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It can be hard to tell when a book is ready to be sent out into the world–especially if you’ve never published before–but developing the skill to identify when a book is ready can be critical to the publishing process, whether you’re trying to minimize agent rejections or you’re indie publishing and have to serve as your own gatekeeper. Ultimately, one develops this skill primarily as one writes and publishes more books and comes to better understand one’s own process; there is variation between authors, and you’ll ultimately come to understand when your own books are ready simply from gaining familiarity with the process–and through trial and error. But here are a few indications to look for, as you first begin building this skill, that can help you know when your book is ready for publication.

Editing in Circles

If your edits aren’t making your book better, just different, then you’ve probably reached the end of what can be done to improve your story. This is true whether the edits in question are your own, whether they’re based on beta-reader feedback, or whether they’re from a professional editor; in each case, when you reach the end of what is substantially improving your book, it’s probably time to move on to the next step.

This does not mean that you’re ready as soon as your individual edits start to go in circles! Outside feedback is critical to the process, as I’ll get into in later points. When your own edits start to circle, it’s a good time to ; after those start to circle, it’s a good idea to to give a more experienced opinion; then, circling edits become the biggest indication that your book is really ready to go.

Investment in Professional Edits

While this is not a strict necessity–and I completely understand having a budget that simply doesn’t allow for professional edits–it is a good idea to before you attempt to publish ().

This can indicate readiness in one of two ways (which will put you at two different stages along the process). If you’ve already invested in professional edits, then your book is probably close to ready to publish; see the point above. But if you’re ready to invest in professional edits, that can be a good time to move forward and hire an editor as the first step of the publishing process!

To some degree, this point depends on (authors seeking traditional publishing may be better able to skip this step, as a professional editor will be built into the process after acceptance; that’s not an out-of-pocket expense for trad authors) and your own definition of “ready to publish� (is that “ready to put on Amazon,� or “ready to begin the publishing process�?)

Regardless of the nuance, a professional editor will help get your book publication-ready!

Want to invest in professional line edits? Bookings are still open until next Friday for May projects!

A Settled Setting

This point is particularly relevant to speculative fiction authors. It will help you a lot in the long run to ensure that your story’s setting is completely settled and not likely to change much before you publish your book. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have the entire broader world set in stone! But –and/or the specific cultures –should be well-defined and relatively unchanging before you publish. Once you publish, it’s a lot harder to change things!

when I published Caithan in , during the writing process of . The titular character of Caithan is from a group of Virilens who have been relocated to a neighboring empire, so the culture ought to largely match that of Virilia proper, which is where Calligraphy Guild takes place. Unfortunately, I developed additional elements of Virilen culture while I was working on Calligraphy Guild, which resulted in certain details within Caithan mismatching from those in Calligraphy Guild. Because the characters of Caithan have been displaced from Virilia, it’s a reasonable excuse for cultural changes to have taken place� but if you finalize the setting as much as possible before you publish, there’s a lower chance of having to explain away disparities between this book and later books.

Accomplished Purpose

I would say that this is the biggest indication to look for when considering whether or not your book is ready to publish: Does your book accomplish what it was intended to?

Does it connect with readers the way you wanted it to? Do the intended themes come through the way you planned? Do readers like and dislike the characters you expected/wanted them to? ?

This is where beta-reader feedback can be very helpful. Beta-reader experience should be a key indicator of reader experience as a whole, and getting this feedback prior to publication allows you to make changes accordingly if that reader experience isn’t what you wanted.

If your story accomplishes even more than it was intended to, all the better! It’s also okay if your book ends up fulfilling a purpose different than what you expected, but that different purpose suits the story and remains in line with your overall goals as an author. You probably don’t want your book to give off a pro-Strong-Female-Character vibe by the end if you hate ; but if your book unexpectedly has a deeper spiritual meaning that goes hand-in-hand with the spiritual themes you included intentionally, or if your point was to focus on authority structures and a different facet than you expected of that same theme ends up being the focal point, you’re probably still checking off this box!

This was the biggest indication for me that Calligraphy Guild was ready–and it’s what makes me so proud of Calligraphy Guild to this day. It’s also what helped me for after a season of greatly disliking it.

If your book is and well enough to effectively fulfill its purpose with readers, if you’re getting resounding feedback that yes your purpose came through (ideally not in so many words), it’s probably ready to go out into the world for more people to read!

There are four points I recommend looking for when determining whether or not your book is ready to publish. Which of these points is the easiest for you to spot? Which is the hardest to come by? What do you use as the biggest indication that your book is ready to publish? Comment and share!

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