Amplify Writers co-founder and literary agent with MacGregor & Luedeke, Elisa Saphier answers questions from our community. Have a question about the publishing industry? Submit it below! And make sure to revisit this post to find answers as we add them.
Do I need a completed manuscript before I submit to a literary agent?
The answer to this question depends on what type of book you’re writing. For prescriptive or general nonfiction, you need a proposal instead of a completed manuscript. This will be an overview of the book idea, why you’re the one to write it, where your expertise lies, the audience already looking to you for new and exciting information about this topic, and the platforms and venues through which you’re already delivering that information. Your proposal should include comp titles, a marketing plan, sample chapters, and more. But it does not require a completed manuscript.
If you’re writing fiction or memoir/narrative nonfiction, not only do you need a finished manuscript, but it also needs to have been read by others, edited, revised, and polished. You’ll want to have gotten feedback from critique partners and beta readers, possibly sensitivity readers, and other readers who aren’t your friends and family. And you’ll want to have incorporated their notes into the most perfected version of your manuscript as possible.
The publishing industry has–at every step along the way–moved more and more toward favoring manuscripts that need very little work and time investment. That means–at every step along the way–you have to make sure you’re submitting something that already shines. This isn’t to say that editors and agents won’t do editing passes with you, but they will want much of that work done before it gets to them.