Once you’ve decided what you’re writing and for whom, have planned out the writing for the thesis,completed the first draft, and checked it thoroughly for mechanics, you have one extremely important task left.Reread-and plan to rewrite-the first fifty pages.It’s not a happy relevance ,but the editor have too much to read,and as a matter of self preservation they need to eliminate what is just not going to work.Practically speaking ,most editors-whether they know it or not-have a fifty page rule: If the manuscript doesn’t work in the first fifty pages,it’s out.
Think of the first pages of your manuscript ,then as the reception area of your book .Does it make a good impression?An author who wants write about the race and American religion may have a considerable stroke of factual information at his fingertips .But nothing will discourage an editor faster than finding a statistical table on page.A good editor is going to read lot more than the first fifty pages,but she is not going to read further if those first fifty are bore.Revise them last. Polish them. Make them shine.What’s true about the editors is also true about book reviewers .The difference is that book reviewers see even more projects,though they have the advantage of seeing them nicely printed and bound instead of in boxes of manuscript.A book reviewer or book editor needs to cut to the chase fast .Is the book worth spending time on?In the case of trade media, such as the book review sections of major newspapers, the first concern will be “Can it be read and enjoyed by the reviewers outside the academy?”Book review editors at major papers have a fierce ability to sniff out academic language,even when the book in question isn’t really very difficult at all. Scholars and Scholarly Publishers may whinge about how little attention academic books get in the national media ,but the book reviewers are a stark reminder that specialized language is forbidding to nonacademic readers.Sometimes just one drop of Jacques Lacan can render a book suspect.
The fifty page rule is crucial to overcoming a book review editor’s resistance. It’s always possible that he or she may page through the entire book and then decide not to assign the book for review .But if the first fifty pages fail to please ,that reviewer will quickly go on to the next candidate .Your first fifty are the most important fifty.