THE FIRST FIVE PAGES

It’s a funny thing, the first five pages of a manuscript. They say—I’m referring to agents, editors, and publishers here—that the first five pages (or first few chapters, really) should have no back story; that it should be all about dialogue, action, placing the character, the protagonist, into a journey; the point of no return.

I agree that there should be limited back story, that it should use action and dialogue, and that the main character should start their journey. But the back story thing is funny. About a year ago I referenced an article in the 2013 Writers Digest which mentioned that you should stick back story…back. That you should wait as long as possible to use it. At first I agreed. But then I started reading more bestsellers.

It’s ironic, that article in WD, because Lee Child was on the cover. I recently started reading Child’s book, A Wanted Man (Jack Reacher series). Know when back story is used? Page one. Actually, paragraph one. Yup. And it doesn’t ease up. At all. Back story throughout. Then I noticed that the more books I read, the more this was the case. Take The Hunger Games for instance. Back story begins on roughly page five. Yeah. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, same deal, right off the bat.

There are so many books that do not follow these so-called ‘rules’ we hear so often from professionals in the field. The trick and the truth, it seems to me, is to say forget the goddamn rules and just write the best story you can. Sure, there are general guidelines to follow. For example, for a debut novelist, you should try your best to begin the story with a hook sentence. You should try to create some ‘showing’ scenes versus only prose describing and telling. You should place your protagonist on an epic journey that involves high stakes drama: Some kind of ‘death’ should be involved, whether it’s emotional, psychological, or literal. There should be the set-up of hurdles. At the end of the chapter, there should be a tantalizing cliff-hanger.

Those first five pages are what an agent will read and decide on. Ok, let’s be honest; their assistant will read the query first, then the first page, and, if you’re lucky, they’ll read the first five pages. So those pages, of course, have to be solid. Really solid. Make sure there are no copy edit mistakes. Make sure everything is spelled correctly; no logic issues. Make sure you describe the setting, the five Ws, etc. Make sure you’ve got those [high] stakes and that you’ve got the hurdles prepared and the journey ready. The first five pages establish the voice, tone, and the non-verbal contract between the reader and the author: This is how the journey is going to be. Is the reader willing, after page five, to invest hours and hours and days in reading this book? That’s the biggest question to ask yourself. Try reading the first five yourself with that question in mind. Have others your trust read them and get feedback and criticism. Take the first five to a critique writing workshop.

In general, yes, I would say if you’re a newer writer trying to snag literary agent representation and you want to be salable as an author, try to steer clear of back story in the first five pages IF YOU CAN. If it’s imperative to your story, then I say go for it; use it if it works. Remember, what an agent or an editor or a publisher may say about what they accept or not isn’t as important, truthfully, as what’s selling on the market right now. Check out Publishers Marketplace. What’s selling? Truth speaks for itself. Sometimes professionals in the field don’t truly know what they’ll take or what will sell until they read it and take a risk. Risk is a big part of this industry, especially on the agent/publisher side.

So, if you’re a new author and you’re thinking of submitting your book to an agent, my advice is: Write the best book you can, hire a freelance editor, go back in again, and then workshop the book and rewrite, edit and tighten those first five pages as much as you can. And wait until you’ve gone through at least four or five drafts of a book before you submit to an agent; preferably more than that even. We’re talking tight prose. Yes, more and more agents are taking on an “editorial role” in their positions nowadays, but that doesn’t mean the book doesn’t still have to be 95% there. Make it solid; as solid as you can using yourself, critique groups, and a freelance editor. And read blogs about writing and the current industry/market. Blogs like that of Michael Larsen of Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency. Do your research, write the best book you can, polish and edit, rewrite, redraft, and send that puppy out there only when it’s ready.

Then pray to God, sit back, and have faith.

Michael Mohr

Twitter: Michael_Editor

Member: Bay Area Editors’ Forum

Fiction: http://alfiedog.com/fiction/stories/michael-mohr/

***I am a freelance book editor. Mainly I do developmental editing on fiction and memoir books. For fiction, I will look at almost anything other than children’s, middle grade, or picture books. For memoir anything goes. Please send me a query and the first chapter to michaelmohreditor@gmail.com. I will respond asap with my rates if I feel I’m a fit for your work. Formerly a literary agent’s assistant, I became a book editor after being told by so many professionals in the industry that I had a ‘sharp eye and keen wit’ when it came to editing others’ books. Give me a shout. I can do a 5-10 page [free] test edit; that way you can decide if you’d like to hire me or not without dropping a cent. Currently, I am booked solid until early November, 2015.

LANDING A LITERARY AGENT

Well, people, fellow writers around the blogosphere, and internet trolls, I am still trying to land that ever elusive literary agent, seeking representation for my suspense novel, The Grim Room.

