I’ve written a whole manuscript but haven’t looked for a publisher because I’m not sure it is good enough. What should I do?

Many authors invest months, if not years, laboring over their manuscripts, yet they still lack the confidence that they have done a complete job. Fiction authors can have doubts that their characters are sufficiently developed or their plot is engaging and realistic. For authors of nonfiction, doubts may linger over whether they’ve conveyed the facts in a clear and compelling manner. When it comes to self-doubt, there are no limits.

But sooner or later every author has to say to himself, “Enough is enough. I wrote this manuscript to be published, and I am ready to take the plunge!” To these authors, I say, “Mazel tov! You’re making a great decision!”

But, for the benefit of all the authors still grappling with anxiety about their books, let’s give some answers to the big question: When is a manuscript really complete?

Be Honest with Yourself

The first thing to do is to ask yourself whether you believe you wrote the story the way it should be written. For the moment, forget about what the critics will say. What do you believe?

If you can pinpoint something specific that is lacking in the manuscript, by all means fix it right away. But if you can’t pinpoint anything, the odds are that you are just having a normal bout of cold feet. The best remedy for that is to imagine the satisfaction you will have when your prized book is published. So, try to forget the nerves and move on.

Get Feedback

Another good strategy is to send your manuscript to an alpha reader.

An alpha reader is your book’s first reader, and their job is to give you unbiased feedback from the type of person you expect to enjoy your book. This reader should not be an editor or publishing professional, since you’re not looking for technical, pointed criticism at this stage, but real-world feedback. Your alpha reader should also not be a close friend or a family member, either, since you need to be able to trust that you’re getting a straight, honest response to your work, not a pat on the back. Ideally, your alpha reader should be a book aficionado and an avid reader of the genre of the book you’ve written.

But where do you find an alpha reader? I recommend you ask your friends to find a friend who fits the bill. Otherwise, you can seek out someone within your community, whether that is someone local or a member of a social-media group. Online book groups are a great place to find alpha readers, too.

Give the alpha reader some specific ideas about the kind of feedback you’d like, and listen attentively to their advice. If the alpha reader points out some improvements your manuscript needs, then you have received good news – you now know the key to your success. And if the alpha reader says it’s good to go, then you can confidently move on to the next stage in the publishing process.

The Page Count Counts

Another area to consider is the length of the manuscript. Do you have enough material for a full-length book? DIY self-published books are notorious for being below the accepted norm for page length, and readers can feel cheated when they receive a book with so few pages for so many dollars. At the same time, books that are too long can seem difficult to read, and they might intimidate readers.

How do you know what page length is appropriate for your title? Walk over to your bookshelf or go to an online bookseller like Amazon or Feldheim and select a few titles within the category of your book (each category has its own norm for length). Now check the page count of these books. Next, approximate how many words there are on each page of the book (you can see a preview of a selected number of pages online). Multiply the page count by the number of words on a page, deduct 5% for short pages, and you have the approximate word count appropriate for your manuscript.

Now open your manuscript in Microsoft Word and check how many words are in it. A basic word count shows up at the bottom left of the screen, but a more thorough report can be found in the Review tab, in the Proofing section. Click on Word Count, and you will receive a detailed report.

If your word count is similar to the standard you came up with before, your manuscript gets the green light. But if the word count is significantly more or less than it should be, there are two simple ways to remedy your problem: Adjusting the trim size or changing the layout of your printed book.

Choosing a Trim Size

The dimensions of a book are called the trim size because, after the pages are printed and folded, the edges are trimmed to the desired size. There is often a common size for each category of book, and if you want to fit in, you will naturally select that size. For example, Jewish hardcover books are mostly 6×9”, with a variance of one inch up or down. But illustrated books come in a variety of sizes, usually larger, and often wider than they are tall. (Here is a link to a nice article on the subject of choosing the right trim size.) If you choose a nonstandard trim size, your book can stand out – which could be good or bad.

Because you can fit more words on a larger page and fewer words on a smaller page, the trim size of your book relates to your final page count. Let’s say you have a lower than average word count, you could choose a smaller trim size, and voilà, your page count is within the norm. And if you have a high word count, you could choose a larger trim size, which will reduce your page count automatically.

But if you want to keep up with the Joneses (or Goldbergs) and print on the same trim size as everyone else, there is another solution.

Fiddling with the Layout

Another strategy to reach your target page count is to simply adjust the layout – the design of the different elements on a page. There are a number of ways to adjust it:

  1. Font size – by enlarging or reducing the font size, you will change the page count accordingly. It isn’t wise to use gigantic or tiny letters, though. A slight adjustment of a one or even half of a point can do the trick without anyone noticing.
  2. Font choice – some fonts are naturally thin, while others are wide and will take up more real estate on the page.
  3. Spacing – the page count is also a result of how much space there is between letters, words, and lines on a page.
  4. Margins – the wider the margins, the less text that appears on the page, and vice versa.

You should remember that, in the end, page count is only one element of the final appearance of your book. You should be careful not to overdo these adjustments, or else you will have too many or too few words per line. Some experts recommend between 50 and 60 characters per line, while others allow up to 75. A professional typesetter will modify these settings to ensure the text is pleasant to the eye and easy to read.

Final Thought

Sometimes there can be so much or so little material that even these solutions aren’t enough to get the page count to a comfortable size.

Manuscripts that are too short might need more work to fill out their ideas – a good editor can help you there. On the other hand, if your book is too long, you might not have a problem at all. The solution could be to make two books! After all, if one book is good, two books are great!

On that note, I am going to sign off and use the rest of my material on this topic to begin my next blog post.