Start at the Beginning

Why You Should Always Start with Chapter 1

Hi friends,

How are you faring? Well? I hope?

Today I want to talk about something that I thought was obvious, but over the years, I have discovered it is not! There are a lot of those things in publishing, in my experience, and I’m sure I’ll cover more of them in the future. If I think of a pithy name, I’ll let you know.

Here we go: when sending pages to an agent, always send the first pages.

That seems so obvious, right? I mean, why wouldn’t you send the beginning of your book? It’s just natural to send the first chapters, right????

You would think.

Over the years, I’ve gotten many submissions of chapters 2, 5 , and 8—FICTION AND NON-FICTION—and I’m starting to get why it happens. Well, the primary reason is that authors are so nervous about impressing agents that they focus on sending the “best” parts of their work, instead of what makes the most logical sense to send. I get it. I really do. Getting an agent’s attention is very hard. I totally understand. But. Don’t do this. It’s SO confusing to drop into the middle of a book, even if it is the author’s “best” writing.

If it’s a novel and you send me chapter 4, or worse yet, chapters 4, 6, and 13, I will have no idea what’s going on. Literally who reads random non-consecutive chapters of a novel ever?? Your opening chapter does so much work! It introduces the characters! The setting! The rules of your world, whether it’s fantasy or not! I could conceiveably not know in what city your book takes if you don’t send me the first chapters. Will the query letter or synopsis do some of this work? Sure. But it is a sub-optimal reading experience to not have the basics of a story right off the bat. Most agents avoid this pitfall by requesting the first X chapters or pages of a book, but you’d be surprised how many authors aren’t aware of this, or willfully ignore it.

But what about prologues????? you ask. Sigh, prologues. I personally do not love a prologue (if it’s so important why isn’t it your chapter 1?????) but if you MUST have a prologue, please do send it. If it’s a page or two, I think you don’t have to count that as a “chapter” if submission guidelines request a specific number of them, i.e. if an agent asks for the first three chapters, you can send the prologue and chapters 1-3. If it is roughly a similar length as your other chapters (then again why is it a prologue????), it counts as chapter 1, and you then send prologue + chapter 1 + chapter 2. This is getting complicated, so just send the prologue and you’ll probably be fine. Again, it’s best to read a book from the beginning, however you are defining that.

With non-fiction, it’s even MORE important to start with the first chapter—and the introduction!—because that’s where you set up the whole premise of the book. I think your book proposal’s sample chapters be your introduction and at least chapter 1, depending on your subject matter/research/timeline etc. The introduction sets the stage for the whole book, prepares the agent—and ultimately the reader—for your book and gives them everything they need to know to understand where your it will take them. And then, chapter 1 shows the proof in the pudding. It puts into action what you set up in the introduction, so the agent can see that your thesis has legs. I’ve definitely read some proposals where chapter 3 or 6 was included, and it made sense, because the subject matter was so clear. Maybe your book is a gastronomical tour of America’s hotdog stands, and the chapter you include is on San Francisco, but your book starts with NYC. I mean, ok. That can work. But honestly, just start at the beginning. Where you start is important. Don’t be rash about your first impression.

But Kate, you say, my chapter 4 is SO MUCH BETTER than my chapter 1!!! I have to send it!! If that is the case, then you are not ready to query. Your first chapter should be as good as every other chapter, if not better, and most readers, whether they are agents, editors, or consumers, are not going to wait around until page 47 for it to get good. You have to impress everyone right off the bat. Get back to work.

If you have made the decision not to send your first chapters, and instead sent others, do not beat yourself up. You are not the only person who’s done this. Now that you know, get to polishing those first pages or revise you book proposal and head back out there. Everything has a learning curve. You’ve just leveled up.

Take very good care of yourselves, friends. Please wear a mask and tell your friends and families to as well. It is literally the least anyone can do.

XOXOXOXOX,
Kate