Revising an Old Manuscript

This week, I am going to submit another manuscript to Rate Your Story, I just don't know which one.

Rate Your Story is a free online critique service that allows writers to submit manuscripts (or parts of manuscripts) the 1st-7th of every month.  The judges are published writers who simply offer their opinion on the quality of your work and they tell you if they think it will appeal to agents.

The scores range from 1-10.  One being the best score, and they urge you to submit to agents/publishers, and a 10 meaning... well, not so good.  In the past I have received a "6", another "6", a "7" and once I even received a "?" because my picture book was about a specific body function (I'm not revealing the exact story here since agents still have my manuscript).  Then again, the judges always tell you that the business is subjective.  One agent may hate your manuscript and another may call you immediately because they want to represent it.

Also, RYS has rules.  For example, you can only submit one story at a time, and your MS cannot exceed 2,000 words.  Oh, and you can only send the same manuscript to them total of three times.  Typically, they allow writers to submit the first week of every month, and before the end of the month, you receive a critique.  Like many other things in life, you have to take what you are told with a grain of salt.  After all, it's the publisher who is the ultimate rejection, not necessarily an online judge or even an agent.

I have a manuscript I am crazy about, though, I believe it will be a hard sell.  So, I'm considering doing my 3rd round of revisions for RYS to see if I can get better feedback.  Then, I might move forward with submitting to agents to publishers.  You never know until you try.

This coming week will prove to be a busy one for me.  We have house projects in the works, and a four day weekend!  I'll try to keep you updated with my decisions.