FICTION FOCUS
Deep cleaning
First impressions count, particularly when you’re submitting to agents and publishers. Margaret Jamesoffers top tips on spring cleaning your manuscript for submission.
Margaret James
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. I can’t remember who coined that particular aphorism. But these days, in the hugely competitive worlds of commercial and independent publishing, it’s surely a truth that is universally acknowledged, and we all know who originally wrote that.
So now, open up a piece of writing that you honestly feel is the best you can make it, and should therefore be ready for submission to literary agents and/or publishers, or uploading as an independently-published story. Before you take any of those important steps, however, there’s something else you should do: spring clean the actual document until it shines.
As a reader and judge for several literary competitions, I always try to discount the physical appearance of an entry or submission. But I can assure anyone submitting to competition organisers, literary agents, publishers, or even to beta-readers who are personal friends, that a well-presented piece of work gets the reader on the author’s side from the start.