Customer Reviews

The First Five Pages: A Writer'S Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Noah Lukeman's book starts out strong with a new slant on much of the writing advice already out there: less is more, and most is even less than that. The exercises in the adjective and adverbs chapter are so helpful that they completely transformed the first chapter of my manuscript. Thanks, Mr. Lukeman.

However, once beyond his excellent treatments on modifiers, sound, comparison, and style, one becomes acutely aware that like writing, editing is a highly subjective field. Many of the techniques that he advocates for sentence construction and dialogue directly contradicts the advice of other well-credentialed editors. This is where a strong sense of the strengths of your own writing, the conventions of your genre, and the preferences of your agent or editor is going to help you, and where "The First Five Pages" will fall short.

Rather than strictly being a "how not to get rejected off the bat" guide as the cover blurb claims, "The First Five Pages" also endeavors to show you how to write the best novel you can. That's fine. But if you take Lukeman too seriously, you might come to the conclusion that he would rather you not write at all than have a single word out of place. It comes as no surprise, them, that towards the end of the book (and prominent on his literary agency's webpage), we find Lukeman's particular bias: "Ovid, the Roman poet, said one should wait nine years after finishing one's work before seeking publication. Here lies the difference between someone writing for money and a writer."

If it's your goal to win a Pulitzer Prize, that's an admirable sentiment. For the rest of us making our livings as writers, who want to write great stories that make people think or feel, you are well advised to pick and choose from Lukeman's advice.

If you can only buy one book on writing, I instead recommend Donald Maass's excellent book "How to Write the Breakout Novel" which not only focuses on good writing, but the themes and techniques which can make a novel a best-seller. Additionally, "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" by Renni Browne and Dave King gives some excellent tips, though they disagree with Lukeman on some key points.

My best advice is to read as many of these books as you can: take to heart those points on which everyone agrees, internalize the rest, and just write.

Noah Lukeman's book on staying out of the rejection pile is different from most in that it's written by an agent and not a teacher. That makes a huge difference. Lukeman is telling us what he sees on a daily basis and how to elevate your work from the bottom of the slush pile.

The book does a great job of explaining the problems most manuscripts contain, then tells you how to fix them, THEN offers exercises to help you overcome the problem. After working through just one exercise, I felt like my writing took a major leap forward. I think the book will do the same for all serious writers willing to devote a little time to this valuable book.

206 pages

Readers and editors are over burdened with books, book deals, writers, publicity, and other aspects of their daily routine. They are expected to read manuscripts at home, so it is no wonder that to get through a large slush pile editors use the precedent: find reasons to reject manuscripts in order to go on to the next one.

This book does not teach 'how to write,' but how to avoid the mistakes that send your manuscript to the recycle bin. That is the craft of writing.

To be successful, you have to capture your audience in the first five pages. Noah Lukeman, a prestigious editor turned agent knows the secrets of successful writing. In reality, you must capture your reader in the first five words, sentences, or paragraphs with a strong hook and the good writing.

Lukeman arranged the chapters in The First Five Pages to show each process in rejecting manuscripts. Follow the steps, and if you are lucky, you might get a contract. Do not follow the steps, and the only reason your manuscript will reach the one person who can make a difference is through a fluke.

Each chapter concludes with write and rewrite examples and practices. The Lukeman way is included at the back of the book. The only way to become a better writer is to write. The following is only a brief synopsis of a few chapters.

Presentation: The number one reason aspiring writers get rejections is that the work is inappropriate for the market. Simply put: do not send a bodice-ripper, swashbuckling tale to someone representing coffee table books. Other problems are spelling errors, sloppiness, faded text, and dirty paper; they all indicate carelessness that is generally reflected throughout the book. Research your market, and prepare your manuscript according to the instructions given by the agent, editor, or publisher. If they want Ariel font, give it to them.

Adjectives and Adverbs: The next step to rejection is the overuse or misuse of modifiers. These words tell rather than show your noun. "If a day is described as 'hot, dry, bright and dusty,'" these words are tedious and the image becomes significantly unimportant. Overuse is very easy to spot by a cursory glance.

Sound: If your manuscript has reached this level, it is being read. Pacing, rhythm, meter, or beat is about the way your prose reveals the story. "Prose can be technically correct, but rhythmically unpleasant." Read your work aloud; if it does not sound right to you, pay attention.

Comparison: Analogy, simile, and metaphor can be overdone. I read about 1/3 of a book recommended to me as an excellent thriller. The plot, characters, dialogue, details, and descriptions were good. I could not read the book because everything is not like something else, and every paragraph or three included a simile.

Style: If the writing feels forced or exaggerated, or the writer began to showcase his words rather than the story, the probability of rejection is high. Another nit for me is redundancy; this is a matter of using the same or similar word in close proximity. It is also a reason for rejection.

I recommend two books to my clients or fledgling writers. This is one of them.

Victoria Tarrani

This book doesn't offer specifics on the finer distinctions that agents make when considering the rejection pile. It uses examples of horrible writing. As an aspiring writer, I would have rather seen work that was pretty good, but didn't make it because . . .

And then the author (agent) could have provided specific constructive suggestions and techniques for writers to use to improve their craft.

I didn't get much out of this book.

If one word describes The First Five pages, it is misleading..., no arrogant..., no, annoying ..., a rewrite of something much shorter and better-The Elements of Style.

