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Mini-Muse Monday-Pass on the Prologue?
I just finished another book, and as I’ve done in all of my novels except one, I included a short epilogue. I like giving readers a glimpse into the hero and heroine’s future, and often the epilogue is a great way to sneak in a little fore-shadowing for the next romance.
I didn’t include an epilogue in The Viscount’s Vow and readers let me now they weren’t pleased. When I get the rights back to the book, I’ll add a snappy little paragraph or two.
However, this post isn’t about epilogues, which I love. It’s about prologues.
I haven’t included one in a book yet. Perhaps it’s because I’m writing mostly series right now and a prologue seems redundant. I don’t have anything against reading them, but I’ve heard they aren’t popular with editors and publishers.
Really? Why?
Aren’t readers what count?
So I want to know what do you think of prologues?
Do you like them? Hate them? Does it depend on how long they are? The content?
I like them, but I’m okay if there isn’t one. I find an epilogue to be more valuable.
Denise
My thought too. I think I like epilogues because I’m reluctant to let the characters go!
Prologues aren’t popular with big publishing industry professionals (literary agents and acquisitions editors at major houses) because =usually= the inclusion of a prologue indicates that the writer has not started the story in the appropriate place, implying that the writing itself isn’t “mature” enough (from a stylistic, not content-related standpoint) for a mass-market audience. As a professional (i.e., I was paid by the magazine, never by an author or a publisher) reviewer, I tend to agree. There are exceptions, of course. The first novel in my current series contained a prologue because I had to show what had happened to the heroine’s mother, which becomes a thread of the heroine’s internal conflict throughout the rest of the book. This novel was published by an imprint of Simon & Schuster in 1999. None of its sequels need a prologue because I resume the next book where the previous one finished.
Exactly, Kim. Well said.
I love both but I appreciate why one might not be popular/good to use. I just feel like they’re “bumpers” and make it a finished piece. A nibble or teaser, if you will.
Oops. I meant, I love both prologue and epilogue. 🙂
I like both. Prologues can give you an insight to the past of characters, without having to start the story there. Epilogues are good to wrap up loose ends unless it has a cliffhanger or is a serial, which I don’t really care for anyway.
I think both are fine. i’ll read with or without a prologue. Sometimes I use them, my current WIP has a prologue but that’s because it’s set (the prologue) many years before the actual story but it does have a bearing, in fact I think some of the story would be hard to understand without the explanation given in the prologue.
I also like epilogue’s, i like to find out what happens after, aa little glimpse of the characters future. I haven’t done it in this series I’m writing so far but that’s because the hero and heroine of the first book are the parents of the heroine in the second so we see their future a bit that way.