Agent Jennifer March Soloway (@marchsoloway) retweeted Tammi Sauer’s (@SauerTammi) tweet:
When it comes to pbs, if you don’t hook an agent, editor, or reader by word 50, chances are you won’t hook them at word 51. Make those first 50 words count.
Know-it-all George is going to add to this idea. No matter what kind of book you have, if you don’t hook an agent, editor, or reader by 500 words, you won’t catch them at 501. (I am pretty much a 50-word believer.) My reasons are found in the blog Opening Pages and that First Line. Many disagree with my theory, and there are exceptions.
Literary writing has never been known to be sparse with words. I will caution you on this premise, as well. If those first 500 words are not gorgeous, soul-touching prose that makes your heart yearn for more, you won’t catch them with this opening. Very few can do it.
Fantasy and science fiction may require world-building. Most agents and editors allow for world-building verbiage. This does not give the writer license to build the whole world from 15,000 years ago. That type of world-building is backstory, and backstory is a book killer. I think of Abigail Silver’s Child of Awareness, in which Silver tells a tale set in a complex world that took years to create in her mind. And yet, she begins Chapter One with a young girl being taken from her mother and put in an orphanage. By the time Gracie landed in the group home, I was hooked by this child. I learned about the “world” in which she lived in baby steps—when I needed to know.
Before folks start throwing rocks at me, I am not saying books have to start with a fight, battle, argument, or a person hanging to a root on a cliff. But, to hook an agent, editor, or reader, we need stakes. We have to be introduced to the main character and have a hint that they have a problem—a problem worth solving. The first words must introduce a character worth following to the next page. Readers must empathize with the character, and be compelled to wish for better times for the character. If stakes are not established in the opening, the book may be lost—never to be read.
“A character worth reading about with a problem worth solving.” That is about it for me. I recently searched for my next YA book to read. I tried authors I like, checked prices, and read openings. I didn’t find a book until my 3rd visit to Amazon. You may have noticed me checking the price. I am not poor by any means, but I am not going to speculate on a Kindle book of 250 pages costing $7.99 or $11.99. This means I am not reading many books published by the Big Five. Publishers have a high overhead, but I read many fun, intriguing, likable YA books for $3.99 and less. I only read high-priced books if they are all the rage. Unfortunately, many current books ticking all the boxes don’t hook me in the first 500 words. Perhaps “all the rage” doesn’t call to me.
Of course, you don’t have to take any of my advice. My book, Members of the Cast was out over 40 times, garnered a request for a full, and my opening didn’t hook an agent. Perhaps that’s why I revised the first pages so many times.
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