The title is misleading. If anything, this book should be subtitled "Elements of editing", not "The Writer's Guide on staying out of the Rejection pile". [But who would have bought it with such a title?] Nothing is said on how to satisfy an agent or publisher. The most we learn about agents and publishers is they are overworked, underpaid, and omnipotent. Noah Lukeman then tells us many have little experience, and only really want to reject a manuscript to reduce their workload. Nowhere does he tell us how to work within this framework.

The entire premise of The First Five pages is arrogance. The premise is agents and publishers can quickly identify good and bad work without consideration of the story. Lukeman tells us how "common mistakes" in presentation, dialogue, characterization, hooks, and tone will torpedo a submission. Get these right and you will receive immediate interest. The realtor's advise of "paint the front door" is throughout.

Strangely, Lukeman ridicules the efforts of writers with academic, journalistic or other backgrounds. Anything other than poverty is suspicious-the struggling writer in a garret is superior to a writer with success elsewhere as if there is something redeeming about failure.

The tone is elitist-only those anointed by God really know how to write. Many of the references reinforce this point. They are those wordy "classics" we were forced to read in the ninth grade. Nowhere is there the notion that reading and writing should be fun.

The best one word description is annoying--annoyance that I foolishly thought the title had something to do with this book. This work can be read as a condemnation of the publishing industry or as help in editing, but not how to stay out of the slush pile.

I've been a professional business writer for decades and an amateur fiction writing even longer. Lukeman's book put my fiction writing on steroids. He explains writing problems in clear English. He provides solutions, and he includes meaningful exercises. I've applied his advice to several short stories--the improvement is remarkable. Anyone with a desire to improve their fiction and with an open mind to their faults, should find this book a bonus.

Unlike some of the comments I've seen here recently, I found this book highly engrossing and very illuminating. Questions of style, structure and pacing were handled in a way that I was able to grasp and integrate into my revision work which I think has helped me manuscript greatly.

I'm still revising my first completed novel, so I'm not sure if this advice will ultimately prove to have been as useful as I think it to be now, but it strikes me that Lukeman has presented a great deal of information in a small and eminently readable format. His examples are very concise, to the point where I would read the first sentence or two and immediately see what he was getting at.

I have a strong aversion to reading lots of scholarly and advice,driven books about writing, and like the ones I do read to be direct and explain the pros and cons of prose style, rather than dither and hold my hand. I'm not a child; I'm a writer who lacks a college or university degree in composition and literature, and needs practical and relevant advice about what agents and editors are really looking for. I think Noah Lukeman does that here, and I believe every aspiring writer would do themselves a service by reading this book.

Perhaps I'm not really ready for this book yet, as I am only around 10,000 words into my first serious novel, however I bought this book because I am very interested in ship shaping up my manuscript for when I am ready to try and get published.

I have to say that I thought this book gave practical, if not obvious advice. Perhaps I say that because the final chapters are more fresh in my mind, and these were more about what you were writing about. The chapters I am talking about are like "viewpoint", "hooks", etc. Such things I think I am already good at, however I guess it is wise to check for these things in the editing stage!

The more helpful chapters for me were in part one and two.

Part one just simply stressed the importance of having a nice, fresh manuscript with correct font, line spacing etc. then it went on about the way you write, such things as "style", "sound" and "adverbs", things that I'm not sure if I am doing, so when I go back to edit I will be looking out for these things.

The second part was about dialogue. I found this helpful because sometimes I am not sure if I am using too much dialogue or not. "common place" speach, "imformative" and "hard to follow" were some of the issues raised.

I have not done any of the exercises that are present at the end of the chapters, but they are there for those who like to do these kinds of things.

My only gripe was reading through the examples. Some of the examples were rather dull. Maybe that was the point, but it would have been nice to have good writing as an example with the "bad" writing in it. It was just not the most readable thing, and I found myself skipping though them.

I've struggled a long time with my writing, mostly because while I knew my storytelling techniques were working just fine, something in my prose was holding me back. I found the answers I was looking for in Lukeman's FIRST FIVE PAGES.

I also know as both a college English composition teacher and a reviewer, how awful so many writers are. Before my father died, he and I worked on some of his writing. I saw almost every error Lukemen talked about made in my father's works. Truthfully, if my dad's novels were typical of what crosses an agent's desk, then I can't say I'm surprised by the amount of rejection slips sent out.

I've worked with students who think their work is perfect as is, and I end up being the one who disabuses them of that notion. I wouldn't want to be the agent who has to disabuse many writers of their ability level.

But the most useful thing about THE FIRST FIVE PAGES is that it makes an excellent revision guide. He's not talking about the creation end of things. He's giving a checklist of things to review before sending out the novel.

I learned a lot from this book, and I'm busily incorporating that knowledge into my writing.

The only reason this book doesn't get five stars from me is the examples. Most of the examples he uses speak to the bottom end of unpublished writers, not the middle or top end, and as such, are less useful for good writers to find the subtle errors that keep them from the great level. Also, the published authors he does quote are not modern writers, and the styles have shifted enough to make what he use long out of date.

But he does know what he's talking about as an agent. I'd recommend listening.

After years of writing quarterly reports for the Board of Directors I can look at an eight page report of numbers and tell instantly there's a typo on page six. It make perfect sense that editors can do the same with a manuscript. It is more than helpful to look at my writing with my editor's eye plugged in.
Madelyn West