What percentage of a book should be unpublished at time of submission?
"Is it prudent to hold off on submitting a certain portion of a larger work...?"
Welcome to our weekend conversation!
A question came from a reader. P. writes:
Maybe you can help settle a dispute in my memoir critique group. We're having a debate about published chapters from a novel or memoir. I claim that looks good in an agent query letter--to say that four chapters from my memoir have been published in literary journals. But at least one member adamantly claims that turns prospective agents off. I've heard that might be true of short story collections, where short stories have been published in various places, but not novels.
What's your take?
Great question!