Sample Chapters and Prologues

This is when research will serve you well. Some agents are publicly vocal about wanting to see the first three chapters and not the prologue. To those agents I always submitted without the prologue. The others received the prologue and first two chapters, or fifty pages - whichever they asked for.

Research the agents who interest you. You can find out a lot about their particular preferences that way and tailor your submissions accordingly.

I would send the prologue and the first two chapters. You could always rename the prologue to chapter one and renumber the rest of the chapters accordingly. Or, if the prologue is not totally necessary or can be woven into the story, I would chuck the prologue and send the first three chapters.

I always sent the first 3 chapters. The prologue was only ever sent with the full manuscript.

When agents and editors ask for the first three chapters what they want is the first three bits of your book. If you have a prologue then they want that, and two chapters.

If your chapters are very short then send them the first fifty pages, near enough. So, find the chapter break that's nearest page fifty, and send them that much.

If they find your writing to their liking, they'll read it to the end. If they don't like it, they'll stop reading. You won't get penalised either way for sending them a few pages more or a few pages less than they asked for.