Congratulations to all those who successfully completed NaNoWriMo!
For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, takes place each November (originally begun in July 1999) inviting aspiring novelists to write 50,000 words in one month.
NaNoWrimo is a great way to get in the practice of writing every day. Even better, plenty of manuscripts that got their start during NaNoWriMo have gone on to become successfully published novels (see: https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/7-nanowrimos-successful-books-article-1.2428103).
I can pretty confidently say that none of the books completed during NaNoWriMo went straight to successful publication without editing. A lot of folks who complete their novel in November, or even just get the first 50,000 words out of their heads and onto paper, often are left wonderfully exhausted. They’ve just completed a marathon at sprinting speed! It’s not a bad idea to take a step away, recover and refresh your brain, before diving back into the inevitable, now what?
Now what, indeed. If you’re dreaming of publication, you’ll want to scrub your baby and get it all clean and sparkly. What do you want to invest in getting it into “shoppable” state? Maybe you just want a set of fresh eyes to give you a consultation on the overall concept. Maybe you’re confident in the concept, and you want to go straight for a full-fledged developmental edit. You will want a partner, someone who is as excited about your novel as you are, someone who is ready and willing to live in your story’s world with you and work tirelessly to get everything just right. You need a Goldilocks.
Maybe you’ve used NaNoWriMo to do your own heavy editing, and now you just want to get the book OUT THERE. You’ll want a query letter that can reflect how amazing the story you’ve written is and how you were the perfect person to write it.
You’ve got your query letter and sales pitch, you’ve got your beautiful manuscript, now get out there and sell your goods!