The present project is approaching its final moments. Next week, once I’ve done some final revisions in Venice, it will go off to my agent. There will be revisions, of course. Maybe a few. Maybe a lot. It’s always possible this has all been a red herring too, a waste of time, a book that simply won’t work.

By this stage my head is so far inside the thing I wouldn’t see that even if it were true. Not that I feel it is. In fact this feels one of the best things I’ve ever done. But we’ll see.

The question I want to address here is a simple one: how do you know when a work in progress has reached the stage to send off for consideration? What are the signs?

<!--more-->First things first. Books are never done really. As I’ve said before I’d rewrite any of mine, and with the reissue of <em>Death in Seville</em> later this year I will have done just this. Books are never complete. We simply say, ‘That’s as far as I can go with this one. Take it please. I want to write something else now.’

That doesn’t mean they should <em>feel</em> incomplete to the reader. The very opposite. They should read like a rounded piece of work, one that poses a question, takes them through the hunt and chase, then offers some kind of resolution. But in terms of the writing ‘finished’ isn’t a work I much like.

When it comes to sending stuff off to publishers though you need some benchmarks. Here are some of mine.
<ul>
	<li>I will never send off half-complete for consideration, asking, ‘Does this work?’ That sounds unprofessional and unfair on the recipients. It’s my job to know that. Agents and editors are great sounding boards. They’re not there as proxy psychologists. Nor are they clairvoyant. The only answer to that question with regard to a half-finished book is either no or maybe, maybe because the unfinished part could fail too. What’s the point?</li>
	<li>I never work the versions trick. You know the one? Send off something one week. Then send an ‘improved’ version the next. This wastes people time and makes you look like an amateur.</li>
	<li>I always let things settle before despatching them. There’s no rush here, for me anyway. Setting something to one side for a couple of weeks will let it mature.</li>
	<li>I always read it in several different formats before the final, final revise. On screen, in Scrivener first then, with this book Pages, and now – as I’ll describe later – in the Word 2010 beta on a PC. It’s also been printed out twice as an A4 manuscript and once in B5 format, double sided, two pages to one sheet, like a paperback book.</li>
</ul>
When that’s all done and I’ve been through the thing with a fine toothcomb I know I’m approaching the moment of delivery. But here’s the final benchmark: the book goes off when I know I can do no more to it without some outside feedback.

I recognise that point now. <i>It's when I understand that any further work on the project is futile until a third party has seen it.&nbsp;</i>

<i></i>We’ll be there next week. Cue sigh of relief…