The End is just The Beginning

18th August 2020

After eight months and 84,000 words of writing my Rom Com Novel yesterday I finally came to that special moment where I typed the wonderful words THE END. This is my first novel and I had treated myself to two writing courses along the way, the first to get me unstuck in the middle and the second to know what to do at the end. Apparently what I have to do is take a break from it – do all those other things that fell by the wayside as I lived in my fictional world, like seeing friends, weeding the overgrown garden and sewing buttons on shirts.

What to do next

But after investing so much time and dedication into a daily writing routine it’s hard to stop, so this morning I did some more research about what to do next. Youtube offered up endless videos of Literary Agents confirming what I had learned in my last course:

• I should research the existing book market so I knew which authors were popular in my Rom Com genre, read some of their novels, find out who their agents and publishers were and make a note of their submission guidelines.

• I should write a killer elevator pitch for my novel.

• I should write a one page synopsis that encapsulates not only the plot but the tone and style of the book.

• I should practice writing the perfect covering letter which summarises the Title, plot and author profile.

Writing the second draft

With all of these things I should write them, then get feedback from other writers/tutors then rewrite them until they are the best that they can be. Then after a suitable ‘rest period’ I should go back to my novel and read it through again with fresh eyes:

• Checking that the plot lines don’t have any glaring holes in them and that I did manage to tie them all together at the end.

• Checking my characters are believable and that the main ones are likeable.

• Checking my characters all have unique ways of speaking.

• Checking that there are enough comedy moments throughout to justify my choice of genre.

• Checking that the story flows from beginning to end, that I can see it playing out in my mind seamlessly.

• Editing out the fluff.

• Adding in any missing descriptive flourishes.

• Proofreading the grammar and spelling of what could now officially be called the second draft.

Phew! So then would it be time to write to the agents? Apparently not. It would be the time to send the manuscript to a ‘trusted reader’, most probably a friend who loves reading similar books. I have some lined up already, who often ask when I will be calling upon their services. I have no idea but when I do they will hopefully do their duties and return the manuscripts with suggestions for improvement and removal, which I will then do, in my third draft.

Don’t send it out too soon

Will it be ready to send to agents now? The real question will be, ‘Is it the best that I can make it?’ Apparently the biggest mistake that debut writers make is to send their manuscripts out too early.

Everytime I read this I remember a story from my early attempts at painting, in my teens. I lived by the sea and was surrounded by beautiful landscapes. One I particularly loved was a distant gently curving field of corn with a footpath that wound it’s way from one side to the top of the cliffs on the other. In the middle, on the crown of the hill, was a clump of trees. I decided to paint the scene. I painted blocks of colour in horizontal thirds. Blue for the sky, yellow for the field and green for the pasture at the bottom. Last but not least I painted a black blob at the top where the trees would go. When I looked at it I saw the real thing. When I took it home and showed my parents they were confused. “Why is there a block blob there?” It’s where the trees go. “Why isn’t it a green blob?” Because I’m going to put layers of green on after. “Oh.” I was discouraged that they couldn’t see my vision and never quite finished it.

The moral of the story for me is, “Don’t show people your Work In Progress”, show them the finished product. So how will I know when my novel is finished? I read a good article about this on the Bath Novel Awards website. Here is the link.  

My research highlighted that literary agents will need to be hooked by the covering letter, intrigued by the synopsis and so taken with the first three chapters or 10,000 words that they are compelled to ask to see the whole manuscript. If they see something that they feel excited enough to want to represent they will throw in their own amendments based on their professional experience of what sells in your chosen genre. So you put your trust in them and produce your fourth draft.

If the agent thinks it is ready they then pitch it by sending their own covering letter with the manuscript to carefully chosen publishers that the agent knows is looking for books exactly like yours. They will target specific editors at the publishers who, if they like what they see, will then suggest their own amendments. So you produce your fifth draft … and hold on a minute what year is it?

How long does all this take?

I can’t help wondering how long all this will take? After coming across widely varying estimates I’ve made myself a rough timeline for my novel:

Stage	Months
Research	3-12
First Draft	3-9
Second Draft	1-3
Third Draft	1-2
Submitting to agents	several
Fourth Draft	1-2
Submitting to Publishers	several
Fifth Draft	2-3
Sixth Draft	1-2
Pre-Publishing	12-18

So maybe another year from now to find a publisher, maybe another two years till the book is produced and on the shelves. It’s quite a sobering realisation and one that most probably tempts many authors to go down the self-publishing route. A friend of mine took this option. I was one of several friends who had helped him in the early stages to bounce ideas around, to edit down long back stories, to do proofreading etc until he felt happy with the book and self-published on Amazon.

I can remember how exciting it was when the parcel with the first proof copy arrived in the post. There it was in our hands, a real book! There was the cover photo he’d changed several times, there was the title that was possibly version sixteen, we’d actually lost count. There was the blurb about the book on the back cover, there on the inside back cover was the author’s biog, about my friend, sitting right there in front of me. Fantastic!

The long haul

Overall, it took him about eight years from start to finish but then his novel was based on a massive amount of factual research. He’s spent a lot of time since then promoting his book through friends and social media. He had planned to do a series of talks to the niche groups that his book appeals to, using his wealth of research and then selling his books at the end of each talk. That hasn’t happened yet for various reasons. He has a slow trickle of sales on Amazon, boosted by occasional news items or reviews. He has a second novel, a continuation of the first, rattling around his head, one that requires more research overseas. He’s looking forward to that but has to raise the finance first by other means. Overall he’s satisfied. He wrote the first book, he’s pleased with it and it’s out there in the real world.

Having accepted that I’m also in this for the long haul, I’ve decided to enjoy each moment. I thoroughly enjoyed writing my novel, it was exciting and took a lot of perseverance. I revelled in the moment when I wrote THE END and I’m proud of myself for getting this far. Oh, and that reminds me, the tutor on the first of my two writing courses suggested that we write more than one ending and try them out on our trusted readers, have them waiting in the wings for the literary agents and publishers. I’ll do that next. I’ve already got one alternate ending rattling around my head that presented itself in my waking thoughts this morning.

So, being an author is a long term occupation, something I hadn’t fully considered when I just felt compelled to start writing my story, when I typed those first words. I’ll try to be as professional as possible in my dealings with the other professionals in the world of publishing and will, of course, keep my fingers well and truly crossed.