The Submission Itself

6 min read

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Submit what they ask for. Once again, **SUBMIT WHAT THEY ASK FOR**. If they want three sample chapters, send them three sample chapters. Not two. Not four. Send three. Maybe they want a one-page synopsis. Send a synopsis that is, you guessed it, ONE PAGE. You can do it. You can outline your book in one page. Maybe they want you to email your submission to a specific address. THAT IS WHERE YOU SHOULD SEND IT.

There are a few things agents look for immediately when they open a submission. The first is voice - not in the abstract, precious sense that writing teachers use, but simply: does this feel like a real person wrote it? Is there a distinct intelligence behind the prose?

The second thing agents look for is momentum. Does the opening move? Not necessarily in terms of action - literary fiction can open with a character at a window - but in terms of forward pull. Does the reader want to know what happens next?

The third is confidence. Not arrogance. Confidence. Writers who are unsure of themselves often betray it in their prose - through over-qualification, through unnecessary flashbacks in the first chapter, through starting a sentence three different ways before committing to one.

These are learnable. None of this is mysterious. But learning them requires seeing them in action, understanding why they work, and applying them - deliberately - to your own manuscript. That's what the rest of this chapter is for.

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