First Page Checklist

Fiction Craft Essay

First Pages Are Gatekeepers

(and That’s a Good Thing)

Before a reader ever meets your prose, your work runs a gauntlet of gatekeepers: first agents, then acquiring editors and sales, then the brick-and-mortar genre shelf, then the front cover, jacket copy, etc.

And if—after all that—someone turns to your first page, you’ve earned a prized moment of attention. So, that page must quietly answer the following core questions so masterfully it looks like it took no time at all.

Below is a checklist you can use on your opening page(s) before you hit “publish,” or enter a contest, or submit a query. Hit all of these, and your first page becomes a promise the rest of the book keeps.