I will tell you: This is a tough gig. It’s no longer about how talented you are. It’s about connections, perseverance, and dumb pure luck. I have been working on this novel for about three-and-a-half years. It has gone through drastic reformations. It has been completely rewritten twice all the way through, has gone through enumerable edits (by both myself, other published writer friends, and two professional editors, one female and one male) and has been read by many people.

Also, three—count ’em three—bestselling authors have read the first chapter and have praised the book, some referring me to agents they know and one allowing me to drop his name when submitting at will. I have met agents in person, one recently at the Book Passage Mystery Writers’ Conference in Corte Madera, California. And yet, still, I have not yet landed an agent. This novel is as tight as I can get it. My writing has improved ten-fold over the past five years, and as my craft has evolved, so has this novel. I have the social media to back me up, I’m a former literary agent’s assistant and freelance book editor, I attend regular writing conferences all around the country, and I know the underworkings of the industry. Still, agents elude me.

This is one of those tough truths in the book industry where you have to gain this unlikely confluence of luck, right time right place, and “the word” from insiders. I have had about seven or eight published authors (three of them bestsellers like I said) refer me to their respective agents, which is very nice and very validating seeing as all those authors read part of the book in order to decide to refer. My father—a very cerebral, left-brained man who rarely reads fiction and is very opinionated—read the novel and loved it. That in and of itself felt very validating, to have a man who is 70 years old and who doesn’t usually take shelter in fiction to swallow the book within 72 hours and comment that he enjoyed it very much. That feels good.

But still I remain with five full-length completed novels—I am working on edits for another novel now—dozens of short stories, some nonfiction essays, (15 of the short stories published) and a book editing career, and I still am not “in the zone.”

Is it because my writing isn’t good enough? Is it because my “platform” isn’t solid? Is it because I don’t have the basic novel-plot-arc underpinnings down pat? No. Clearly that is not the case. I think it’s simply that I haven’t bumped into the right agent for me yet. Who that agent is and when I’ll meet them I do not know. But I have to believe they’re out there. Otherwise I might just go insane. It’s hard when you’ve done all the work: gotten the writing degree, interned with an agent, started successfully editing others’ books, had 15 short stories published, written five full-length novels to date, not to mention worked on a current novel for three-and-a-half years and had seven or eight published authors refer it, three of which are bestsellers, and even met an agent who loved the first chapter but who still hasn’t gotten back to me.

It’s just hard. I guess I’m allowing myself to rant and whine in a public way because I often don’t allow myself to do that and I think, to an extent, it’s appropriate and healthy. And I know other writers can relate. When you get to that spot where you feel you’ve hit “the top” of your abilities, and you have the background industry knowledge, and you’ve received all the major kudos from published authors who’ve come before you, and you still haven’t received representation, it’s difficult not to start feeling resentful about the whole process. (And by the way, when I say the “top” of my abilities, I don’t mean to suggest that I have learned all I can learn about the craft of writing. Of course I haven’t; I have a ton to learn still. I just mean that I am at a spot where I feel I’m ready for the next step, i.e. an agent.)

It’s no one’s fault; I know that. Agents—as I know well since I interned with one in 2013—are extremely selective and busy. It is a subjective industry, that is for sure, and often agents work against writers in the sense that their main goal, day to day, is to reject. Why? Because they have hundreds if not thousands of emails jettisoned at them every week. They have to be selective and they have to cut down on that ever-increasing number. Obviously all good agents want to land new writers: it’s their mainstay. If they don’t get new writers they won’t grow. But the competition is stiff, which is not the agent’s fault and in fact is no one’s fault but is simply the reality in 2015.

Ever since the 1960s proliferation of MFA writing programs and writing in general, the popularity has forced propulsion of the craft and made it so that anyone with a computer can think they’re a “writer.” Which leads to the huge amounts of email submissions agents receive throughout the year. So people like myself, and other serious, dedicated writers, have to “slush” through the decadent seas of unqualified, half-ass wannabe writers who simply inflate the literary landscape with their never-going-to-get-published pulp. That’s just the reality we have to deal with nowadays. Everything is digitized and made too easy for anyone who thinks they can write a decent story.

Anyway. I’m not bitter; I’m only ranting because this is very important to me. It’s my passion, and unfortunately I get blocked a lot of the time because an 18-year-old agent’s assistant rejects the manuscript because they’re in a hurry to move to the next manuscript to reject because of supply and demand. It’s The Biz. And I keep submitting and editing and writing because, ultimately, I love doing this thing, and that’s really the only reason to write in the first place and to keep writing: because you love it and you couldn’t stop doing it if you wanted to.

Good luck to all of you out there like me, seeking the seemingly impossible. We’ll get there.

