First Three Chapters

What kind of advice might you receive from the First Three Chapters?

We strive to be supportive yet honest. We understand how much your book means to you. In fact, that's the reason Katy Miketic started this business: there are so many great writers who have trouble finding agents because the writers are making simple, small errors in crafting their submission packages.

Our advice for the first three chapters of your manuscript is aimed at understanding where your novel is going, and what we see as a potential red flag. 

Most of our advice is tailored to your specific work. We divide our advice into two sections:

Editorial

Most of these comments can be seen in a line-edit of your project that we scan and return, although some will be discussed in our cover letter.

• We spot cliches and anacronisms. In outer space, people don't "put the cart before the horse." And no one outside of a brass band does anything "with great fanfare." Those little phrases that pop out of your pen are death to hopeful novelists.
• We suggest where to crop digressions... and ask if the digression is in fact foreshadowing.
• We tackle grammar and sentence structure, break up or combine paragraphs, and make other simple suggestions to help your project be more readable.

Substantive

Most of these observations will be part of our letter.We go into detail about your own book, discuss our thoughts and what we think works. We're supportive, interested, and real. We don't want to flatter you, so we will give you advice on how to succeed with your own story. 

• We give feedback on the overall tone and mood of the project. Is it dark, light, or ambiguous? Is it consistent? Is it compelling, and does it match your reader's expectations? The parent of a dying child who falls in love with a cute nurse, for example, should be awkward and melancholy. A screwball comedy that ain't. On the other hand, the story of a drab receptionist who becomes a ship's detective and falls in love on the high seas shouldn't be mired in misery
• We discuss character development and our impression of the main character and his/her journey thus far. Editors and agents want to see the beginnings of a character's quest in the first three chapters of a novel. Gail the sad receptionist's dull day is not that compelling, because if Gail is bored, so are we (unless you are a comic genius, which is possible!). Gail winning a cruise? That's fun!
• We discuss launching the plot. Is Gail going to find love on her cruise? If Gail is still packing her bags in Tuscon by the end of chapter three, we're not that interested. If Gail discovers that her skills as a receptionist have prepared her for an exciting life as an on-ship private investigator, we're intrigued.
• We discuss relationships with supporting characters. If Gail is going to find love, we should have met all of her suitors:  Fiske the charming, dangerous blackjack dealer, Monty the rich twit, and Jasper the widowed father of a cute 10 year old. Even if they're still background at this point in your book, you want to make sure that they are poised to emerge.

• We discuss why we want to keep reading beyond your first three chapters, and we discuss what might make us even more interested. Editors and agents almost get to be really excited to find out what happens next: they're expert readers and usually can see what is coming next. We never recommend rewriting your book to be something that it isn't; we just want you to maximize your opportunity to impress a first-time reader. But what if Gail is thrown overboard by the too-good-to-be-true Jasper halfway through chapter three? That might be a great place to end, instead of having him explain that he just tripped into her accidentally...

 Every book is different, and so are the first three chapters. We can always look for what you ask us to examine.

But I thought I was done writing...

Short answer: No.

Long answer:You are not writing until your book is rolling off the presses.

Your agent will want you to make changes. Your editor will want you to make changes. You might have three different conclusions by the time you're done. 

If you can't stand to work on your project anymore, put it aside and give yourself a vacation from this manuscript. Make it a week, a month, or even a year. The longer you wait to review it again, the more you may understand the shortcomings that agents saw during your first round of submissions.