A younger Mere. Pretty good at writing online articles, not yet a novelist.

Everyone submits too early when first starting out.

I am guilty of this myself, but allow me to give you the benefit of my hindsight and ‘years later’ experience. Most of this advice is going to be for those going on submission for the very first time, either to get an agent, or direct to publishers without an agent. I welcome additional tips in the comments either way.

First, let’s look at why people might submit too early:

General ignorance. This was me. I genuinely thought my manuscript was ready and that there was nothing left I could do to it. To an extent, I was correct, but more on that in the next section. Basically, I didn’t know better.
Excitement. The book is done! Yay! I want it published now. Totally normal feelings, and you should definitely celebrate the completion of your manuscript, however, the reality of publishing is that nothing ever happens “now.” It always takes months to years. It just does.
Your friends are all on submission. I have felt like this. Everyone else always seems one step ahead and you’re just itching to be in those trenches too. (Take a breath, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.)
Your dream agent has a short submission window. You’re much more likely to snag an agent with a polished manuscript. It’s so much more difficult to stand out from the crowd than it used to be, and if the manuscript is sloppy the intern managing your agent’s desk is just going to pitch it.

Now, let’s get to a few, very basic, things to never, ever do:

Never submit your first draft. It is not ready.
Do NOT submit your NaNoWriMo piece right away.
Do not blind submit without carefully researching what the agent/publisher accepts first.

“But how do I know when my draft is ready?” you may be saying. If you’re just starting out, this can be tricky. But here’s a story that I hope will help.

Me at that first conference. I locked my keys in my car IMMEDIATELY upon arrival.

When I first had a manuscript that I thought was ready, I had just moved to Nashville and didn’t really have any other writer friends to run it by. I had taken a writing class in Chicago and did my best. I read over the manuscript by myself, then let it sit for two weeks, then read it again, made some changes, let it sit, repeat. Until I couldn’t do anything else with it. The problem was that I had some fundamental writing mistakes that I wasn’t aware of and had no one else around to point it out to me.

I went to a writers conference with this manuscript and it was incredibly helpful. I did pay to get a one-on-one with an agent, and she did give me feedback on my manuscript which was invaluable. But obviously I didn’t get an invitation to submit and if I hadn’t had a plethora of mistakes, maybe I would have. I noticed while I was there that everyone had a writing group or beta readers or someone outside of themselves to read their manuscript. I didn’t have that and no one could really tell me how to go and get it.

I made a bunch of connections and when I got home I emailed them all. A few wrote me back once, but largely they didn’t keep in touch. I finally went to MeetUp.com and signed up for a bunch of writing things and found a writing group that anyone could go to with five pages. It was terrifying, but I did it and not only was I forced to read my pages out loud—a horrific experience, and one I still do not enjoy, but a necessary part of growth in my opinion—but I had to sit silently, one of their rules, while critique was given, and then I received written edits on my pages.

It was fantastic.

To cut the rest of the journey into a digestible summary: I attended meetings regularly, broke out into another, more intimate group, and eventually found several beta readers through that process. I grew by leaps and bounds once I had outside input. I recently found a draft of my early writing on my computer as I was cleaning out my Google Drive and… let’s just say I have come a long way.

In a nutshell: you need someone else with writing experience to read your work. If you don’t have that, you won’t get very far. I want to drive this point home. I was not a bad writer before this. I wrote news articles for CBS Local, I submitted online articles to the now defunct Examiner.com for years, Honors English was my best class all through school, I was hitting the ceiling in that subject on all the standardized tests. Just because you’re a good reader and have talent as a writer does not mean you’re not making fundamental mistakes that you cannot see. Trust me.

One of my betas. I love her stuff and she loves mine. We will still give each other truth if we need it. And yes, I finally stopped flat ironing the shit out of my hair.

I’ve heard the argument before, “Why spend so much time editing? When you get an agent/editor, aren’t they just going to ask for more edits?” Yeah, most likely.

But you want your work to be at its absolute best before you get to that point. Once you get the right editor, one who sees what you’re trying to do, but is also far enough removed from the work to see the entire forest of fantastic trees you’ve created, they will help you elevate your work and push you to make it even better in ways you wouldn’t have been able to see on your own.

The tricky part is wading through the feedback in the early days, because all feedback that is not glowing praise will sting a little at first. You just have to learn to sort through and find out what’s helpful and what is ultimately not going to serve you. Helpful feedback:

Usually points out an issue that you probably knew was there but were hoping you could get away with. Nope. You cannot get away with it.
Will at least try to give you some suggestions on how to fix the problem.
Is more nuanced than, “I just didn’t like this part.”
May irritate you at first, but then if you sleep on it for a day or two, you may realize that it’s actually correct.
Still supports the overall vision/goal of your story.

