The novel is finished...but

The year you spent writing and rewriting, editing and proofing your novel gave you a sense of satisfaction and a major accomplishment. That's how I fell too. The work was daunting, but all the effort was worth it, right?

In my case, I hired an editor to catch all the grammar errors that slipped through the thousandth time I read it. Agents and editors want a polished piece. You don't want to be rejected because of typos and grammatical problems.

So your finally ready to start shopping your novel around. You need to write a query letter tailored to each person you intend on contacting. Also a hook or logline, a brief synopsis, an expanded synopsis, and a chapter outline.

Your manuscript should be formatted for submission too. Agents may ask for ten pages, three chapters, fifty pages or the whole thing. Point is: Be ready.

All of these things become the materials you'll need as you move the process along, including stuffing those rejection notices in a filing cabinet. The web has a ton of material for each one of these "essentials" in the quest for agent representation. I spent many weeks writing the basic query letter and the basic synopsis.

These are the first impressions, and maybe the only impression you'll get to make. If your novel is good, put the hours into the marketing. It takes more than luck. It takes a professional approach and the understanding that it's all about business.