Perhaps contrary to what may be popular belief, the title of today’s blog is not a description of my own thoughts–at least so far as I am aware.

I’ve taken an internship at a local publishing company here in Utah. I won’t give the name of the company at the moment, in the event that I discuss sensitive information, but I will mention that they focus on publishing for YA and middle grade audiences. At the moment I’m reading through slush, which I’m very much enjoying. There’s some interesting perspective in reading the work of others, particularly work from unpublished authors.

When reading published work, I find myself sometimes making excuses for things I don’t like–which isn’t a good idea. Being a critical reader is a vital part of writing, it’s what allows you to pick apart a text and find the things you do and don’t like about it. But as an unpublished author, it can be too easy to read something and think, well I may not like this, but I’m clearly wrong because a publisher liked it. This is the completely wrong mindset to take. You absolutely should break down everything you read and find what works and what doesn’t work for you. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be mindful of what publishers look for of course, but it does mean they are not, necessarily, inerrant.

I’ll admit that most of the manuscripts I’ve read haven’t been great, but there’s something refreshing about going  into submission with low expectations and finding something that is well done.

It’s also been a real learning experience for me in regards to one day submitting a book for publication myself. As a result I’ve got some advice that I would like to impart upon any of you reading this who would like to publish your work someday:

If you are honestly interested in publishing, your manuscript needs to be immaculate. It needs to be as perfect as you can make it before you send it in–and I don’t mean simply in relation to grammar and spelling. Actually, in most cases I mean apart from grammar and spelling. Sure, those are important things to get right, but you also need to follow standard manuscript format, perform your rewrites, etc. It sounds like common sense I know, but apparently it isn’t! I’m constantly amazed, at the state of submitted manuscripts.

Sometimes it honestly feels like the author sat down, hammered out a first draft, slapped it into an email and sent it off. Maybe these authors assume that if somebody likes it well enough, then they can worry about making changes? Maybe they think an editor is going to do all that work for them? Trust me. That’s not going to happen. If you want a publish to even consider your manuscript, you had better revise it to the point to where it’s perfect–or at least as near as you can get.

In fact, the title of today’s entry, is a I entered into my notes for a manuscript I’ve finished reading recently. Needless to say I don’t think I’m going to recommend it for publishing.

Alas however, I can’t give you solid advice on exactly what you should do to be published as, I sit here, an unpublished author myself. But I having some experience in the industry now, I can tel with absolute certainty, that a manuscript that sells is a manuscript that has been refined as much as you possibly can within your own means and powers.

That said, don’t get hung up on perfection. Nothing will be perfect, even after it has been edited several times. You just have to be nearly perfect.

I know, clear as mud.

Penumbra part I, has been out to test readers for about a week now. I don’t anticipate getting all of the feedback for at least 2 months, which gives me ample time to complete my first draft and beginning a good rewrite of part 2. The plan is to have part 2 out while I begin the second major rewrite of part 1. Once that’s done, I’ll have a larger group read part 1 and part 2 together before making revisions to the entire thing… then it’s time to start sending off to publishers. Its a few months away still, but it’s exciting to be making progress.