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What our customer's say!

"Thank You Mr Lukeman", Mr Lukeman's advice is incredible in this age where all rules, mores and sexes are blended. After this book in which he defends classic methods, I felt good again about returning to Melville and Dostoevsky, not to mention one of my all time favorites, Conrad, for reading and observation of their techniques. Thank you Mr Lukeman for writing this book. I read it twice, then made notes. For aspiring writers, if you want to sell a book, first get this one; if you want to write for the internet, you would'nt be interested.

"3.5 stars really", In the First Five Pages, Noah Lukeman reveals the quickest ways a manuscript is tossed into the rejection pile. Think your numerous alliterations are clever? Manuscript readers don't. Believe you're subtlety slipping in backstory when your characters discuss their pasts? Nope, it's annoying and contrived. Subscribe to the belief that the more drama, the better? Please unsubscribe.

This book's value ultimately lies with Lukeman's editing credentials. He organizes this book according to what an editor first looks for when reading a manuscript. He tackles preliminary problems (adjectives, adverbs, comparisons, etc.) that can get your manuscript axed right away, and then focuses on bigger picture items (hooks, tone, setting, etc). At the end of each chapter, Lukeman provides helpful exercises to help you practice what you've just learned.

His book isn't without flaws. His own writing needs a little polish (he *loves* using passive voice). I also disagreed with his frequent recommendation that writers should choose "unusual" words. He later interchanges unusual with precise (which is much more appropriate), but he should have added a caveat telling writers not to go overboard. I can picture amateur writers using this advice and swapping boxers for pugilists (not a good idea). Finally, his examples of what not to do are way over the top. Lukeman admits this, and to be fair, his examples clearly illustrate his points. But he should have added mediocre examples, writing that will *just* tip the writer into the rejection pile.

However, Lukeman provides great advice with regard to dialogue, and I especially liked his chapters on subtlety. He provides much more good advice than bad, especially in his later chapters. It's funny in a way that his own book starts off rocky, but it's worth finishing it. Overall, first-time writers will get the most benefit out of the First Five Pages. More experienced writers (especially those who have been published) can do without it.


"A Good Idea, Not Accomplished Well", I have to agree with the February 2001 review by "A Customer": This book doesn't teach much about writing. I would go farther and say that some of what it says is either wrong or at least very unhelpful.

One can. of course, empathize with literary agents and editors who are deluged with manuscripts and must move as quickly as possible to extract a few needles of quality from the haystack of junk. There is value in this book in terms of bringing a writer -- particularly an unpublished one -- some sense of reality as to what he or she faces in the competition for attention. There is also value in making people sensitive to some of the most common "red flags" that will kill their chances for consideration.

But I found this book maddening, for a couple of reasons. First, Lukeman himself has much to learn as a writer. He writes in an overly elegant, self-absorbed style that should have earned the red pen of any competent editor. It becomes a little difficult to accept his wisdom about how things should be written when his own product is deficient. He constantly switches from the first person (both "I" and "we") to the second and third person, for example, often within the very same paragraph. What grated most on me, however, was his addiction to purple in his prose: "If you look back at your dialogue and realize you have scenes that are unsalvageable (like the last example), don't collapse in despondency." (p. 90). Collapse in despondency? Puh-leeze.

The second problem, to me far more serious, is that many of his exercises and proposed solutions to the problems he identifies are either useless or wrongheaded. For example, to solve the problem of pointless and mundane dialogue ("Hi there, how are you?" "I'm fine, and you?" "Nice weather we're having, huh?") he doesn't send people to reputable sources of help for writing effective dialogue; rather, he suggests that a writer should "train [his] ear." He writes: "Begin to pay attention to how dialogue is used in everyday life by different types of people. Eavesdrop on people -- in the subway, in a diner, walking on the street, in a store; especially try to eavesdrop on people who might be similar to your characters." (p. 89).

This suggestion is a recipe for disaster. Writing effective dialogue requires far more sophistication than the aimless guesswork that Lukeman suggests here. It would be far better for an aspiring writer with problems in this area to spend time with Gloria Kempton's Dialogue or Tom Chiarella's Writing Dialogue, to name just two helpful resources.

