Here is another bit of advice from Jodie Renner. We always appreciate the fact that she is so willing to be our guest now and then and share some of her experience and expertise. You’ve spent months or years writing your novel. Then you’ve found a writer friend or freelance editor to help you polish it up and get it ready to send to agents and acquiring editors. Maybe you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on a copy edit, detailed line-edit, or even thousands on a developmental or substantive edit. After many revisions, the manuscript is finally ready to send out to literary agents and publishers. The standard first approach is to submit a query letter and a synopsis. You’re eager to get the book out fast and you think, “Anybody can write a query letter,” so you whip one off quickly and send it around, with a synopsis you threw together. You wait. And wait. All you get back are a few form rejections. You know you’ve got a great story, well told, and your editor and/or writer friends have...

QUESTION: I am a young adult author who self-published a debut autobiographical novel, Confessions of a Catholic Schoolgirl almost 2 years ago. In the spring of 2008, a well-known literary agent "discovered' me on my MySpace page with a possible book project. He told me what he was looking for and why he thought I was the best writer for the job, but unfortunately he did not like the book synopsis I sent him. However, he did give me the name of two editor friends who may be interested in my next book, The Gospel According to Gabby. I only have about 45 pages of this book written. My question is when should I contact these editors? Should I finish the novel first and then send the query/synopsis? Thanks! Michelle Kane http://www.michellekane.com/ www.myspace.com/readmichellekane Michelle, you are lucky to have this referral from a top agent and my advice to you is to follow up quickly with these editors while this is all fresh. Nothing is worse than contacting an editor six...