How many manuscripts should you have in your "inventory"?
This question came up on one of my writing loops, so I'm shamelessly stealing it for this blog post. How many completed manuscripts should you have under your belt before you query? 2? 5? 20? How polished should those manuscripts be? And what about series ideas and sequels and prequels? Camy here: The more I talk to agents and editors, the more I realize that they want to hear lots of IDEAS. Polish of the manuscript can come later, but if they don't like your first pitched idea, it doesn't matter that the book finaled in contests and is polished to a high pitch. You better have another idea to pitch to them if they say no to the first pitched idea. This is what happened with my Sushi series. The pub board hated the first book idea (an old version of Trish's story), but they wanted to see the second book idea/manuscript (Lex's story in Sushi for One ). I have several writer friends who have between 5 and 10 finished manuscripts. Don't freak out, many of them have