Precisely, m'dear. I'd love to know exactly which publishers these are who're getting mountains of shite in their slush pile every December. Has she actually talked to them, or is it just this one friend of hers telling her this?

I know a lot of my region spend ages planning; hell, we have people start planning in December for the next year! And they know better than to go OMG THIS IS AWESUM and send it off to a publisher unpolished, although this could be because I've worked in publishing and tell 'em not to.

I have always told people, it's not about having a perfect product at the end, it's about having words on the page that you can then edit, rather than forever saying you'll do it one day and always having a blank page.