Writer’s Digest is a great source for all things writing. They even have one area that shows you New Literary Agents open for submissions.
This article is something you may want to take a look at.
How to Be a Writer That Literary Agents Want
Literary Agents
Writing Tips: Getting the First 50 Pages Right
Getting the First 50 Pages Right
by: Ronovan
“Include the first 50 pages of your manuscript with your query.”
Does that sound familiar? If you’ve queried your book to an agent or publisher then your answer should be yes. It might be even worse than 50 pages. How about that cringing first 10 pages only one?
You don’t have long to hook an agent or publisher and to be absolutely truthful this is if you get past the query letter. Sometimes if your letter doesn’t speak to them they won’t even bother. But I’ve read of several agents who read regardless because it’s not the letter that they are going to sell to a publisher or the public.
What do you need in those first pages to make the person you have queried say send me more?
You need three things, regardless of genre:
- I want to know what is the important goal in this book that makes me want to read it
- I want to know what will happen if the protagonist doesn’t succeed, what’s on the line
- I need to know there a time limit to the situation
Goal
In a novel the goal might be an internal issue but is usually something outside beyond the control of the protagonist.
One of my novels has a goal of saving someone from being murdered. He knows when it will happen, and he knows a handful of people that it could happen to. So what’s the problem, getting people to believe him. The difficult part of it is, since he knows all of the victims so far things are a bit tough on him to get people to listen.
What if?
Now you have the what if the protagonist doesn’t succeed aspect. For my novel it means someone will die. In this case it will be someone he knows. Here we have two what if’s; 1) someone dies, 2) the protagonist will be one step closer to jail because he knew the person and even told people the person might be murdered.
Time’s Up
If there is no sense of urgency then a reader may get bored. In the case of my novel, if a murder could just happen any time then a reader wouldn’t be looking for it. Each murder happens at a full moon or a new moon. This gives the reader and the protagonist time to sweat it out trying to find the killer before that reminder in the sky goes off.
Can you fit all of that in 50 pages, or even 10? Yes you can. You have to do the tough things though.
- Cut the scenes that don’t advance the story
- Don’t spend a lot of time on a character that won’t be relevant to the story
- Don’t give a lot of character analysis or overly describe a setting, let the story and dialogue SHOW the reader who the people are
These are tried and true tips. But they are also more difficult than you think. If it were easy everyone would get signed. Great stories, great novels are sitting in stacks of paper in desk drawers all over the world. This isn’t a new concept. People like to say that the modern age of ease of instant gratification has changed how readers pick books to read, but the truth is that if a person is looking at a book to read they are knowingly planning on investing time to it.
Goal-What If-Time’s Up
© Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com-June 12, 2014.
The Reason Agents and Editors love Email
The reason Literary Agents and Editors love email submissions.
By D. Beleiu
Flash Fiction: A Writer’s Friend
If you’ve never written Flash Fiction then you are missing a great opportunity to learn what Literary Agents and Editors are looking for, ‘Show Don’t Tell’.
As writers we make a major mistake when we first begin writing, we look at word count and page numbers. I advise you to either turn off the word count on your program, or put something over it so you can’t see it. Also don’t format for page numbers to show. Just write.
Let the story tell the story. Your first draft is just that, a first draft, a blueprint to build upon.
Sure, the industry looks at word count often but it’s the story that sells. Writing Flash Fiction does something great for your skills. Write a scene as you normally would, then strip it down to under 600 words or 300 words. If you can do this and still convey everything the reader needs to know and feel, then you have accomplished your mission and saved your Agent/Editor and yourself a lot of work later on.
We think more is better but in reality, it’s what you say and not how much you say that matters. Choose your words wisely. Close your eyes and just begin to type what you see of the scene and then come back and work it.
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