Unhelpful feedback:

Can simply be mean. Yes, it sucks, but often times people are just rude when giving feedback. Once you realize this, you can take this person with a grain of salt if they’re in a group you otherwise enjoy, or just solicit feedback from someone else.
Can come from someone who does not read or write in your genre. I was a fantasy author in a group of all thriller writers for a time. There were many points where they wanted me to clarify things like ‘fae’ and ‘glamours’ which would have been very accessible to a fantasy reader. It’s not always bad to get feedback from a writer outside of your genre, but you have to know what to discard. And it is more helpful if they at least read in your genre.
Can come from a person who is unable to separate the book you are trying to write with the book they would have written in your place. Without going into too much detail, because this book is on submission, I wrote a book that involved space travel. I solicited a ton of feedback. Too much. Looking back I had too many eyes on it and the amount of suggestions for places I could take this book was overwhelming. I had a few people though, who suggested that instead of traveling to a different planet, I go to a different dimension on our planet. It was a cool idea, but not the type of book I wanted to write.

This post has become very long and rambly, because I am writing the advice I would have liked to give my past self. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly nuanced because this is a barometer I do believe you have to develop through experience. My younger self would have really enjoyed a roadmap though. She would have liked bullet points and a direction. So I will try to give you a rough one.

If this is your first finished book, you think it’s great, and you want to submit it to agents and get published, and you really want a map, here’s one that would have benefited young Mere:

Let it sit for at least two weeks. Don’t touch it. As Jeff Goldblum would say, “Go outside and blow the stink off ya!” Do something else for two weeks. Read some books. Watch some movies. Or, if you’re like me, and this is kind of impossible, start writing something else. (But also go outside and see some friends.)
After two weeks, read it again. I have a friend who has Word read her work back to her. I haven’t done this yet, but I think it’s a great idea because your eyes will often fill in things that you haven’t put there. Missed words or missed intentions. I used to print mine out and read it like a book rather than on a computer so I could make physical notations. This works too, as a different medium, but it wastes a lot of paper.
Make your changes. If you haven’t made very many, you’re probably missing something unless you're a big plotter—I am not—and you spent a lot of time before your first draft plotting your scenes out.
Pick your beta readers. If you’re new, you may not have a lot of choice, and that’s okay, just get someone to read it. If you’ve been around the block once, then try to pick people who read in your genre who like your writing. If they don’t like your stuff, you don’t want them to read it. This may come as a revelation—and it does suck, friends—but some people are going to dislike the things you write. You should also—and this is very important—you should also like what they write and respect their opinions.
While your betas are reading, you can start getting your submission material together if you like. Get your pitch prepped. Then get your one paragraph pitch. Then get your one sentence pitch. Find your comp titles. If you can’t comp the whole book, comp elements of the book. (This is what I usually do.) Start researching agents you think will like your book. Make a spreadsheet. You can even write your query letters and save them so that they are at the ready. In your montage, this is your troop rallying, map drawing, weapon polishing time. (Also, hang out with friends, read a book in the sun, play with your cat.)
Decide how you want your feedback. I like to have a Zoom meeting with my betas if we can agree on a time. The reason I like this is because they will often come up with solutions to problems together like a little think tank. Also, they can disagree with each other, which is helpful for me. If I have three people and one person hates a concept, but it doesn’t bother the other two, I can decide how I feel about it. If all three of them agree that something needs to be done, I need to take note. You may not like this feedback format, or your betas may not be down. You’ll figure out what works for you.
Take copious notes. Do not argue. If they ask for clarification, give it, but do not defend yourself. Resist the urge to defend your book child. Just write it all down. Just. Write. It. All. Down. Remember you picked these people for a reason.
Sleep on it for a day or two. Hang out with friends. Read a book in the sun. Play with your cat. Have a stiff drink.
Come back and look at the notes and decide what resonates with you. Ask yourself, “Do I resist this feedback because it does not align with what I’m trying to create, or do I resist it because it’s hard to do?” You’ll find you know which bits will make your book better, you just don’t like them because they’re difficult and you wanted to be done. Decide which ones you will do. Feel free to have another drink.
Incorporate the feedback. Take a few days. Read it back to make sure it makes sense.
Run spell check. On your query letters too. Make sure everyone’s name is spelled correctly including yours. Nothing more mortifying.
Go forth and submit. And may the odds be ever in your favor.

You should probably edit that a bit more before you submit.