Introduction

“The first page sells the book; the last page sells the next book.”

—Publishing Proverb

There is something magical about the beginning of a good story. Something profoundly moving about “Once upon a time...,” the classic opening that has resonated with readers for hundreds of years. If you’ve ever told a bedtime story to a child and tried to shorten it in the name of a good night’s sleep, you’ve suffered the indignity of being told quite firmly to “start over at the beginning” because kids know that the best stories have beginnings too good to miss.

Beginnings are not only the door to the fictive world, they are the door to the publishing world—from agents and editors to the readers themselves. But this is a door that may shut as quickly as it opens. Agents and editors are notorious—myself included—for passing judgment on a manuscript based on only a few opening lines, paragraphs, or pages.

Readers are just as quick to judge. Consider this: The typical book buyer decides whether or not to buy a book in less than sixty seconds. The reader sees the cover and is drawn to it. Check (or click)! The reader notes the title and reads the jacket copy. Check (or click)! Then the reader opens the book to the first page and reads it. Sold (or not)!

Such is the power of a well-crafted story opening. Nail it, and you win yourself a sale, a reader, maybe even a career. Flub it, and you may lose yourself a sale, a reader, maybe even a career. As a writer, I’ve rewritten the beginnings of my own stories countless times, knowing that without a good beginning, no one will bother reading through to my mind-blowing ending. As an editor, I’ve driven writers crazy with my insistence that they get their beginnings just right because I know that good beginnings can equal good sales. And as an agent, I’ve passed on thousands of projects whose beginnings failed to capture my imagination—and sold the ones whose beginnings rocked their stories right into print.

Crafting a compelling opening isn’t easy. The most successful stories grab the reader from word one and never let go. But that’s just the beginning of what good beginnings do. The best beginnings are also rich in theme, voice, and nuance. They introduce the protagonist that readers will follow anywhere; they ground the story in setting and sow the seeds of plot points and subplots. Most important, beginnings are the harbingers of the exciting journey to come, hinting at the ending even as they shift the story into high gear, catapulting it into Act Two and sweeping the reader along for one hell of a ride.

In Beginnings, you’ll learn how to craft story openings that impress agents, engage editors, and captivate readers. Inspired by my popular First Ten Pages Boot Camp at Writer’s Digest University, this one-of-a-kind primer reveals the secrets of creating beginnings that sell—no matter what your genre. Complete with exercises and prompts as well as examples from today’s best-seller lists, Beginnings provides all the tools and techniques you’ll need to create the kind of beginning guaranteed to keep readers turning the pages.

So let’s begin: Because if the beginning doesn’t work, the rest of the story doesn’t really matter.