12 Reasons Agents Dump Your Book

Here are the most common reasons an agent puts down your book:
1.  It has a prologue which gives information that happened a significant time before Chapter 1.  Instead, make it Chapter 1.
2.  Descriptions go on and on without any action.  Instead, work descriptions into the story rather than having them stand alone.  Here's a good example from Frederick Buechner's, Telling Secrets:  "One night we went to compline in an Episcopal cathedral, and in the coolness and near emptiness of that great vaulted place, in the remoteness of the choir's voices chanting plainsong, in the grayness of the stone, I felt it again--the passionate restraint and hush of God."
3.  It has a ragged, fuzzy point of view.  Instead, have a series of significant, meaningful scenes, each moving the story forward to its conclusion.
4.  The opening is predictable.  Instead, start with something surprising, or a brand new way of expressing your idea, or a metaphor that is compelling and readers can easily relate to it.
5.  It begins with, "My name is...."
6.  Nothing happens in Chapter 1.
7.  The writing is full of cliches, time-worn patterns of speech; or the reader is led to believe one thing and then tricked, such as, in the last chapter the whole story turns out to have been a dream.
8.  The main character in Chapter 1 dies.
9.  The characters in the story are too perfect, no flaws, ... boring.
10. The writing has inauthentic dialogue.  No one really talks that way.
11. The story goes on and on and no plot is in sight.
12. All the information about the characters is dumped in the first few pages.  Instead, flesh out the characters over time in what they say, do or don't say or don't do.