Is Your Manuscript Ready?

A manuscript earns the right to be queried only when it can withstand the scrutiny agents apply to books they send on submission, with sound structure, a plausible category and word count, stable point of view, appropriate nonfiction materials, legal and ethical clearance, deep revision, outside feedback, and professional formatting working together as firm readiness thresholds.

Reaching the last page does not make a manuscript ready to query. In trade publishing, “finished” means something close to print-ready: the structure holds, the category and length make sense, the voice is settled, the lines have been tightened, and obvious errors are gone. A draft that has not undergone that level of work remains in-house. Sending it out early burns agents who might have been a fit later, wastes submission opportunities you cannot easily replace, and makes it harder to see the specific problems the book still needs you to solve.

Readiness begins with a complete, coherent draft from first page to last. That means clearing out “TK” placeholders, “add scene here” notes, half-written chapters, empty brackets waiting for research, and transitions you plan to invent later. If you are still adding, removing, or relocating major sections, you are still drafting. A document whose primary purpose is to demonstrate that you can reach the end is helpful for your development, but it does not warrant professional submission. A manuscript only reaches querying territory after at least one complete rebuild that concentrates on structure, where the story starts and ends, which chapters and scenes earn their place, and how the whole book is arranged, not just how individual sentences sound.

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