What makes for poor sample chapters?

I'm not an agent, but it would be extremely difficult for anyone here to gauge that without seeing your chapters. Perhaps post them in syw when you hit 50?

also the feedback I see from most other groups re queries (esp facebook ones) is absolutely woeful. the cliche phrase "blind leading the blind" springs to mind. such groups thought my query was fine and it categorically was *not*. AW has a nicely high standard (which Ihave yet to meet!)

anyway, both chapters and query are worth a check.

bin_b0x said:

I'm wondering if the opening chapters had been too boring or slow to elicit interest?

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When you're in the bookshop and pick up a book from the shelf, what would make you decide to put it back or to buy it? An agent would estimate if the book can sell well. Voice, continuity, ability to write coherent scenes, keep the tension up, be convincing. The sample chapters would reveal if the writer makes any habitual mistakes. Does every sentence start with "I" in a first person narrative, or do objects appear out of nowhere, do characters do things without motivation, there's a lot that would show the book needs more work.

If you follow agents on Twitter, some of them address your question from time to time. I'm neither an agent nor a veteran querier, so I won't attempt to recap. Good luck!

Also, you can do a google search for "how to write a first chapter" you should get lots of hits and can read through those to get ideas (at least for your first chapter). and it would be a start anyway.

I mean... without seeing pages I can't really know. (Also I'm a writer, not an agent.) It could be passive voice, too much filtering, POV issues, pacing issues, clunky wording, too much telling, too much backstory, or any combination or all of these. Or it could be a story where it's been done a lot recently so the bar to request pages is higher since you'd need a really well executed original take.

If you don't already know how to identify filtering words and passive voice there are a ton of good articles out there.

Reading your book out loud can help with clunky wording issues.

Typing out a chapter of your favorite (similar genre) books can help show how to balance telling and showing, backstory, description, etc.

For the rest you need good beta readers, or you can look into getting an agent, editor, or pro writer's feedback. Check around, sometimes they will auction off a crit for charity. There are a few writers who offer manuscript development or editing services (just check everything out thoroughly). Or there are workshops where you can get feedback. But I haven't had pro feedback on my stuff yet, just a lot of good beta readers, so I recommend pro crits as your last potential step, not the first.

Good luck with it all!

Assuming your query letter is great, and that we're only discussing the sample pages here, then yep. It's in the writing. It's always in the writing.

It has to read like something the agent thinks she can sell. And it has to grab her attention and excite her, in some way.

It's difficult to say precisely what could be wrong with it because the sort of writing required for a page-turning thriller is a lot different to the sort of writing required for a more literary book, or a YA novel, or a non-fiction book (which is my area of expertise). But it's always in the writing.

If you've queried two novels and haven't had a single request for a partial or full then you need to work on your query or your book--or both. It's not beyond you. But it is hard to take criticism well, no matter how well it's intended. So spend lots of time in SYW giving critiques to others, because this will teach you a lot about how writing works and how to improve it; and once you feel you have a grasp of the whole critiquing thing, post a piece of your own work up and brace yourself. Assume good intentions. Listen to what people are saying rather than reacting to it.

It's not clear from the comments in this thread, but are your "sample chapters" the first chapters of the manuscript? They should be. That's what virtually every agent wants to see.

caw

Old Hack said:

Assuming your query letter is great, and that we're only discussing the sample pages here, then yep. It's in the writing. It's always in the writing.

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Well... I know agents who will pass on even a great query because it either isn't something they or anyone they know deals with or because it's another Twilight series and they have no market for it. Sometimes it's not just the writing.

But, it definitely is the writing most of the time. And even if the agent sees decent writing but it's not a marketable book, they'll usually give some response.

Jeff

You're right that agents might sometimes pass on books which are too much like ones they already represent. But assuming the writer is subbing to more than one agent, they're not going to be widely rejected for that one reason. The writing is what's important.