So Now What?

Okay, so you've finished your book. You've gone over it a zillion times, and you're afraid you're starting to make it worse instead of better. Stop. Take a deep breath, then make sure it's properly formatted. 12 pt. Times New Roman (or other simple font), double spaced, one side only. Header and Footer with your name, title and page number. Spell check, spell check, spell check.

At this point, you might want to sign up for a work-in-progress class at a nearby university or continuing education program, or even online. Or you might want to get a manuscript analysis at a writers' conference.

You can also pull together your own manuscript critique group. There's nothing like a good reader, and I think it's a skill that can be unrelated to being a good writer. I'm not a great reader. I just want to tell the writer how I'd write her or his book – and that's soooo not the point!

Do you have any friends who read like crazy and are kind and generous and honest, and also really want the best for you? (Boyohboy, do we all need friends like that!) Maybe you've got friends right here on Gather who might be good readers for you. Pull together half a dozen or so and send them each a copy of the manuscript. Tell them to write all over it, marking the parts they like, the places where they got stuck or didn't get something, the parts that didn't work so well. Then ask them to mail it back to you. (Be a class act and include a postage-paid return envelope!)

When you get them all back, listen to the comments that resonate and ignore the rest. (If you hear the same comment from everybody, you should probably make yourself listen to it, whether you want to or not!) Do a final revision, spell check one more time, and then you're ready to start your search for a literary agent.

In the same way that there are husbands and husbands, you don't want just any literary agent. You want the one who is totally in love with your book and will put her heart and soul into selling it and supporting you.

I think the best way to find a great agent is to read the acknowledgments in books you love and somehow feel are connected to the one you've written. Authors who love their agents always thank them in the acknowledgments. Then Google the agent to track down his or her contact info (there are no secrets anymore!) and send a well-written, heartfelt query letter seeking representation. Keep it to one page, say who you are, what you've written, how impressed you are with this agent's client list (again, Google is your friend here), and why you think your book would be a good fit. Include your contact information.

Cross your fingers, and possibly even your toes!

CONVERSATION STARTER: Okay, everybody, let's try some speed networking! Looking for some readers for your completed manuscript? Happy to read for someone? Know any good literary agents? Do you have a template for a good query letter? Karma is a boomerang, so share what you have!

 
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The next feature book of the Getting Better All the Time group, Summer Blowout by Claire Cook is a hilarious and rambunctious story about a recently single woman who finds herself on a new path and hits all of the bumps life throws her along the way.

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