THE Group for Authors! discussion

I'm trying to figure out what is the best practice for excerpting a book. It seems logical that if you're going to read or sample out an excerpt from your book, you'd just do the first chapter or two, right? But what if your book has a prologue? Do you go ahead and excerpt that? Or do you skip to chapter 1? Or maybe try to find the most action-packed chapter?

How do you choose what part to excerpt from?

I did a blog with an excerpt. I took it from some where in the middle of the book. I thought, from a readers point of view, they would know if it was from the beginning, middle or end - so it really didn't matter. I just liked the I selected. :)

Paul wrote: "I did a blog with an excerpt. I took it from some where in the middle of the book. I thought, from a readers point of view, they would know if it was from the beginning, middle or end - so it reall..."

I'vr read these types of excerpt (from the middle of the book) and found they usually turned me off the book. The pacing was wrong and the plot was confusing. Characters were flat without background. Excerpts should always be the start (front end of the book) and include the initial hook.

Otherwise you run the risk of loosing the reader.

V.K. wrote: "I'm trying to figure out what is the best practice for excerpting a book. It seems logical that if you're going to read or sample out an excerpt from your book, you'd just do the first chapter or t..."

Depending on length, the first two or three chapters.

I think it would depend on the reason for sharing an excerpt.
I shared an excerpt when I did an interview with an erotica author. It made sense to use an excerpt that hinted at sexual activity, which was midway through my novel.
I'm doing a blog tour next week and because the later stages of my novel are set at Christmas, I've chosen those passages to try hook readers looking for something Christmassy to read this month.

Christine wrote: "Paul wrote: "I did a blog with an excerpt. I took it from some where in the middle of the book. I thought, from a readers point of view, they would know if it was from the beginning, middle or end ..."

Fair comment, I didn't consider it like that - maybe because I knew the story and background intimately (as you can imagine) :)

L.E. wrote: "I think it would depend on the reason for sharing an excerpt.
I shared an excerpt when I did an interview with an erotica author. It made sense to use an excerpt that hinted at sexual activity, wh..."

LE, I would worry that changing the excerpt depending on the audience would be trying to make people think it was something it wasn't--unless the book really has to do with all those subjects.

If my opening chapters are clean, I excerpt that. (By clean I mean no prologue, no quotes, and truly catchy.) But some of my books open more slowly. That isn't bad, but it doesn't always make the best excerpt. In that case, I use a middle section, but I make sure that 1) it's easy for a reader to figure out the sitch right away, 2) there aren't a ton of characters that the reader won't know, and 3) it's not complex but straightforward, often action.

I think it's okay to cater to an audience, but you'd only go after relevant audiences.
My novel is published by an erotic fiction publisher but by most erotica standards it's very mild and no sex scenes occur until late into the story. My opening chapters wouldn't really sell it to fans that particular genre.
I wouldn't pretend my novel was something it wasn't but I would display appropriate excerpts to maximise its appeal to various appropriate audiences.

What about for a second or third book of a series? Often, series' books have some reviewing going on in early chapters. If, say, you wanted to include an excerpt of book 2 at the end of book 1, would you still do the first chapter?

Bobbi wrote: "If my opening chapters are clean, I excerpt that. (By clean I mean no prologue, no quotes, and truly catchy.) But some of my books open more slowly. That isn't bad, but it doesn't always make the b..."

That's exactly why I chose an excerpt from the middle. The front end of the story is a little slow - not in a bad way, it's just how the story begins while the middle better describes the culmination of an ongoing rise in tempo and emotion.

I found the idea of the "page 99 test" rather interesting and had excerpted p.99 of one of my books on my blog. However, it doesn't necessarily work since not all p.99s will be exciting. Moreover, some might contain spoilers!

Payal wrote: "I found the idea of the "page 99 test" rather interesting and had excerpted p.99 of one of my books on my blog. However, it doesn't necessarily work since not all p.99s will be exciting. Moreover, ..."

I tend to think, you as the author of your own book would know exactly what part of the story would be best to excerpt for your purpose. Personally, I wouldn't rely on a standard number 99 page rule - I think it is fraught with danger to do that. But everyone is different - the idea might work for you. :)