My suggestion, then, is that this book might be worth a look for the insights it provides into the most common mistakes that inexperienced writers may make in writing and submitting their manuscripts, but not for much help in solving these problems (except for those that can easily be avoided, like improper formatting of manuscripts). Rather, a writer who wants to create a commercially viable work should take advantage of some of the excellent resources available that really get into the hard issues that a writer must confront.

Some of the most valuable books I have benefited from include:

Beginnings, Middles & Ends: How to Get Your Stories Off to a Roaring Start, Keep Them Tight and Crisp Throughout, and End Them With a Wallop by Nancy Kress;

Plot & Structure: Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish by James Bell; and

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints, also by Nancy Kress.

There are many others, of course, but a writer who thoroughly applied the advice in these three -- provided he or she had the basic ability to write in proper English -- would have a significant leg up in getting into print.

"Outdated but Still Useful to an Extent", This book was a bit of a slog for me, and much of the advice Mr. Lukeman provides seems somewhat outdated, especially in this era of the internet when so many agents and editors blog and there are so many more resources for writers on the net. There was one particularly wretched piece of advice about sending your query letters out express which made me wince. I can think of 5 agents off the top of my head who say NEVER do this. EVER.

Mr. Lukeman also belabors his points in his end of chapter "examples", bludgeoning the reader over the head with points which he had already expressed well enough previous. His "bad" writing samples are so awful they entertain instead of illuminate. Here is an example from the dialogue section on melodramatic dialogue:

"Oh, Henry! You know I've loved you so!"
"Oh, Magaret! If only words could express my love for you!...
"Oh, darling! What would I be without you? My love, my sweetness!"
"The world would stop in its tracks without you, my Magarita!"

A few of the exercises he assigns at the end of each section are helpful if for no other reason than to make a writer really focus on the words and take a look at what they've written. I liked the exercise at the end of the "Sound" section where he assigns the writer to rewrite one of their paragraphs "and reformat it on the page as if it were a poem" (51). This helped me smooth out flow and melody in my manuscript immensely and it was fun too.

I'd say if you're looking for really germaine advice about getting published you might want to start reading agent blogs instead of this book. Kristin Nelson. Nathan Bransford and the Bookends Literary Agency blogs are good places to start your publishing education. I wouldn't say this book is unless you lack even the most basic of writing skills and publishing smarts.

"Wow... time to rewrite...", If you never want to do another rewrite DON't BUY THIS BOOK - if you want to get published and be professional - buy 2 copies! Great book, enough said.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Buy A Copy for Yourself and One to Loan", Noah Lukeman's The First Five Pages is the best book I've read about writing. Period. (Oops! Stephen King's is the best, as well.)

As a writer, I've read at least two dozen books on the art and techniques of writing. The depth and breadth of Lukeman's knowledge is unsurpassed. That the material is so well organized is important because there is so much packed into this book.

Really, it's not so much about getting published as writing a superior book. Publishable because it is a REALLY REALLY GOOD book.

He asks the right questions, those that guide you to dig deeper and then deeper still, to create the elements in plotting and characterization, and a lot of other things (which I can't tell you right now because someone else has borrowed my copy again and I can't refer to it), that make a book meaningful. A work that can affect a change in the reader.

Lukeman inspires me to tell the stories that rattle in my brain or beat to escape my heart, because they need to be told. And heard.

"One of the better writing books I've come upon recently.", Noah Lukeman, The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile (Fireside, 2005)

I've read a lot of writing books over the years; I think I read my first one almost thirty years ago now. (Fat lot of good it's done me. You see my name on the spine of a novel? Nope, Jack, not yours truly.) Some have been excellent, some have been crap, most have been mediocre, just like any genre. I wasn't expecting much different when I picked up The First Five Pages. But different is what I got; Lukeman's book will go on the short shelf of writing guides that really have something to say.

The difference between this and the last ten writing books you read is that Lukeman's book isn't focused on teaching you how to write, it's focused on teaching you how to revise. That's the part where most writing guides stop; at most, they give you a quick overview chapter on the process. What good will that do you? None. Trust me. I know. Lukeman assumes you already have a finished manuscript, and you're trying to hook an agent into representing you. Every chapter in this book is devoted to fixing one of the big mistakes that will keep you and your manuscript out of the slush pile. And these chapters, rife with illustrations, are great, great stuff.

