Here's a secret.

The first three parts make or break a story.

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WHY THE FIRST THREE?

They say, don't judge a book by its cover; but that's how we identify what the author promises that is within the book once we start reading it. Because the book cover (supposedly) already hints us on the genre, demography, and premise of the story.

They say, you can't judge a story when you haven't read the whole thing; but to burst everyone's bubble, you can actually judge it based on its first parts.

The first three parts of a book almost equates a story summary. Some publishers--due to a huge pile of manuscript submissions--only have limited time to check each stories one by one. And your chances of being chosen for a publishing deal is:

1) when you are already followed by their scouts who will eventually reach out to you for a publishing offer;

2) when you pique the interest of an editor/publisher with the pitch/story summary of your manuscript (format preferred by some publishers open for manuscript submissions);

3) when you blew them away with the first three parts of the book.

In my experience as a published author since 2016, some publishers only require the first parts of your manuscript to be submitted before deciding whether they wanted to read the rest of it. And since I became an editor and proofreader in 2021, the more it became true for me that you have to start strong in order to keep your readers engaged up to the very last page of your book. Because at the first parts, they are only one foot in, waiting for indications if they will keep reading or drop your book unfinished.

That's why the first parts of your book matters; not just for the publishers, but for your readers as well.

Your story doesn't have to be pang-masa (mainstream) to be liked on the first three parts. It just needed to be reviewed because stories differ, target audience differ, writing styles differ, and the messages we wanted to convey differ.

In THE FIRST THREE, we will be reviewing the first three parts of different stories from different Wattpad authors!

If you are one of those authors whose story is included in here, I am already thanking you for entrusting me with reviewing your works!

As much as I wanted to help more aspiring authors by reviewing their works, this batch of TFT will be the last one I will be handling under this project.

Let's learn together, evaluate together, write together and support each other!

A,

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Disclaimer:

This also covers my review for the first batch of TFT:
✓My reviews are not limited to editor/writer point-of-view in critiqueing. This collection also has a mix of reader-perspective reactions.
✓My reviews are based on my first hand knowledge and experience as an editor, proofreader, and author. The criterias I use doesn't necessarily represent the various criteria that publishers use as basis in accepting manuscripts for publishing.