3 Things Your First Pages Must Have

For an agent, publisher or reader to keep going, your first pages must:

1) establish the main problem or quest

2) make us want to spend time with the protagonist (not the same as liking them)

3) teach us the rules/theme of the book we’re entering.

I’ve read a lot of book beginnings this week, between submissions for today’s webinar, in which Jane Friedman and I will analyze queries and first pages, and finding examples of published books to talk about. Some of what I’m noticing: u...