Seven Things an Agent Looks for in the First Few Pages
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How many times have you gone over and over your first ten pages, or maybe your first chapter?
Chances are, you’ve obsessively polished them again and again, hoping to make them perfect. They probably got more attention than the entire rest of the book put together.
Of course, the first chapter is crucial, whether you are looking for agent representation or not. Your potential readers may pick up the book, read the first few pages, and if it doesn’t grab them, put it back down.
One thing I want to say up front, is that your first chapter should be the last chapter you revise. It needs to do a lot of heavy lifting, and you won’t know exactly what you need to say until you’ve finalized the ending.
Simply put, the ending should answer the question(s) posed at the very beginning. As you draft, that will change. Only once you’ve nailed the ending can you go back and plant all the subtle clues that will lead a reader to that Aha! feeling at the end.
If you are seeking agent representation, it’s even more crucial to nail the opening. Agents can easily get a thousand manuscripts per month. They are slogging through their inbox, much like miners panning for gold. And they are reading queries as only a small part of their job. They are also doing all the work they need to do with the writers already on their list: supervising edits, submitting to agents, managing negotiations, etc.
If you’re lucky, you’ll get 30 seconds of their time. And that’s if the query has done its job of convincing them to actually read your first pages.
So, what do you need to do to make sure the agent asks for the full manuscript? In analyzing several recent posts by various agents, these stand out:
A Strong Opener: You need to let the reader into the character’s mind right away, with a unique voice and perspective, not simply action with no context.
Clarity: Whose head are we in? We need a name. We need to know that general time of day. Where is the character? It must be clear what’s happening, to whom, where, and when. Use sensory details to create a world the reader can get immersed in immediately.
Desire: What does the protagonist want? There should be some sort of clear goal in that moment. It doesn’t have to be the final story goal, but a goal allows the character to be active rather than passive. What is their motivation? Maybe they’re simply in a situation they’d rather not be in. For example, if one of the main story questions is “Will the main character find love?” then they might be at an extended family dinner where someone is asking where the ex is, and when are they going to get married anyway?
Conflict: What conflict is occurring? It can be internal or external. It should indicate some disruption to the status quo. There’s a reason you’re starting here: things are suddenly different in some way. You need to create some tension. At this stage, it shouldn’t be a “final showdown” type of Big Conflict, but something more subtle. You can do this by showing the character’s emotion through interiority - what they are thinking and feeling. In the above example, they might be biting back words, putting on a false smile, while secretly wondering themselves if there is something wrong with them that they can’t find love.
Strong authorial voice: This is the trickiest to understand. The reader knows it when they “hear” it. If it’s in first person, it needs to reflect that unique character. If it’s in third person, it needs to be authoritative enough that they trust this author to tell the story in a compelling way.
Questions: As mentioned above, the ending should answer any questions asked at the beginning. Here is where you plant the seeds that will pull the reader through the story. What is the main story question that will need to be resolved by the end? What will happen next? Is the reader drawn forward into wanting to find out more?
Style: Does the writing match the tone of the work (humorous, dark, etc.)? Your style is a combination of voice, sentence rhythm, and word choice. If it’s too bland, or too clunky, the reader will be turned off. Is it lyrical, with long, flowing sentences? Or short and punchy? Do you use unique words, or depend on cliches?
This may seem like a lot of heavy lifting for the first few pages of a novel. A good practice is to analyze the openings of several novels you’ve enjoyed recently. Compare them against the precepts above. How does the author make sure you know who/what/where/when? What is the main character’s desire? What is the conflict and how does it appear? What are the questions you are asking by the end of the first few pages, or chapter? Does the style match the tone of the book? Do you trust this authorial voice?
If you’re at or near the final draft of your own novel, compare it to the questions above. Even better, ask your beta readers to analyze it that way. At this point, you have probably rewritten and reread it so much you no longer have a clear view.
If the beta readers have any confusion, or can’t articulate the questions asked in the narrative, you know you have some work to do.
Nailing the opening pages won’t guarantee an offer of representation - but it will make it much more likely the agent will request the full manuscript, which gives you a much stronger fighting chance.
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