How Much Of Your Manuscript Will A Publisher Read?

That's an interesting question, and I suspect there are as many answers as there are publishers.

But since I've just written a post on Elena Ferrante, a contemporary literary sensation, how about her publisher? How many pages of your manuscript would Michael Reynolds, the chief editor of Europa Editions, read?

Thanks to Literary Hub, we know the answer: 30 pages.  But his mind may actually have been made up much earlier.

What follows is the key interchange in an interview of Reynolds by Francesca Pellas:

FP: How do you select manuscripts here at Europa? How much do you read before making a decision?

MR: I read everything that comes in, but I don’t read the pitch first, nor the cover letter. I start with the manuscript. I look at the email just to make sure it’s not something that we don’t publish, and then go straight to the manuscript. I read 30 pages and decide whether it’s worth continuing or not. Sometimes I know from the second line that it’s not going to work for us, but I always, always, give these manuscripts the benefit of the doubt and read those 30 pages. I’ve never changed my mind, but I feel that’s the least I can do out of respect for someone who spent so much time writing something.

The bottom line: make sure you get the second line right!