Begin at the Beginning: Choosing the Right Sample Chapters for Agent Submissions By Ally E. Peltier
A member of the online writers' group I participate in recently posted that she'd been advised by a friend never to include a Prologue as part of the chapters she sent to prospective literary agents. I worked as an acquiring editor at a major publisher for years and know and still work with many agents, but I have never heard this rule. I cautioned her that people giving this advice may be unduly influenced by the new author's tendency to rely on a Prologue - learning where to begin your novel can be difficult, and it's common for new, inexperienced writers to feel nervous that readers won't "get" their set-up, so they create Prologues that explain far more than necessary. They end up over-telling the story before it's even begun! …
