[RightWhale]

And, unless you are self-publishing you will have to do this with the most critical reader there is—the person who has to read a dozen works like yours every day before lunch and decide if it is worth calling the ink delivery truck.

[carton253]

You can tell I want to jump right on that Arabic.

I think if not in the very first page then in the first ten. I may be more patient than some...

Unless it is really bad. I read the novel based on the movie Amistad. Great movie... but the "novel" was too preachy and I knew that by page three. I finished it but the author was really heavy handed.

[processing please hold]

the person who has to read a dozen works like yours every day before lunch and decide if it is worth calling the ink delivery truck.

Agreed. Yours has to stand out from the crowd if it's ever to have a chance.