The First Ten Pages of Your Novel: What An Agent Or Publisher Really Wants
Everything your pages need to capture any reader
If you’ve written a novel and are in the trenches, querying agents (and maybe then publishers), there are two things that will send a ripple of fear down your spine. The fear is about getting it wrong. Because you only have two chances. Your query letter has to nail “what is my book about” and your first ten pages — what agents commonly ask for — has to entice the agent into asking for the full manuscript.
Therein lies your fear. There are so many ways to make a mess of either or both. I will leave query letters for another day and focus on your first ten pages. Writers say nobody can tell anything from ten pages, but we do it all the time, every time we pick up a book. We judge, just like agents do. But agents want more than just nice writing.
What must those pages have in order to engage the (agent) reader and make them want to scramble for their email reply function to demand the rest of your novel?
A lot of things. That’s why writers rewrite those pages dozens of times.
Firstly, a great opening sentence, and then another and another. It’s worth spending a few days on the opening sentence and paragraph. I’ve written previously about…
