Writing a novel can take a long time. Revising a novel can add months to that timeline. Polishing can add months more. So it is absolutely normal for anxious writers to test the waters by querying a novel that is not polished yet, or that is only a first draft. I know writers who have queried on three chapters and a brief synopsis, and I understand their thinking — “Why finish/revise/polish the novel if no agents are interested?” This is crazy talk. Trust me. I know it sounds reasonable if you aren’t familiar with the business. But to those of us who have been writing, submitting and publishing for a decade or more — crazy talk.

Now, having said that, let me just assure you that I queried my first novel before I finished it, and I’m glad I did. No, not because it sold (it didn’t). But because once I’d sent out those query letters, I was motivated to finish, revise and polish the book. After all, I realized I might get a request for the full — and I wanted to be able to send it if it was requested (which it was, and I had to revise, polish and mail in a two week frenzied marathon of hope and fear).

Remember though, that was in the day of snail mail queries. Which took weeks or months (usually, some writers got an unexpectedly quick phone call based on a query, but most didn’t get the call until after the full had been requested by mail, and sent). Nowadays, you can e-query and have a request for material within the hour. Which is why I never recommend querying before the book is completed. While an agent will be understanding about a two week delay between the request for a full and the submission of said full (agents do get how neurotic we writers can be), a two month delay while a writer completes (or heavily revises) a novel means that the marketing landscape may have changed, the agent’s client load may have shifted to make him or her unlikely to take on a new client, etc.

People who come to writing from other businesses often find this a puzzlingly inefficient way of doing business — after all, why write a novel if you don’t know if it will sell? And many published authors do sell on concept or outline, but very few unpublished authors sell on proposal — and all of the ones I know already had an agent and several completed manuscripts before they sold one on proposal.

To complicate matters, when writing non-fiction, a proposal and outline is all that is usually expected. But fiction is different. So finish it. Send it to some trusted friends who will tell you the truth, revise it again, set it aside for a few weeks, read and revise. Polish. Then query.

Next up — Top “Truth” Number Four: The Manuscript Has to Be Perfect