Can anyone actually tell if the book is good based on the first few pages?
This one might make some of you mad.
Okay, it’s time to buckle up for some tough love.
One sentiment I hear a lot from new writers1 — and something I certainly felt when I was a new writer — is that no one can tell in the first 10-50 pages whether it’s worth their time to keep reading a story. Or what sort of problems the story is going to have beyond these opening pages. How can someone fairly and accurately judge a book they didn’t finish reading?
As the current trend goes, I’m going hold your hands while I say this: As a reader, you do it all the time. And if it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for the pros. <3
Deep breath.
Let’s talk about this.
I know you’re a writer, but I want you to think about things as a reader for a moment.
Here’s a true story.
There’s a very beloved book2 I kept hearing about. People were always telling me, “Just get through the first 100 pages and then it’s going to blow your mind.”
Guys, I didn’t like the opening pages. I didn’t like the first fifty. I got to a hundred pages and I braced for my mind to be blown . . . and I still didn’t like the book. I gave it fifty more pages just to see — and by then I was close to the end, as it was a short book— but I still DNFed.
I didn’t care about the characters, I didn’t enjoy the writing, and I simply didn’t want to continue. It didn’t take 150 pages for me to know the book wasn’t right for me. I knew within the first 15!
I’m sure you’ve had a similar experience.
(Some of you are having that experience right now! With this letter!)
I try to be a generous reader, actually. I usually do give books 100 pages to change my mind. Sometimes they do! And in those cases, I’m glad I stuck around.
But most of the time, I’m not wrong. I know my taste pretty well after all these years of living in my own head!
When I was younger, I almost never DNFed3 books. I told myself that if the author had gone to all the trouble of writing a book, I could finish reading it. And honestly, I’m glad I did that, because I learned a lot about what worked and didn’t work for me. I also learned to trust my own instincts.
What about you? Did you have a point where you decided it was okay for you to DNF books you weren’t enjoying?
One piece of advice I always give to writers is to figure out why something doesn’t work for you before you quit reading. (And, maybe more importantly, why it did work for someone else.4)
If you follow that advice, you probably know where I’m going next.
Generally, if you spend a few minutes thinking about it, you can articulate what isn’t working for you. As I said in the example above, I didn’t care about the characters. I didn’t enjoy the writing. (And probably some other things; it was a while ago that I read this.) I knew immediately the book wasn’t working for me and spending more time with it did not make me love it more!
Now, I think being able to clearly articulate your criticism is something that requires practice. Being able to see the signs and correctly predict what’s going to happen in the story also requires practice. And when you’re a new reader, or new to reading critically, you don’t necessarily have the experience. But you can get it!
As you read more widely, in a variety of genres and a variety of authors (which you should be doing if you want to write books!), you’ll begin to see the patterns — both in what does work and what doesn’t work for you as a reader.
And if you’re reading published books, remember: those books made it through an agent, editor, acquisitions team, rounds of editing, and so on. That doesn’t mean your criticisms and opinions are invalid! But it does mean that the book worked well enough for professionals with years of experience to say, “Yes, this will sell.”
Now imagine you’re reading submissions!
A lot of manuscripts from new writers have similar problems. That doesn’t mean those stories aren’t special and unique! They are! But beginners tend to make a lot of the same mistakes while they’re learning. (Otherwise, “how to write a book” books wouldn’t be so broadly useful!)
With that in mind, you can imagine the professionals — agents, editors, and so on — going through a lot of manuscripts have a well-honed ability to spot those patterns and say “this isn’t ready because XYZ.” They don’t even have to read very far to know what XYZ is. To someone who’s seen it a hundred times, it’s clear from the beginning.
I know, I know, it still kind of seems unlikely that they can tell from ten pages. Years ago, I would have groaned about it with you.
But then I started reading queries (and sample pages) for an agent. I also requested partials and fulls and read those.
I learned fast.
One last thought on this:
I’ve wanted to write a letter like this for a while, but several months ago, I came across an author upset that someone who left a negative review of their book hadn’t actually finished reading it.5
The author felt the reviewer couldn’t know if the book “needed more editing” without reading the entire thing. Obviously, I disagree!
But I think the more important takeaway6 is . . . none of us are entitled to a reader’s attention.
In this particular case, the reviewer articulated what they thought was wrong with the book — and what would likely continue being wrong with it. The author doesn’t have to agree! But it’s unreasonable to demand a reader stick around for something they’re not enjoying. (Or agree to represent something, or agree to publish something, etc.)
If someone doesn’t want to continue reading your book, let it roll off you.
This, too, gets easier with experience.
Okay, I know this might be a tough one, so here’s another photo of Hush as a reward. (Always reward your reader for making it to the end!)
I really hope this helps you, though — both as a reader (you’re allowed to DNF) and a writer (they’re allowed to DNF). It can be really hard to accept that, considering how much time and emotional energy it takes to write something, but once you do, you’ll have a lot more peace in your life. <3
Button things:
And sometimes from folks a bit farther along in the process!
No, I’m not going to tell you what book. Lots of other people love it and I love that for them.
DNF, for those not in the know, is “did not finish.” Now you know! Welcome to the club. :)
I’m deliberately not linking to it. The specific post doesn’t actually matter that much.
Okay, I’d also put “if you’re going to read reviews of your own book, learn to separate your emotions from other people’s opinions,” near the top of the “most important” list.
It's not always easy to tell if a book will be good within the first few pages--but it's usually easy to tell if it will be bad.
Don't know who said it but a book reviewer stated I don't have to eat the whole dish to know it's bad : )