Source

"When do I know when it's time to start sending my manuscript off for publication? How do I know when it's really finished?"

I've met first-timers who have been working on their manuscript (ms. for short) for upwards of six or seven years. And I have to admit, hearing the amount of time they've taken makes me cringe.

This is not to say that novels should be finished quickly, or that there aren't some novels that require that level of dedication and time.

But chances are, if this is your first novel, one of two things has happened:

Either #1: This novel has become your life's great achievement, and therefore you are convinced it has to be absolutely perfect.

Novels, even when published, aren't perfect. And even then, there are teams of people who work on them to get them into the best possible condition.

You don't have to do everything by yourself. But no one can help you shape your ms. into something amazing if they never get to see it.

Or it could be #2: You have a totally understandable fear or rejection.

i.e. You know you've written something really good, just as long as no one else tells you it's horrid.

I'm not going to lie. I've read books that have taken people decades and some of them are really bad. But I wonder if some of this isn't the result of too much attention. Just like a child who gets far too much attention and coddling becomes spoiled, a novel becomes self-indulgent and over-written.

It can be a good thing to let it go when it's still slightly rough around the edges. Because you haven't slaved over every sentence for years, there's a certain freshness and urgency to the writing that excessive pruning will diminsh.

In the end, it comes down to a judgement call. It's your book, your time. What are you willing to put up with? Rejection is part of the business, but it still hurts. Even the most seasoned veteran dislikes rejection. But it's part of the process. It's also possible that you've decided you don't want to publish, that you merely write for personal edification.

If that's the case, good for you. Just make sure that you haven't convinced yourself of that over time to avoid ever having to face the word "No."

Receiving rejection does not mean your work is bad. It simply means the people you sent it to don't have space in their schedule for your genre or content and that they don't feel like it will make them money. There might be someone out there who really likes it, or who wants to work with you.

But either way, you'll never know unless you force yoruself to declare your ms. finished and allow the rest of the world to see what you've spent your valuable time working on.