Just have a question, if you have a manuscript with a prolouge do you submit the prolouge as part of your query packaage (and take up precious pages, or just start from Chapter 1? Is it ok to submit from Chapter 1 then when publishing (hopefully) put a prolouge in, seeing this would change the first page impression?
Also if you have a prolouge should that be the first 13 you post, or can you choose?
Just wondering,
Sweet dreams,
Grant
[This message has been edited by Grant John (edited August 13, 2007).]
So, in my estimation, if you were to submit a few chapters to an agent/publisher, you could include the prologue along with chapters one and two. If you are only submitting one - make it the first chapter. When they ask for a complete, then I would make a point of indicating that there is a prologue.
That's just me, though.
Jayson Merryfield
First of all, it depends on what you have a prologue for.
If the prologue is something necessary to get the first chapter, then I would absolutely include it. But then that begs the question of why you need the prologue in the first place.
(FYI this is the exact quandry I'm facing. I DON'T LIKE EITHER my prologue or my first chapter. If I don't like it, I know there's something wrong with it. Not necessary the rest of it, but I don't think I'm hooking in people fast enough. Too many people are telling me it's taking too long to get into the story. Ask yourself the same.)
If the prologue has nothing necessary to do with the first chapter or the hook, I would leave it out of the query package. If it's otherwise important to the whole book, I would keep it and submit it with any requests you get for the full manuscript. But if it doesn't get tied back in quickly, you risk turning off an agent or an editor by submitting something that isn't cohesive. And they may stop reading before it ties back in.
I've completely rewritten my own prologue twice, and am now considering scrapping it entirely. Writing it helped with learning the backstory of my novel, but I'm not sure it helps a reader enough to keep it.
quote:
This is completely off topic but why would we be asleep at 7:45 pm eastern time?
Well, I usually am. I work the night shift. I have to get up at eight to be at work at ten. Really not my idea...