IMPORTANT: Coverage Checklist for Aspiring Authors

Note, MARKET VALUE FIRST...

Listed below are a summation of "coverage" checkpoints utilized by various screenplay and novel ms readers in both Hollywood and New York. Not every publisher intern or assistant will necessarily employ all these categories (a mistake), however, they're a great checklist for you, the aspiring author, to help ascertain whether or not you're meeting your goals for a successful commercial genre novel.

MARKET VALUE:

Originality, freshness - high concept
Clear target readership?
Hook Quality

STRUCTURE:

Act Zero backstory development
Exposition delivery
Effective setup with inciting incident
Plot line arc, and subplots (if appropriate)
Well designed reversals (major and minor)
Pinch points (at least two)
Catalytic situation driven
Conflict, tension, rising action,
Every scene relevant (i.e., to driving plot forward)
Effective, believable climax
Resolution/Denouement

CHARACTERS:

Antagonist Quality and Role
Consistent opposition
Protagonist goals
Sympathetic protagonist
Protagonist arc
Secondary character quality and roles

NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT:

Scene length and structure
Effective transitions and cliffhangers
Quality prose narrative (genre appropriate)
Tension on every page
Dialogue mastery
Narrative composition (quality of set and engaging circumstances)
Cinematic imagery (both static and dynamic)
Proper point-of-view
Appropriate use of craft technique
Interior Monologue and rumination

Comments

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