My advice for what it's worth

[Coragem]

Big caveat: we're all different, and no two situations are the same. Nonetheless, my general advice to anyone finishing a novel is DO NOT submit to agents or publishers or self-publish for now. Wait. You have likely been so patient already, I know. You may have spent YEARS on this project, and now that you're crossing a kind of finishing line, you're both elated and eager to find an agent or whatever form of publication. You may well feel sure that the novel and possibly your query letter are as good as you can make them.

But wait.

Your novel and query letter are likely as good as you can make them FOR NOW. But it's almost certain that you will be absolutely amazed at how much better they will be later if you wait. And by "wait", I mean perhaps many months, even years.

After taking a good break, getting real distance, taking time to study and learn from some great books, you will almost certainly be able to make some big improvements to your novel.

If you read writing and publishing articles, listen to podcasts, you will, over time, pick up little gems that help you gradually tweak your query letter here and there.
If you keep requesting reader feedback on both the novel and query letter, you will eventually (and it may take a long, long time) find the people or the person who finally, at long last, really gets it, or just says something that gives you the eureka moment that lets you make your stuff shine.

Or maybe you need the time to learn about the industry. Learn more about how to present something that agents and publishers will be able to sell. Or teach yourself about marketing, which will almost certainly be vital for self-pub and likely pretty essential even for trad pub.

There probably will come a time when enough is enough. When it's time to throw some caution to the wind and just get your work out there, learn from the experience, the reaction. But my advice is definitely to err towards patience.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

My advice… sorry, @Coragem - too many writers wait too long. For the perfect book, the perfect opportunity, the agent, the publisher.

No one reads anything that isn’t actually released.

Make it as good as you can. Take your time doing that, allow maturing time, get a decent edit. And then…. whatever your dream is. Out to agents or publish and be damned.

Life is short. Live it. Release the book. Enjoy the hell out of every minute x

 

[Coragem]

Make it as good as you can. Take your time doing that, allow maturing time, get a decent edit.

The above is basically all I'm saying.

And back to my caveat above, we're all different. Maybe there are writers who produce a novel in a few short months, and the best thing really is to get it the hell out there, give that roulette wheel a spin and then on to the next. I get it.

But what if we've spent years pouring our heart and soul into a novel? Who wants to do that only to have their dream lost at the very last hurdle because the opening chapters or the query letter weren't "quite" right? Or because they didn't take time to weigh up pros and cons of trad vs self-pub? Or because they self-pubbed without full knowledge of freelance editing, cover design, and marketing?

My best today isn't that great. But if I take my time, if I'm patient, if I add in my best tomorrow, and next week, and next month, it all adds up into something rather special.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

But what if your first opening line is the best? What if you lose that corpuscle of magic by overworking it? What if you just need to get that book out to free yourself to work at the next.

We’re all different but there’s a real danger in waiting for perfection

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

My first finished book took about seven years to write, much thought, research, and revision. And when I was finally satisfied that it was the best I could do, I certainly wasn't going to put it aside and wait. I started submitting it right away (if you can call seven years after I began it "right away"). Reading it now, I certainly do see things that I would have done differently if I was writing it now, but I agree with Jo that one can lose the magic of a book by overworking it.

And sometimes getting published is a matter of timing. For me and that book, I happened to be lucky enough to submit it at the exact right moment (from things I have since learned about what was going on in SFF publishing at that time). The second editor I sent it to liked the synopsis, requested the manuscript, and bought the book. It earned me modest royalties for many years, and according to my fan mail touched the hearts of many readers. So though it wasn't perfect it had something, and I choose to think that something reflected the fact that I had poured my heart into it, and even after seven years I still felt what I had felt while writing it. Working on it more, I think I would have lost that. Part of learning to write is knowing when to stop.

So I guess I agree with you and Jo both, or fall somewhere in the middle.

 

[Steve Harrison]

I have never seen the point of waiting once a book is finished (or putting it aside before editing, for that matter), mainly because I can't concentrate on a new one until the novel is out to agents or publishers.

That's not to say waiting is a bad thing if that's what you want to do, but for me it seems like a waste of time not to get the book moving as fast as possible after completion.

 

[Coragem]

All I can tell you is that for me, my query letter and novel opening are always radically better if work hard on them, then I let them be for a while (possibly a long while), and then return with fresh eyes. Or possibly periodically return and tweak bits. For me this is actually to AVOID overworking the text and the query. Avoid digging myself into a pit where I'm so deep into my frenzied editing and query writing that I'm not seeing clearly. Give myself space to relax, reflect, look around me, ponder feedback.

I've learned the hard way that if I go all in and try to get it right first time, then go straight to querying, I'm just wasting the queries, spoiling my chances … and after all the blood and sweat and hoping and dreaming that went into the novel.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

try to get it right first time, then go straight to querying,

But that's not what either Jo or I have suggested.

 

[Coragem]

But that's not what either Jo or I have suggested.

Absolutely. Very much noted. I think we're all saying something pretty similar really. I can only speak from my own experience, and my so-called advice is entirely well meant.

As I say repeatedly, we're all different. Situations are different. If I were a faster writer, I think I might well wonder whether I could maximise my odds with agents or self-pub by trying to query or publish faster, more frequently: keep spinning that roulette wheel until this or that novel/concept flies (maybe). But I'm not a fast writer. So I'm not going to spend what might years on a novel, only to query or self-pub when, sure, at the time I might "think" I'm ready, but experience has told me that later I WILL realise that I wasn't ready, I needed the time to reflect first.

 

[Astro Pen]

I think we are dynamic, constantly evolving. The mindset in which you write a novel is a transient condition.
In, say, 5 years life will have changed your perspective, sometimes immeasurably. Style and balance will have changed, hopefully progressed.
But whatever, going back to an old manuscript is not a good idea. Because you will not be able to fully immerse yourself into it again. Like a past romance, it is done, finished. Move on and make each subsequent book better, fresh, exciting and new.

 

[Coragem]

I think we are dynamic, constantly evolving. The mindset in which you write a novel is a transient condition.
In, say, 5 years life will have changed your perspective, sometimes immeasurably. Style and balance will have changed, hopefully progressed.
But whatever, going back to an old manuscript is not a good idea. Because you will not be able to fully immerse yourself into it again. Like a past romance, it is done, finished. Move on and make each subsequent book better, fresh, exciting and new.

Above I'm certainly not suggesting that writers bang on and on with old novels. In general I totally agree with you: move on, grow, get onto the next thing, don't get stuck.

There are always exceptions, mind you. Don Winslow is currently having big success with his CITY ON FIRE, CITY OF DREAMS novels (with a third in the trilogy on its way next year). He wrote the first line of the first novel decades ago. Kept going back to the novels until, finally, he felt he had it right.

Or there's my current favourite SF/cyberpunk author, T.R. Napper. He wrote a novel called THE ESCHER MAN. The novel failed to sell, so he wrote another, a prequel: 36 STREETS. He didn't give up on THE ESCHER MAN. He revised it years after he first wrote/"finished" it, and it's coming out next year, published by Titan Books. I can't wait.

And note: immersion in a novel is important. But so is distance, perspective.