How an Agent or Publisher Evaluates a Manuscript

May 6, 2010 by Robert L. Bacon

I contacted Kay Elizabeth recently about several issues, one of which was my desire to provide an article with exclusive content for The Cuckleburr Times, and another was to make a formal offer to her readers via my editorial service, The Perfect Write®, of a free first-chapter (up to 5000 words) manuscript critique, along with a line edit of the first three pages (if applicable). Should this interest anyone, I’ll explain where to send your material at the end of this article.

I asked Kay for suggestions on a topic. She mentioned that–once authors submit material–the ensuing wait during the evaluation process can often be almost too much to bear, and writers might appreciate learning what agents and publishers consider when making a determination whether or not to accept a manuscript. I thought this was a great subject to write about, and I hope the information that follows will be of some benefit.

While there are Many Vagaries in the Publishing Industry, Certain Writing Elements are Scrutinized in Similar Ways

We all are aware of the standard disclaimer that accompanies any rejection. It states that this was the agent or publisher’s opinion and should be regarded as highly subjective. And while this is 100% true, there are certain areas that are not speculative, and these encompass the physical appearance of the text, proper grammar, prudent use of punctuation, fluency of the prose, and the perceived viability of the project from a marketing perspective. Here is an explanation of each element in the order I listed, but the chronology should not be construed as indicative of the level of importance of each.


Appearance

Yes, this counts. And in a big way. Every agent or publisher or editor I know demands double-spaced material. Most also prefer two spaces after a period (and colon). In addition to being easier on the eyes, double line-spacing enables room for annotations, while also providing the needed area to make revisions. On a peripheral subject, I prefer reading text on the printed page, and I also initially edit a manuscript by manually making changes to the hard copy. This means that I routinely print out the drafts that are E-mailed to me, and I can assure everyone that I’m not alone with respect to how I work.

Now a word about the double space after a period, which seems to confuse many people. The reason for this is the same as the double line-space, since it enables more white space to facilitate a revision should this involve punctuation or moving a clause from one location to another. What seems to make the double space at the end of a period hard for many to accept is because of the way finished material is printed. Final copy is not treated in the same manner as submission material. A book always has justified margins, for example, yet no one should ever submit a draft laid out this way, since added spaces after words indicate a typing error.

There are numerous other issues regarding manuscript submission appearance, and you can click this link if you’d like to read a detailed article I wrote on effective manuscript formatting. The final issue I want to cover in this subsection involves page numbering. It’s a must! Yet I cannot tell you how many drafts I receive that are unnumbered. If anyone should ignore everything I’ve written in this article about how a text should appear, or what I cover in the full article on manuscript formatting, please pay attention to the way to lay out a template in the top-left corner of a manuscript.


Grammar

Someone asked me recently how much material I need to read to determine if a person can write. Believe it or not, sometimes it only requires a sentence or two. I read this line recently: The arm was tortuously bent and in great pain. First, the writer meant to use the word torturously, since a meaning for tortuously is bent, and the tautology of bent “bent” is certainly not what the author had intended. Second, an arm itself cannot be in great pain. It’s the person who is in pain. But even if I’m nitpicking and an arm can in fact be torturously bent, this was followed by telling me again in the same short sentence that the arm was in great pain. A short while ago I had a writer thank me for expediently getting to his material. He meant expeditiously, as in quickly, or at least I hope he did, since expediently means to reach an end result by whatever means necessary.

In taking a look at a draft, every agent, publisher or editor knows that no matter how careful a writer might be, mistakes occur. So I’m not ragging on a typo, which everyone makes, and we all get so close to our work that even the most obvious rudimentary error can often elude us. Yet all of these issues become mute when it comes to the use of the wrong words, improperly modified antecedents, dangling or misplaced participles, sentence fragments, repetition, and choppy prose. And these are just some of the bugbears that can cause a manuscript to be rejected.


Punctuation

Readability should be job number one for any writer. And nothing can inhibit fluent prose more acutely than the overuse of various punctuation elements. For me, in fiction writing there are three basic troublemakers: the exclamation point, the parentheses, and the semi-colon.