Over and out. Write on.

“You said it. Let’s edit.”

Michael Mohr

***If you need book editing I specialize in developmental editing which focuses on plot, structure, pace, dialogue, character arc, story arc, logic-issues, etc. A former literary agent’s assistant, I have worked with bestselling authors and other published ilk. Check out my client Christian Picciolini’s memoir, “Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead” at Amazon.com. He is blowing up all over the national media, a la CNN, NBC, CBS, etc. I look at adult fiction and memoir. Have a project? Email me at: michaelmohreditor@gmail.com. Currently, I am booked solid until early November, 2015.

GETTING YOUR BOOK TO AN AGENT

Many writers out there wonder how, in the hell, can they get their book into the worthy and capable hands of a literary agent. Well, it’s a process.

For one thing, I’ll be blunt: If you have a connection of any kind, use it. If you can nail down a referral, that will help big time. But assuming that’s not an option, and you have to go in ‘cold,’ here’s how you do it.

First off, start by writing the book all the way through. You’d be amazed how many agents tell me that writers submit partially completed manuscripts to them (or queries that pitch partially completed books). Unless it’s nonfiction—and that’s a different deal—finish the book first.

And not only ‘finish’ it but have that puppy shining solid. I mean really, really polish that book. This means that you workshop it, get feedback, make changes, etc. It means that you show it to a lot of people both writers and professionals. It means that you hire a professional freelance book editor (like me) to edit the book with skill and patience, from an objective viewpoint.

It means you go over those first five pages again and again and again. Attend writers’ conferences, read agents’ and writers’ websites and blogs about what a good 2015 book (in your genre) does and is and has. Research, research, research!!! And when you’re done with all that, research some more.

Ok, now you’ve got a tight, polished book. You’ve done your research and you know your genre’s preferred word count (the target for fiction in general, minus sci-fi, is about 70-90,000 words), the stakes are high, you’ve got solidly created characters and a strong world built. You’ve hired that editor and have made the suggested changes you agree with. You have read websites and blogs and conferred or consulted with at least one professional with or without a fee about the book industry and specifically your book.

Now is the ‘fun’ part. I am being partially sarcastic, partially serious. Time to look for an agent. This requires more research. Pick maybe ten agents to start out with, maybe even only five. Your call. Do NOT do the amateur move where you pick out 50 agents at huge firms and send a generic query. They will laugh and reject without even taking a sip of coffee to think about it. They live to reject this stuff. They also live to find the next J.K.K. Rowling. Trust me. Make is easy for them; make them HAVE TO look at your idea.

Pick your 5 or 10. Now research. Go to their websites. Don’t know where to start? Google, my friends, Google. We live in 2015; there are no excuses anymore. Fifteen years ago, sure, it was a little more limited. But not anymore. Ok, go to Google, type in Young Adult Romance literary agents, or whatever genre you have written. Then go through the list. Star these places on your computer. Make a list on a word.doc file of each agent.

Now, when you look at their sites, make sure they represent YOUR genre (of the book you wrote) and that they seem to like your type of book. Let’s say you wrote a very dark, edgy YA book (Young Adult). Find the agent who represents ‘dark, edgy YA.’ Usually it will say this in the bio in one form or another. Also, go a step further. And I know this is irritating; it takes time. Go to their client list and Google some of their titles sold. Note where they sold the titles to. This will help you decide if you want to saddle up with said agent. What are your writer’s goals? Small house, medium, large? You can find all of that out online.

Now, when you find a couple of client titles, look hard for any key words of the plot/summary of the book in the online description or the review of the book. If you find any similarities to your book, blammo! You’ve now got a query first sentence hook! Use that to compare to your book in the first sentence of your query. It will show the agent that you gave a crap and that you did your homework and that you are genuinely invested in that SPECIFIC agent. This will win you points; you will be that much closer to actually having your work looked at by an agent. There is still no guarantee, the work must speak for itself, but you at least have a higher chance.

Aside from that, make sure you write a killer query letter. Research how to do that online. For query writing and agent spotting, check out Chuck Sambuchino’s websites. He’s great. Make sure your query follows guidelines and is three succinct paragraphs: a short ‘graph about the genre, word-count, audience, and setting/hook sentence; a middle ‘graph about the book (mini synopsis); and a third and final ‘graph about the author (you), any credentials or publications you might have, why you’re the best person to write the book, etc. We’re talking 250-300 words tops. The closer to 250 you can get, the better. Just hook the agent’s attention, that’s really your sole goal. And also have a one- and two-page synopsis. That’s for another post.

Write on.

“You said it. Let’s edit.”

Michael Mohr

Twitter: Michael_Editor

Freelance Book Editor (send me a query and first ten pages to michaelmohreditor@gmail.com)