Struggling with preview / sample / excerpt...

[Ed]

Question for authors - how do you deal with previews and samples of your book?

My novels typically start out slow and the first 3,000 words or so do not really reflect the true story. I realize this is a flaw, but how do you deal with it?

Do you move later sections to the front? Or do you make samples of later parts of the book? This is a real problem on Amazon where they seem to arbitrarily take the first few chapters. Or should the entire story be reformatted?

I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem....

[Brenda]

You have three separate issues here, which you should not conflate.

One is the book's construction. This is an artistic choice; the work should begin where it must begin (and not one moment sooner) and end where it is destined (by all the forces you have marshaled) to end. If you feel it is too slow or data-dumpy up front, rewrite. Make the work absolutely perfect.

The second issue is that of hookiness. Think about yourself, standing in a store and thinking about buying a book. You look at the cover; you maybe read the back copy. You might open a random page and glance at it. But more likely, you open to the front page and read the first sentence or two. As the author, that is your moment. You have several sentences, a paragraph at the most, to reach out of the page, grab that reader by the neck of his shirt, and twist. Don't blow it. There are ways to hint (cover art, back copy) that this is not a slam-bang action adventure that will start out with machine guns juddering and the bullets shattering glass. A slow start is OK. But it had better grip.

The final issue is the excerpt. This is purely a marketing decision. Select it from any attractive and felicitous section of the book. I believe that the Amazon Look Inside feature defaults to the first 20 pages (or whatever it is) of the work. I do not know if you can force it to do pages 100-117. In other venues, select the bit that is most redolent of the work as a whole, and most likely to hook a reader. Keep in mind that a sample ought to represent the whole work; if your sample is the one and only hot 'n' heavy bedroom scene then everyone will buy the book expecting soft-core porn, and then be disappointed.

[Justin]

I think Brenda really hit the nail on the head but to add a bit more with my own thoughts...

If your talking Amazon then there's nothing you can rally do since they feature the first several pages or so. Since this is the case, when you yourself feature samples on your website it's best to sample later chapters and parts you think will engage the reader. A lot of authors tend to always make samples the first few pages or so which is why it's best to branch away from it.

I do understand what you mean when you said " the first 3,000 words or so do not really reflect the true story", my 2nd book is a Western Horror and the first two chapters explain the Civil War and the hardship of the town and don't really have action parts and I've been told it comes off a dull. Due to this, when I do use samples I tend to give people snippets of later chapters where there's a clear presence of horror and action; the type of stuff that will pull a reader in.

[Victoria]

I think if there is some kind of compelling conflict on the first page or two it helps. Conflict and an interesting character are the hooks. So if you can do something with those two things right off it might help. The conflict can be internal or something minor that reveals something appealing about the character or something happening in the first scene that may not reflect or emanate from the character but help draw the reader in. Back story can be interspersed along the way as needed.

[Virginia]

Brenda wrote: "You have three separate issues here, which you should not conflate.

One is the book's construction. This is an artistic choice; the work should begin where it must begin (and not one moment sooner..."

Brenda has covered all the salient points beautifully.

You must draw the reader in and you have a very limited window to do so. Make it count. It doesn't have to be a cliff hanger, it doesn't have to be a car chase, but it has to make the reader ask, "What happens next?"