I don't want to generalise as there are self published books by (at the time) amateurs that are high quality, well characterised and edited. Likewise there are traditionally published books that feature prose so poor as to be mind numbing to read. What is certainly true is that a professional novel has had more eyes on it before it "hits the shelves". Agents, editors, publishers, test readers; each of them brings a point of contact that (in theory) acts as a quality check. It is more than possible those people could sand off engrossing, interesting edges in search of commercial viability and it's more than possible to ideate, produce and edit well without them. But at the very least the end result has been OK'd by each of those professionals.

@Lynn Walker well that is put far better here than I could manage! Thank you.

Hi there @Cressida Evans I firstly wanted to congratulate you on your pitch, it's a wonderful premise and no doubt foreshadows a great and heart-rending tale! Secondly, in your second paragraph there, when I'm reading it aloud I'm tempted to remove the 'the' in the second clause of the first sentence: Judy, a furiously independent old woman, battles loss of identity and control of her deteriorating memory. It's a tiny thing that made it feel a little more intentional to me. I don't feel it's wrong without that change btw so don't take this as a qualified fact.

I might even be tempted to reduce it further by removing "old".

@Jesse Weiner thank you so much! I'd never heard of ManuscriptWishlist. It's a huge help. I'm so glad I put this question out there, the responses from the community have been awesome.

@Tom Guy that's a rough experience, sorry to hear about that. I'm just dragging myself to the start line now. I have my query letter (and variations on it), my synopsis and bio etc and now a list of agents open to submissions in my genre areas. Next steps are making tweaked versions of the letter for each agent, double checking their submission criteria and pressing "go".

Thanks for asking this question @Danielle Crofts ! I'm at a similar point and am finding a lot of the advice either too vague or geared towards manuscripts unlike mine. Really interested to see the responses.

@Gabby Martini thanks for the kind offer, I'll reach out via message. Love to hear what you're working on too!

Thanks for sharing @Anna Pearl ! If I'm ever looking for another editor I'll keep you in mind. For my part, sadly I don't provide any services, I just produce my mad scribblings and then look to others for help. 😆