What is the difference between a writer who never finds an agent or sells their manuscript to a publisher and an author who becomes a best seller? The first fifteen pages. If you have been sending out queries and wonder why your manuscript hasn't grabbed the interest of an agent, the answer might be in the first fifteen pages you submitted. Why? Because quite simply, most submissions are missing one or more of the crucial elements of storytelling that capture and hold readers attention. The job, the explicit goal, of those critical first fifteen pages, is to hook agents, editors, and ultimately readers. Those first pages need to grab us if not by the collar, at least by the sleeve and say, "I've got you. Keep reading." If your first fifteen pages don't do that, your manuscript won't make it past an agent's slush pile, and your book will never land in the hands of a reader or brighten the screen of their Kindles. As a literary agent, I've read thousands of queries and thousands of beginning pages. I've learned what makes a submission sing, sending me back to the author's query to find an email so I can ask for more. And, I've learned what causes me, more often than not, to push Send on a "passed with love" email. I loathe having to send those "thanks but no thanks" responses to a writer's work. I don't know any agent who looks forward to the opportunity to gleefully kill the dreams of someone who has spent years toiling away on a book. Fifteen pages may seem an unfairly short or arbitrary number of pages to determine if the writing or the story is worth pursuing. But honestly, by reading the first fifteen pages of a manuscript, I know what I need to know, which is: - If the writing is fresh, beautifully wrought, moving, or exceptional. - What drove the story into being - the inciting incident.- Who the main characters are and what makes them interesting and distinct. - When and where the story is set - the time frame, place or historical period.- The genre - is the story a romance set in Tuscany, a WWII revisionist history, a coming of age LGBTQ, a YA dystopian set in the past, or commercial fiction about life after death?- If the point of view feels right for the story.- If the writer is the only person who has read the manuscript (a dead give away is a manuscript riddled with grammatical errors with big holes in the story.)And, most importantly, we know if it is a story we are passionate about or at least excited enough about after fifteen pages to ask for the full manuscript. If we aren't into your story by page fifteen, our attention wanders, and after that, it is very difficult to get the reader back. I can hear many of you groaning, "My story is special. I need more time to develop my characters to give a backstory to build tension to pile on all the things I learned in writing classes!" Actually, you don't. All you need to introduce the essential elements - the who, what, where, when and most importantly the why of your story - are the first fifteen pages. In this book, I back up my reasons for concentrating on the first fifteen pages by sharing examples from the bestselling novels in a variety of genres. You don't have to take my word for it. Read the first two chapters of this book and then pick up your favorite book in your favorite genre. Read the first fifteen pages. See for yourself what drew you to the book and why you kept reading.This book is for beginning writers AND for those who have a pile of thanks but no thanks rejections sitting in their inbox. It is for the novice writer with an inkling of a book idea AND for those who've heard crickets from all the queries they've sent out. It is for those who dream of being on a bestseller list or winning a major book award, AND for those who want to write the best book possible and see where it takes them
About the Author: Sandra O'Donnell is a founding partner of RO Literary. She's been actively involved in the writing community and publishing for over twenty years. Sandra studied writing at the graduate level at the University of Utah while working on her master's. While there, she taught writing in the University Writing Program and learned as much from teaching as she did from her classes. After Utah, Sandra went on to ghostwrite, edit and co-author a number of books for the academic market. She also earned her Ph.D. in History from Arizona State. In 1996, she and a partner formed Snowgoose Cove a boutique publishing company. As a publisher, Sandra learned what it takes to make a title successful by guiding authors through the editing, launch, and marketing of their books. Sandra is also a seasoned book coach, working with authors to take them from draft to polished manuscript. Before becoming an agent, many of the authors she's worked with went on to find excellent agents, editors, and publishers. However, many projects languished once they have left her charge. Frustrated authors asked her time and again why Sandra couldn't guide them through the next stage with the love and care she'd used shown during the development phase of their books. After much consideration and discussion with her partner Laura Rothschild, RO Literary was formed. Reading query after query over the past few years has given her keen insight into the stories that work and those that fall short. She began to see patterns and those patterns lead to the formation of the advice and strategy at the heart of her book, Your First Fifteen Pages. For more information on Your First Fifteen pages and ways to work with Sandra see her website at yourfirstfifteenpages.com