Gerke, an editor and author of fiction and nonfiction, offers a guide for novelists to engaging agents, editors, and readers in the first 50 pages. He discusses the submission process, the perspectives of acquisitions editors and literary agents, and how they decide whether to publish a novel, including the proposal, sample chapters, and common problems. He explains what the first 50 pages need to accomplish for readers and how to do so, such as techniques for main characters, establishing the story's world, the beginning, the three-act structure, and the first line and page, then how to continue these techniques in the remainder of the novel. Examples are from novels and films. Annotation 2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
