The hook is the most important part of your story. If the reader doesn’t get drawn in by the first sentence, they won’t read the first paragraph. If they don’t feel entranced by the first paragraph, they won’t read the first page. No first page, no book.

It’s quite simple really. You need to grab the reader’s interest on that first page if you want them to read your masterpiece.

We’ve held a number of first page slam events when published authors have critiqued first pages of works by Guild members. This year we’re adding a twist. Instead of critiquing the first pages written by Guild members, we’re inviting members to pick out some of their favorite works for attendees to critique them. We want your choices to be books you love, but not classics. So no Dickens or Dostoyevsky, please. Look to best seller lists from recent years for books that are popular but have not yet found their way into English literature classrooms.

On Monday, March 25, Penn Wallace will facilitate the meeting. Penn will provide criteria for members to use when critiquing submissions.

All attendees will have an opportunity to participate. 

If you want to submit the first page of a book, here’s what to do:

Since the length of text on the physical first page varies greatly from book to book, retype the text of the first page and beyond until you fill a full MS Word page with 1-inch margins all around, double spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-half inch indents on first lines of paragraphs. Continue typing from the second page to fill one manuscript page. If the sentence on the last line of the first manuscript page does not end on that page, continue typing to the end of the sentence on the second page and then stop. Do not go past the end of that sentence.

You will do a live reading of your page, then the group will give critiques.

Your first page must be submitted by March 15th, 2024, to be considered. First pages will be critiqued in the order in which they were submitted. In the past, we had more submissions than we could do at our meeting, so some people lost out. Get your submission in right away so you can be sure you get a place at the meeting.

Send your submission to penn@pennwallace.com and mardiewho@yahoo.com. Include “First page from [yourname]” at the top of the page. Use “First Page Critique–Title, Author” as the subject line of your email.

Do not include the book title on the page. Instead, include the title and author in the subject line of your email submitting the piece.

This is a lot of fun, don’t miss out.

To register for the event, select this link.