No offense to any agent, but I like this comment someone made on Query Tracker "If you judged LOTR by the first five pages of The Fellowship of the Ring, you'd think it was a story about a short rich guy adopting a cousin who shared his birthday so they could celebrate together."
@Wisteraverse Is it only 5 pages now? I have no intentions of querying, but I always thought it was 20 pages. Pretty soon, it is just going to be the blurb or the title.
@Wisteraverse True, but the query blurb addresses that and it's read first.
@Wisteraverse I buy books only when I like their 1st page. I have never been disappointed. So, I have some sympathy for the enemy here😄. You really can judge a great writer that easily. All the rest comes later. Agent/publisher research says that 95% of submissions aren't even publishable...
@Wisteraverse A query isn't a measure of the story. It's a measure of the writing. You're given a few pages to prove your skill is at a level to be worth a portion of their limited time. The partial and the full will prove out the story.
@Wisteraverse Or what about Tarantino movies. Most of the time people are just talking - and then you get an obsene amount of bloodshed somewhere in the later part. And also naked feet. :D