When Is Your Work Ready?

[JudithM]

I just received a rejection notice for one of my short stories. The prestigious literary review had held on to the story for so long that I began to hope they were accepting it. Alas, no.

So I reread the story. It was an OMG moment. What had I been thinking when I sent in the story? There was so much wrong with it! Not the least of which was that the story didn’t really begin until page three.

Just so you know, before I sent the story in, I edited it repeatedly. Others also read and commented on the story. How could we all miss something so basic? Do I have to lock something away for a year to avoid fooling myself into thinking it is polished?

I am no stranger to getting rejections for my written work. Anyone who writes fiction knows the drill. That doesn’t make the sting of rejection any easier, but this post is not about the emotional cost of rejections. It is about my disappointment in myself that, as improved a writer as I think I am, I can still make stupid mistakes.

I have now altered my story’s beginning, along with making other editorial changes. I hope this revised version will cause an editor to smile and say, “This is for me.” I can’t shake the feeling, though, that I am missing something that will be obvious to me a year from now.

How do you know when your work is polished enough to send it out? Or does it only get that designation when someone decides to publish it?

Submitted for Nathan Bransford's guest post opportunity. Originally posted on my Pilgrim Soul blog.

[rosepetal720]

The same thing happened to me and I'm also trying to figure out when my book will be ready to send out again.

My advice was to get lots of beta readers, so I was shocked that you've done that already. I guess I shouldn't be surprised: some beta readers just aren't that great. Where are you finding your readers? Are they experienced?

I find my betas on AbsoluteWrite.com and Nathan's forum. Also, when I read on blogs I like that the writer is nervous about sending her book out, or she already sent it out and it isn't getting accepted, I offer to swap work.

While I find lots of good people like that, only about a forth of them work out because of differences in time availability, differences in editing effort, differences in talent, and ability to accept criticism.

Putting your work away for a month or two helps. Doing that sucks, but sometimes it's necessary.

[oldhousejunkie]

I can totally relate. I've often pondered when will I know that my work is as polished as it needs to be? I suppose all you can do is edit, get folks to read it, edit it again based on their comments, and then hope for the best. Sending it out into the world only to have it returned should not be daunting, it should be a learning opportunity. Sure there are a lot of factors that play into a rejection. Did you do your homework (i.e. are you contacting the right agents)? Was the manuscript in good shape? Was the query good enough? Or simply was that agent in a bad mood that day and it was just your luck?

That's why I am not a fan of mass querying. You've got one chance on your novel. Why would you waste an opportunity by sending it out to 10+ agents at a time? I think 5 will be my magic number. Maybe I feel that because I write historical fiction, and not every agent represents that in this world of vampires, werewolves, and other magical beings. I want to contemplate the rejections (I'm secretly hoping that there won't be too many) and then figure out what I can do better before sending it out again.

So while it is a downer that your story got rejected, I think you are doing the right thing. Take another look and if you haven't exhausted your list of readers, get their opinions. Then send it out again. Rinse and repeat. It's all you can do I think.

[JudithM]

I very much appreciate your thoughtful replies. Here's the thing though. One of the readers for my story is a professional editor. Another is a published writer. I think that, sometimes, one just misses the obvious,which does not become obvious until the umpteenth read. Then of course the reaction is, how could I have missed that?