Exclamation points should be used sparingly, very sparingly. Click this link for an article I wrote on exclamation points. And click this link for an article I wrote on why a parentheses should never be used in fiction. Semi-colons are a wonderful tool, but for mainstream fiction they too should be kept to a minimum. They tend to slow the pace, since the reader inherently has to consider the reason the semi-colon was inserted in the text. What I just wrote may make no sense, but read a sentence with a semi-colon and then ask yourself if it didn’t stop you to consider why it was utilized.

Simply stated, if an agent or publisher notices an abundance of exclamation points, semi-colons, or the use of a parentheses, this can signal a draft’s early grave.


Fluency of the Prose

I facilitate writer’s workshops sponsored by the local library system in the county in South Florida where I reside. And in my series overview I state that the purpose of my programs is to provide an understanding of what is required to write fluent prose at a level which would be appealing to a major royalty publisher.

The smoothness of a narrative is paramount if an agent or publisher is going to accept material. Should a draft read rough, it’s going to be put down, and the odds of it being resurrected are comparable with the numbers for getting hit by a meteorite.

The timeworn adage of reading material out loud is still the best way I know to determine the fluency of what we write. And to take this one step further, if a writer can get someone else to read a draft out loud the first time that person has seen the material, this is a fantastic way to get a true feeling for the fluency of the text. When the reader stumbles (and he or she will), make note of the problem areas–and revise them!


Viability of the Project

Here is perhaps the most difficult pill for any writer to swallow. A friend of mine who was published by a major imprint some years ago had a recent manuscript rejected because it was felt that it would be just another midlist work. Every publisher wants one thing: the next big book. For an author with an established readership that guarantees bankable numbers, this is not an issue, but for a previously unpublished writer, or someone like my friend who had been out of the mainstream for a while, this thinking presents serious problems.

Many other issues can affect a publisher’s decision, among them that one author’s plot might be too close to something recently published by the same house. Or the genre is not quite right. You can click this link for an article of mine that provides a detailed explanation on how important genre is to publishing decisions. In another critical area of contention, the publisher could feel that a book is just not a good platform, which means there might not be enough of a perceived market for a specific plot line. I can think of nothing more frustrating than writing a perfectly good story and having it rejected for any of the reasons I just cited, but these are factual examples of why some very fine manuscripts never make it into print.


There are Other Issues

This article is by no means inclusive of everything agents, publishers, and editors look at when evaluating a manuscript. All of the issues would result in a tome. And there are scores of books in print that discuss in much greater detail the various aspects of what I’ve truly just touched on. Two elements I didn’t cover in this piece were dialogue and dialogue punctuation. It would’ve made this article twice the size of what it is now.

But let me just mention that some publishers go right to the dialogue before reading the first line of exposition. If it’s good, they read on; if not, the draft is put down. And I get a lot of material with improperly punctuated dialogue. For a general overview of dialogue, a very good treatment can be found in the dialogue section of SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS, by Browne and King (I strongly suggest reading the “Easy Beats” subsection twice). And even though it’s a load in more ways than its sheer bulk, THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE is in my opinion the quintessential resource as a medium for illustrating how to punctuate dialogue.


Free Opening Chapter Critique and Three-Page Line Edit

As I stated in the opening, The Perfect Write® is expanding its service to authors by providing a free critique of a manuscript’s opening chapter (up to 5000 words) and, if applicable, a free line-edit of the first three pages. The material should be double spaced, with the pages numbered, and everything must be pasted to the body of an E-mail (no attachments will be opened) and sent to theperfectwrite@aol.com.

I’ll let each of you know about lead time when I see how much material I receive and where your material fits in the queue. I do all the work myself and I thankfully have a backlog of paying clients, so I ask that everyone be a little patient. I will get to you.

Also, if anyone would like to receive my free Newsletter from The Perfect Write® that focuses on writing prose at a publishable level, it is sent every-other-Tuesday, and you can subscribe by clicking this link, which will take you to the home page of my web site at theperfectwrite.com. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and fill out the simple two-step sign-up form. You will be sent an opt-in link, and when you click it, or paste it to your address bar and click enter, this completes the process.

Article by Robert L. Bacon.