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Yet the first chapter remains basically what it was when they began—before they fell into the rhythm, before the text fully took shape.

This is where the right freelance editor will help your manuscript grab readers’ and agents’ attention and put it in balance.

Once they’ve seen the whole manuscript—or at least a detailed synopsis (which I often ask for, and is worth doing anyway, since it is often requested by agents), editors can see what is relevant to readers and what will overwhelm readers before they’ve fully committed to reading your book.

The industry has long suffered the irony that effective publishing is most evident when invisible; it is only when standards are less than felicitous that we realise how well what we read is managed most of the time.

Gone is our confidence that publishers and agents know exactly what everyone wants to (or should) read

The copy editor, a traditionally marginalised figure, is now in strong demand.

color represents the core of merchandise

presenting colors to the reader

bette

What are those authors doing in those precious first pages? In every book I looked at they were introducing me to a character so unique and compelling that I cared about what happened when the high stakes action came into play a few pages later. They opened not with a bang but with a voice—a choice well worth emulating. 

Rosanne Parry is teaching "Vampire-Free Fiction: Writing Real-World Novels for Young Readers"

A big part of that control stems from Amazon’s ownership of the Kindle, the leading e-book reader, and that books bought for the device have DRM built in. Stross argues that this effectively locks many e-book buyers into the device, since it’s virtually impossible to read Kindle books on other devices

Publishers — and some authors, especially those who control the Authors Guild, which has fought every attempt by Google and others to open up the book market — have been so obsessed with piracy and locking down their products that they have allowed Amazon to take control of their fate

even if you take advantage of Amazon’s self-publishing options to avoid having to get a traditional publishing deal, you’ve really just exchanged one corporate overlord for another.

authors have to realize that sometimes the efforts they make to promote their books…well…simply don’t have the hoped for impact. Why? Because these days readers spend most of their time in Cyberspace searching out information on their interests and seeking out the advice of experts and opinions of others. In the process, they may—or may not—discover you and your book.

why authors might need to stop focusing so much attention on marketing and rely more on discovery

The skill is copywriting.

A query letter is not a straightforward description of your work. It’s a sales letter. It should be persuasive and seduce the agent into requesting your work.

And this is why writers struggle with queries, because they can’t bridge the gap between writing to entertain (or inform or inspire) and writing to persuade. It’s a different mindset, and it requires an ability to look at one’s work as a product that has a selling point.