A review by gorybmovie
The First Five Pages: A Writer'S Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman, Noah Lukeman

3.0

Lukeman gives great insights on the publishing industry and offers useful writing advice.; however, the examples the produces at the end of each chapter are so over the top that they fail to be of use. Also, for me, this book was very discouraging. Lukeman frequently contradicts himself: going back and forth from telling the writer to be self indulgent and write for the love of it to manipulating it to please agents and editors. He provides numerous examples of people who devoted their lives to writing and never saw publication and one example of a man who submitted a previously published work and was repeatedly rejected, proving that no publication company is interested in work from new authors. Maybe this is supposed to make those of us who are seeking publication feel like we're not the only ones but my impression was if writers at the top of their game can't get published what chance do I have? A great resource for those who have been rejected repeatedly and want to understand why but I would not recommend this book to those still in the process of writing their novels.