u/Inside_Seaweed_2978

Hi everyone, queries typically include the first x pages or the first x chapters to judge the author by. Is it faux pas to modify some of those pages specifically for the query?

For example, one of the pages in my first twenty lays the foundation for something important later in the story. For the casual reader, it's still an interesting page but not high stakes. If I'm being judged by only twenty pages, this one page comes at a high cost as its significance would only be understood later.

Thus, for the query, is it conventionally acceptable to remove that one page to make space for another?

The downside of course would be if the agent requests a full but then doesn't start over and misses this page. But I can put a disclaimer when I send the full?

My instinct is to keep the pages as is but wanted to check in with the community as I'm still a novice in this industry.

THE SLAVE MONARCH is a standalone work of Historical Fantasy (80,000 words) with trilogy potential. The story features women navigating brutal systems of oppression towards an unlikely triumph, like Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun and Shen Tao’s The Poet Empress, with the warm, hopeful tone of Eve J. Chung’s Daughters of Shandong, set in a richly imagined world drawing on both East and West.

Sisters Harika and Emine are born with everything – loving family, noble name, and generational fortune – until an army carrying the Imperial Edict arrives to slaughter their mother and brother, along with the hundreds more they grew up with. In a single day, their home is reduced to a mass grave. They have only each other and a vow for revenge.

Harika and Emine are transported to the Imperial City as slaves: Harika to serve in the Emperor’s harem and Emine to mindless labour. To survive, Harika uses her beauty, talent, and charisma while Emine uses her photographic memory and encyclopaedic knowledge to outwit a court full of enemies: soldiers who see them as spoils of war, conspiring nobles, treacherous pretend-friends, and rival handmaidens.

Because Harika has a reputation for singing and dancing, the Emperor requests a performance. This may be the only chance to assassinate the man who ordered their family’s massacre, and the last thing the sisters will do alive. Succeed or fail, the attempt will mean their certain death, but at least it is one of their choosing. However, when the moment arrives, the sisters face a choice no plan anticipated: let innocents die to get their revenge or save them and the family of the man they swore to kill. The sisters are born as princesses and survive as slaves; now they must choose who they become.

I am an Indonesian Chinese debut novelist based in Singapore, and THE SLAVE MONARCH grew from my desire to adapt what makes the Palace Drama genre so beloved across Asia — Yanxi Palace, The Red Sleeve, and Pursuit of Jade — for English-speaking audiences. I graduated with a BA in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford University, but I regret not having double-majored in Literature.

The complete manuscript is available upon request. Thank you for your time and consideration.