We write that project and then we rewrite it again and again. When do we know it's really finished? Writers ask me that question a lot, and you know, I just don’t have an easy answer.

I could say that with experience, and as we master craft, we just “know” when the time is right to send our project out there. But that ain’t so. I have handed a literary project over to my agent too soon, and she told me so. We become blind to our work.

So, when is the right time to publish? Is it the obvious, when a publisher wants to publish the story or book? Even that may not be the right time. My own mentor Jack Hodgins gave me some good advice years ago: the number one mistake apprentice writers make is to publish too soon, so don't jump into publication.

Especially in the current (and changing) publishing climate, this is a piece of advice worth listening to. Young writers are quick to publish their work online, before they have the skills down or before the work is fully developed and polished. And then it’s out there.
 
Other writers jump into self-publishing before their project is ready. If you publish too soon, very often your project simply won’t find an audience. This may be a problem even if you go with a traditional publisher. There are publishers out there willing to publish a book before it's fully developed. But if a book doesn’t get attention and the sales figures reflect that, it will be that much harder for an author to get that next book out there. This is true for the established writer as much as the newbie.

So, take the time to learn your craft. Sign up for peer-critique workshops. If you can’t afford one at your local college or university, track down a writing group in your area. Or form a writing group of your own with writers you like and trust. Enlist the help of beta readers, or beta reading services like we offer. Work with a developmental editor. Make sure your work is the very best it can be.

But it’s also true that you need to get into the rhythm of submitting your work, to keep up momentum, to keep the faith. Your writing is never going to be “perfect.” At some point we must let go and try to find a home for the story. As you’re writing that novel (which can take years), make a point of having smaller projects on the go that you can send out to contests, online magazines or literary journals. Here's a guide to writing prizes and a list of Canadian journals open to submissions from CBC Books. Check out our clean sweep service designed to help you polish your shorter work before submitting it.

When I was writing my first literary novel, I pulled out sections around a given character or plot thread and created short stories from them. I sent these short stories to competitions while I worked on the novel. Doing that kept my spirits up, and you know, I started to win smaller regional contests and then placed in larger, national ones and then (cue angels singing) I won the CBC short story contest. That win launched my career as, at the party, I landed an agent. She went on to sell my first novel, The Cure for Death by Lightning, which became an international bestseller. Yeah, it was a Cinderella story, but it’s a Cinderella story that can happen for you too, but only if you get your work out there.