My only problem with the book (and, I'll admit, it was enough of a problem that I docked him half a star) is that Lukeman uses some sleight-of-hand here. If you're the kind of person who reads one book at a time, you might not notice it, but I was concurrently reading William Diehl's potboiler Primal Fear at the same time. A lot of the stuff Lukeman tells you will get you automatically rejected (if not get your manuscript subjected to the loving attentions of a strike-anywhere match) get published. They get published a lot. Now, while I understand what Lukeman was trying to do, and I do believe tough love has its place, it's pretty easy to undermine a number of his assertions just by going out and picking up five random fiction books by midlist writers published by major houses. (Forget the minor presses. Unless you get the absolute cream of the crop, very little of what Lukeman says here will apply, and that is to the great detriment of those small presses.) Not adopting a more realistic approach leads to the possibility of someone who hasn't read as much, or isn't as in love with the language, saying "okay, this guy obviously doesn't know what he's talking about." And that's a crime, because Noah Lukeman does, very much, know what he's talking about. This is not just a literary agent trying to keep you off the slush pile-- this is a guy who has a love affair with the English language, and who (I'm extrapolating here, but it seemed pretty obvious between the lines) gets positively offended when a manuscript comes in that chews up the English language and spits it out all over the floor in bloody, saliva-covered clumps. That's a good thing, both in a literary agent and a guy telling you how to write-- no, strike that, revise-- your work of genius. And I will personally guarantee you that everything else he says in this book is absolutely rock-solid, and will help you make your manuscript that best it can be. If you're a writer, you want to read this. *** ½


"I needed this book!", I used to be a writer and artist who defied the rules without understanding them, believing defiance to be the sign of a "true artist." How embarrassing for me. Painful lessons over the years have taught me the value of understanding the purpose behind the rules before I set about breaking them.

This book is not about stifling creativity in Big-Brother-esque fashion. It is about giving oneself a firm foundation from which to soar. What good is deathless prose if no one ever reads it?

The introduction alone was enough to give me a valuable new perspective on writing. And on the subject of writing, Mr. Lukeman is no mean writer in his own right. There is nothing pompous or authoritarian about The First Five Pages; there is instead an air of friendly advice. In Mr. Lukeman's own words, ". . . all I can say is that if you walk away from these pages with even one idea that helps you with even one word of your writing, then it's been worth it."

Believe me, it's worth it.

"why did you say you didn't buy this?", A good writer will spend a year writing a book and two years editing it. Knowing that, I wonder why we are so quick to dismiss spending a pittance on a book that will show us 90% of our errors in two easy days of reading. You can read an entire shelf of grammar books and not read one of the critical hints in this book. Our English teachers are milking us.

Great writers need this book. Average writers need this book. Buying it will save you a lot of time and money, regardless of how well you write. The book is actually titled incorrectly. It's about the whole book, using the first five pages as an example, exactly as the publisher will do while deciding to buy it or send it home.

What struck me right off was how it might improve a writer's group. Imagine everybody in the group actually taking about the things that matter.

Sure, you might know some of what is in it, and you might not be ready for some of what you read, but a good editor costs you five cent a word and they're usually useless in the macro-world of style and form. Do the math.

I have actually advised a few friends to buy the book, and I'll get right to the criticism I got back from a couple. There are a lot of writers who think that the world is trying to box them in and taking away their artistry by setting up a bunch of rules that will crucify their talent. That's a big load of rubbish. If you think that way, don't buy this book (although this book does no such thing). After all, there is plenty of competition among the adults in the writing world, and those of us who are serious need the manuscripts on the publisher's desk that are tossed into the round file after perusing the first paragraph. How else will they identify those worth keeping?


"Not bad", Lukeman starts with some basic stuff agents use to quickly dismiss a manuscript, then he moves into the complicated areas that require a major manuscript overhaul if the error is committed. Broke into three parts, the books is well written (as a should be a book like this), well organized, and informative. And because he covers a wide scope of manuscript problems, this book helps the new novelist and the published veteran. But it's not really the first five pages; sometimes it's the first five sentences or paragraphs. Other times it might be the first fifty pages.

This is a "should read" for any writer wanting to land an agent.