuscript is finalized, you’ll also need to hire a copyeditor.

So if you haven’t ticked every metaphorical box in this section: guess what, you’re not done.

The nuances of being done

Okay, you’ve ticked all the boxes. You’ve polished, gotten good feedback, revised within an inch of your life, and revised some more. You know you’re close to being done.

But how do you really know you’re done?

It’s not easy!

Particularly if you skew toward the perfectionist end of the writing spectrum, you might find yourself endlessly tinkering. You might have a nagging sense that the novel could be better if you just thought of the right ideas or spotted the right weaknesses. You might be tempted to throw the whole thing out and start all over again.

Here’s a question I like to ask myself to unfreeze my brain: Would any agent reject me over the changes I’m currently making?

For instance, no agent is going to reject you because you used the word “ran” instead of “sprinted” on Page 275. And is any reader going to put the book down and ask for a refund because you didn’t choose the absolutely perfect synonym?

Yes, every word matters, but at some point you’ll find that the changes you’re making won’t make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. That’s when you’re probably done.

And at some point: You’ll just know.

Remember that there are few points of no return in publishing. Even if you submit to agents or start down the road to self-publish, you’ll have opportunities to adjust on the fly before your book’s in print.

What to do if you’re stuck

Now, you might have reached the “I’M D-U-N” stage of doneness and still find yourself paralyzed. You know you should move to the next step, but you might find that it is much more enjoyable to fiddle with your cover page and micro-nuances of your formatting than it is to think about submitting to anyone.

It can be absolutely terrifying to take the weird little passion project you’ve poured your soul into for hundreds of hours and expose it to the world. And you might find yourself completely stuck and anxiety-ridden even thinking about it.

If you find yourself in this zone, it’s a good time to get back in tune with your overall goals. Why are you doing this in the first place? If it’s just to write for the love of writing, there’s no rule that says you have to share it with anyone. Don’t get caught up in other people’s treadmills. If you wrote it just for you, that’s fine!

But it may also be the case that you’re not used to giving yourself permission to pursue your own dreams. You may have lost touch with the notion that your writing really does matter. Or you might just have been turning a harsh eye on your novel during the revision process that you’ve lost touch with what’s good about it.

Try to “get above it” and get to a calm place to start making decisions. And feel free to reach out to me if you need help or a coaching session, I have a great deal of experience talking writers off the ledge I mean helping them get in tune with their next steps.

At some point you’re just done

I’ve written previously that every novel feels like climbing an impossibly tall mountain, and when you’re in the midst of it, it feels a bit mystifying to even dream of finishing.

Just remember to trust your instincts. You’ll just know when you’re done when you’re really done. It’s a heady, exhilarating, terrifying, deflating, satisfying, life-changing, overwhelming feeling when the realization sinks in.

And hey! You’re done! You hit a major, major milestone. Don’t forget to celebrate.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.

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Art: Trompe l’oeil of a Letter Rack with Christian V’s Proclamation by Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts