Excerpt from an original essay published in Letters from Kindlebrook, my author newsletter. Written for aspiring and working authors, the piece uses humor, direct address, and publishing expertise to persuade readers to reconsider how they approach manuscript submission.
Editing is my second love.
Fresh out of grad school, my “true calling” was writing. Well, writing while pretending to do an evil corporate job that mostly funded my caffeine habit and gave me time to ignore whatever nonsense I was supposed to be doing. I never said I was good at corporate life.
Eventually, though, editing found me, and over time, it became something I genuinely fell in love with. And part of loving this industry is being honest with the writers trying to break into it, which brings me to the point of this post:
I’m going to hold your hand gently when I say this. I may even pat your knuckles a little.
Please stop querying with first draft energy.
And no, I am not talking about imperfect manuscripts. No manuscript is ever perfect, no matter what Goodreads may have to say about it. I’m talking about manuscripts that are clearly still in the “this probably needs several more passes” stage.
Because one of the biggest misunderstandings I see from newer writers is the belief that agents and editors are looking for promising drafts they can help shape into publishable books.
To an extent, yes. Editing is part of the job.
But acquisitions are not creative writing workshops.
Agents are not your first beta readers. Editors are not developmental writing coaches. And no one is sitting at their desk thinking, Wow, this needs a complete structural overhaul, but I’d love to spend six months fixing it.
What we are looking for is work that has been thoroughly polished, carefully considered, and made as market-ready as possible. Because when your manuscript lands in someone’s inbox, it is not being judged in a vacuum.
It is being judged against: