All aspiring novelists know how hard it is to get an agent these days. It seems impossible when it's obvious you have to be a celebrity before you can get anywhere near getting published. Don't give up just yet though. There are some easy steps to take to make your writing dream come true.
The first thing you must do before sending your work to an agent is to make sure that your first few pages are your very best. Don't just send out an early draft hoping that some agent is likely to see its potential. It doesn't work like that. Well, not any more, anyway. You have to realise that you need to get your work to a high standard and to do that you must edit and rewrite many times. I'm afraid that's what being a writer is all about. There is plenty of information available on the Internet that will help you learn how to edit, as well as many good books on the subject.
As you edit make sure that your work flows and delete anything you're unsure about. Reading your work out loud helps as you will be able to hear what works and what doesn't. Check for any spelling errors. It's best to print your work first as editing on screen can cause you to miss a few things (don't just rely on your computer spell checker to do it for you).
Is your main character interesting and likeable? To engage a reader or agent you have to create a memorable character, someone with whom the reader can identify in some way and who will make them want to read on. Also, try not to include too many characters in the opening chapter as it can get confusing for the reader.
The next thing to look at is your narrative. Is there too much of it? There should be the perfect balance between dialogue, description and narrative. Long descriptions might have been all right for Charles Dickens' readers but it will certainly bore today's reader as people lead busy, stressful lives and don't have much time to read. Read how other contemporary writers use description and learn from them.
Each scene must move the plot forward. Scenes where nothing much is happening to do with plot shouldn't be in there so take it out now or it will kill the pace.
The last thing you must do is check that you are presenting your manuscript in a professional way. That is with at least an inch margin all round with double spaced text on good quality white printing paper. Use an A4 envelope and always include an SAE with the correct postage.
Good luck.
Marie Seymour is a freelance writer, copy-editor and novelist. She has written articles on writing, music, astrology and health and is currently working on a novel about vampires. She lives in London but dreams of escaping all the pollution, litter and noise to live in the countryside where she can write novels for a living in peace.
http://www.marieseymour.com
http://marie-deepthinker.blogspot.com/