posted
Hello all, I assume most of you northerners are currently asleep. I'm at work. I' also meant to be marking assignments on Ancient China, but as you can tell am not.
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?
posted
As far as I'm concerned, a novel should be able to exist in a complete form without either a prologue or epilogue. Neither are part of the story proper, but are extensions of the world that you are creating, and help with either building history or generating the setting.
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.
posted
Normally, they ask for chapters one through three in a sub package, so I'd give them what they ask for. But that's easy for me to say since I've never had a prologue.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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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.
posted
Echo on JeanneT, If they ask for the first three chapters give them that. A prologue isn't a chapter. They won't be mad if after they accept it you put a prologue at the beginning.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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