That's because it's all subjective. If the author wants a prologue, and it works, the agent should not dismiss the ms based on his own hate of them. As a reader, I have a choice whether or not to read the prologue, so give me the damn book and let me make my own choice.
The books on my list are all top sellers. (Apart from one). So saying they are not exceptions, is your personal opinion. Enough people bought them to make them exceptions.
You do have a choice. We just want it to be an informed choice. You decide whether you want a prologue or not, but if you're going the traditional route it makes sense to make that decision with the knowledge that at least some agents and editors are going to have an immediate negative reaction to it. How many? I don't know. But you still make the decision as to whether to include one or not. Of course, if you're going the self-publishing route then the only thing that matters is whether readers will be put off by it, and enough books with prologues sell (particularly in certain genres) that I wouldn't be worried about it as long as the prologue is good.
But you don't have a choice if your agent/publisher says 'no prologue'. From a reader point of view, why not just leave them in and give me the choice to read it?
@Steerpike & @cutecat22 If you guys ever browse the MSWL or just the hashtag on twitter, you'll find a few agents that post "Prologue. Pass." or "Never ever have a prologue" So, it's a real thing where agents get bored right off the bat when they see a prologue. That doesn't mean they ALL do but obviously there is a lot of negative reception for the practice. And @cutecat22 They don't want to give you the choice because books with prologues might sell worse than ones without. Why bother signing and publishing something that could easily become more viable without a prologue? It's better to stick with those who have bought books with prologues than go for agents who clearly don't appreciate prologues.
There are many agents and editors. Some of them clearly accept prologues. An agent or editor of yours isn't an irrevocable relationship. If you don't like what they're doing, you have the choice to go elsewhere. The agents and editors have a choice too - saying they have to take prologues takes away their choice in making a business decision (whether you agree with the decision or not). If an agent or editor doesn't like you or your work for whatever reason, they have a choice to find other authors. If you don't like your agent or editor for whatever reason, you have the choice to find other agents and editors to work with.
Yeah, it's definitely a real thing. I've talked to some of them who have said the same thing, and this author who spoke last week talked to an editor who said the manuscript goes straight in the trash if it has one. What I don't know is how prevalent it is (i.e. what percentage of editors will immediately reject a prologue; what percentage will not immediately reject it but have a negative reaction, etc.). My advice, still, is not to send the prologue when you're sending in your first chapters etc.
Like I said, it's most likely marketability. Maybe they found that most book buyers who open the first page of a book tend to put it down if there is a prologue?
Probably because they get a ton of crap prologues, and it's an easy way to get rid of a lot of bad stuff when you have tons of manuscripts to read. I'm sure they know they might miss something good, but they're playing the odds.
That's what I tend to do, unless there are reasons I know I already want to buy the book. I buy a lot of stuff I've never heard of, from authors I don't know, and if there's a prologue I usually pass it over in favor of something else. But I could be in very much a minority position
I personally don't mind prologues but I'm of the opinion they're not a good way to hook a reader. Usually they're what happened before the story, or a prophecy, the bad guys, or something. (Kinda when you watch a crime show and they show the murder before starting the main part of the episode with the cops) So, from a reader perspective, I have to say the prologues are less likely to hook me as they generally don't deal with the actual story and characters (which are generally the hook if they're interesting) I generally read the prologue and then the first pages of the actual first chapter to get a fair idea of the book. But it just goes to show, that prologues aren't effective when making me buy the book.
@A.M.P. Yeah. I feel like a prologue signifies that the author knows very well the story starts elsewhere (Chapter 1), but has decided to put this other content in anyway. I'll often skip over the prologue in the book store and just read the first bit of Chapter 1. If I end up buying it, I'll give the prologue a chance, but there have been plenty of times I've skipped right over it and went straight to Chapter 1. Depends on how patient I'm feeling.
I'm currently recalling the prologue for Game of Thrones. In it, there's these three guys who are on scout duty. 2 die to the white walkers, 1 escapes. That's pretty much it. Chapter 1 starts with the main characters executing the one who escaped for fleeing his post. Now, without the prologue, we would still understand chapter 1 and everything else. What the prologue did was teach us how strong the white walkers are, it taught us how everyone thought they were a myth, and gave us the sense of how dark and gritty aSoIaF is. It did what a prologue should do as it set up the mood and world. However, if it was cut, no one would have really noticed.
Well, I'm here to tell you (again) that your assumption is wrong if you think that 'putting it in anyway' means it's extraneous information that really could be left out. What THIS author knows is that my story begins with a pivotal inciting incident that occurs A GOOD LONG WHILE before the present-day part of the story takes place. This incident occurs between two characters who appear in the story, and is known only to them. They are not the main POV characters. In fact one of them is not a POV character at all. The other characters in the story don't know about this inciting incident, but its repercussions will affect their lives too. THIS author feels it's important for the reader to witness the inciting incident before beginning to read about how it drives the entire rest of the story. Because it occurs when the two characters in question are children, and the rest of the story takes place after these two characters reach adulthood, it is not best presented as a *3&%rx!!! Chapter One. It's a Prologue. (Insert fanged emoticon here.) Read the definition of Prologue in my signature. I did not write it, but that's the definition I'm working with. Anybody who skips it is welcome to do so. But they might as well not bother to read the book. It's a hugely important part of the story, and the skippers will not have a clue what is going on if they just start reading from Chapter One.
Well, as you know I'm in favor of authors doing whatever they want. It's their story, and they have to write it their way. But, interestingly, even some agents and editors I've seen talk about prologues being fine with them recommend not doing it this way. In other words, they recommend not putting anything crucial to the book in the prologue, because so many people skip them. The reader may have already bought that book, but if not reading the prologue harms the overall work, even if it's their own fault, they're not likely to buy your next book because they're going to remember a bad experience with the first one. That's the advice I've heard on this, at any rate. Really, it would hinge on how many of your target readers are skippers, and I have no idea what the answer to that is. If I skipped a prologue in a book where the prologue is essential, I suspect I'd end up putting the book down before even finishing because it wasn't making sense or something.
I can imagine since the internet, rejecting because of prologues becomes self perpetuating. 1 or 2 agents say they reject prologues. Some writers scour the internet searching for ways to improve their chances of getting a manuscript accepted. Some of these writers decide that the prologue in their wip can be dropped. Others decide it can't, but if they start a new novel they'll try to write something that doesn't need a prologue. Assume that writers who are doing this research are on average putting more general effort into learning the craft, and that a lot of the worst novels in the slush piles are people's first attempts at novels. - that means a higher percentage of people who were capable of writing a good prologue aren't doing. The odds of a slush pile novel with a prologue being publishable has just decreased. Enough in fact that a few more agents say they reject prologues. Repeat until prologues are a deadly sin.
@jannert BTW that seems like nonsensical advice to me - I'll see if I can find where I read it. If the prologue doesn't have essential information, why have it at all?
You mean to tell me that if a story isn't making sense that you wouldn't go back and read the prologue after all? To see if perhaps you missed something important by skipping it? I'm stunned, really.
Probably not, if I've already started the book without it. My to-read pile of books is enormous. It doesn't take a lot for me to give up on a book and move on to something else.
