The First 50 Pages: 2012 Writer's Digest Conference Session Build Your Platform literary agent Michelle Brower answers

literary agent Michelle Brower answers these questions and more

insulting your reader's intelligence

one that will not only make an agent want to read your book but pick up the phone and call you the minute he/she reads your query

the Penticton

A writer needs to understand what these busy industry professionals are looking for when reading a query and

The First 50 Pages: 2012 Writer's Digest Conference Session Build Your Platform literary agent Michelle Brower answersThe opening fifty pages carry a surprising amount of weight for beginning a novel correctly. You have to engage your reader, introduce your hero, and establish the context of the story. You'll also be presenting the stakes, introducing the antagonist, establishing the hero's desires, starting the main character's inner journey, and getting a ticking time bomb to ticking down. Plus much more. And you want to do all these things without dumping