Hello, L-Bardugooo! How do you know when your MS is DONE, and ready to query? I've done about 574389 rounds of revision spanning like 5 years, and have sent it to different people after each round of critique/revision, but these readers still mark the WHOL

Oh man. This is a hard one. Look, as an author, you’re always going to be walking a line between humility and delusions of grandeur. It’s how we roll. We need to be able to hear critique with an open mind, but we also need to trust our own voices and give primacy to them when necessary. 

It’s possible that you keep looking for input on this project because you still feel it isn’t where it needs to be. But it’s also possible you’re psyching yourself out. Have you read it out loud? How do you feel about it when you do? If you like where you’re at, how about sending it to just a few agents and seeing if you get any interest? 

In the future (if you’re doing this already, feel free to disregard), give some guidance to your critique partners or beta readers so that you can get the most from them and hopefully avoid getting derailed. Examples: 

“I’m looking for feedback on logic issues. Does the magic system make sense? Are there sections where you’re confused?” 

“I want to make sure the emotional beats work. Did the romance feel earned? Did any of the dialogue fall flat?” 

“I need a close line read. Don’t worry about copy edits, but please call out prose that is or isn’t working for you.” 

I hope that helps! (And hi Chloe! Always nice to hear from you :)