# Is it better to finish your novel first?



## UnWritten (Dec 1, 2010)

Is it better to finish your first novel before contacting a publishing house? Or would it be smarter to submit a few chapters of your work before continuing?


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## Sam (Dec 1, 2010)

Never contact a publishing house with an unfinished manuscript. Suppose they say, "Yes, Unwritten, we would love to take you on and publish your novel. Send the rest of it to us so our editing department can give it a thorough once-over." What are you going to say? "Gee, sorry, I only have it half-finished."

Finish it, edit it, leave it for a month or two, take it out again and edit it once more, and then ask someone to read it. When you've done all those things, and if the feedback is good, _then _you start contacting publishing houses.


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## DELFIA (Dec 1, 2010)

No, finish the book first. =)


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## UnWritten (Dec 1, 2010)

Delfia, please refrain from posting in my threads. You are extremely rude. I have questions, so I'm going to ask them. There is no such thing as a stupid question. If I don't know the answer to something I would expect people to see it as that instead of assuming I'm a complete moron. I've only been on this forum for a few hours and you just keep popping up everywhere with your rude posts. If you respond to one of my threads one more time I'll be reporting you for harassment.


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## UnWritten (Dec 1, 2010)

Sam W said:


> Never contact a publishing house with an unfinished manuscript. Suppose they say, "Yes, Unwritten, we would love to take you on and publish your novel. Send the rest of it to us so our editing department can give it a thorough once-over." What are you going to say? "Gee, sorry, I only have it half-finished."
> 
> Finish it, edit it, leave it for a month or two, take it out again and edit it once more, and then ask someone to read it. When you've done all those things, and if the feedback is good, _then _you start contacting publishing houses.



Thank you so much. It's been a question nobody has ever given me a straight answer to. Somethings I've read suggest contacting publishing houses that fit your genre before you even begin writing. I've always thought that to be strange.


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## DELFIA (Dec 1, 2010)

Ok, still not sure why it would be harrassment, but ok. Rude?


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## Sam (Dec 1, 2010)

Let's get back on-topic now, folks. Thank you.


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## Olly Buckle (Dec 1, 2010)

Every thing Sam said , but add "give it to someone who doesn't like you to read it. They will be sure to point out every little thing they can find, where a friend might say "Oh, that's not important."


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## UnWritten (Dec 1, 2010)

Sam W said:


> Let's get back on-topic now, folks. Thank you.


 
No, thank *you.*


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## strangedaze (Dec 2, 2010)

UnWritten said:


> Is it better to finish your first novel before contacting a publishing house?



yes.


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## Arman_Khodaei (Jan 12, 2011)

UnWritten said:


> Thank you so much. It's been a question nobody has ever given me a straight answer to. Somethings I've read suggest contacting publishing houses that fit your genre before you even begin writing. I've always thought that to be strange.


 
When writing nonfiction, you write a book proposal first with a sample chapter, and if they like your proposal then they tell you to write the entire book. But, this only applies towards nonfiction.


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