Hello - I'd be really grateful if you could help me out with a query. I spent 9 months writing my first children's book and have a finished manuscript. I'm now about to start writing my second but... before I finish the whole thing, I'm tempted to write the first four or five chapters and send them off to an agent to see if anyone's interested before I finish writing the book. Is this ok to do?
Not a good idea. As Jimmy say, if an agent wants the book and you can't produce it they will move on to the next person and may automatically reject your submissions in future. Most agents only take on one or two new authors a year and receive 50-300 manuscripts a week. If you blink they will be gone.
No. Get the first one on its way. You have no guarantee that you'll even finish the second.
If you find a taker for the first, they may be interested in seeing the finished second one - ergo, you have to have finished it. A two-book new author may be of more interest than a one-book one, so the second may be a selling point - but only if you can send it immediately they ask for it.
Hi, Nicola!
The general consensus is no. You say that you've already finished one ms. REALLY finished? Final draught finished?
K
My advice is to send out 3 chapters of your 1st, mentioning that you're already 4 chapters into your 2nd. That way, you let them know that you're not a "one-trick pony".
Agents would like to know that they're not investing a lot of time and energy in a writer who won't follow through with more books.
But if you send 4 chapters of a book and they ask for more NOW!!!, you can't reply "hold on for 9 months..."
BTW, if you write for children, check out La Gr@not@. (See my post further down the Q&As page.
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