The eight tests are for revision. Tests 1 to 4 (Shelf, Core promise, Declared decline and Variation) read a single book’s genre and need a promise inventory; tests 5 to 8 (Volume question, Series step, Re-entry and Criterion across volumes) read a series, or a book that may become one, and need a volume table, which can include planned volumes when only the first has been written. Record a sentence for each, not a verdict.
Test 1 — Shelf
Where would a reader of the first chapter shelve the book, and does the last chapter belong on the same shelf?
Failure. Genre drift: a book that changes kind without telling the reader.
Exception. From Dusk Till Dawn (Robert Rodriguez, 1996), a crime film that becomes a vampire film at its midpoint, the change its own joke.
Test 2 — Core promise
Does the book keep the core promise of the genre its opening declares?
Failure. A broken promise, or a book that has not decided what it is.
Exception. Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You (2012), a romance in its conventions whose hero chooses to die, keeping the emotional payment and declining the union.
Test 3 — Declared decline
For each declined convention, is the decline shown inside the book within the first quarter, and replaced by a promise the book keeps?
Failure. The undeclared decline.
Exception. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960), which kills its apparent protagonist and drops her story before its midpoint, and replaces it with a stronger one.
Test 4 — Variation
Does the book vary at least one convention, and is its meaning in the variation?
Failure. The inert formula.
Exception. Lee Child’s Reacher novels, whose pleasure is the scheme, kept.
Test 5 — Volume question
Can the volume’s question be written in a line, and is it closed inside the volume?
Failure. The volume that owes its question.
Exception. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), a third of a novel its publisher divided, which closes only a stage.
Test 6 — Series step
What step does each volume take on the series question, and can a reader name it?
Failure. The deferred answer, or a stalled series.
Exception. Columbo (from 1971), which has no series question and has declared that it has none.
Test 7 — Re-entry
Can a reader who finished the last volume a year ago, and one who never read it, both follow the first chapter?
Failure. The recap at the door, or a closed door.
Exception. Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies (2012), which opens on Cromwell’s falcons, named for his dead daughters, with no summary of Wolf Hall.
Test 8 — Criterion across volumes
Is the hero’s criterion where the last volume left it, and if it has moved, does the volume show the move?
Failure. The reset hero: an arc undone between volumes without a scene.
Exception. Seinfeld (1989–98), whose writers worked to the rule “no hugging, no learning”.
Reading the results together
Failures cluster, and the cluster locates the repair. Tests 1 (Shelf) and 2 (Core promise) failing together describe a book whose opening declared one kind and whose ending pays another; decide which kind the book is, and revise the end that is not it, which is usually the opening, since the ending carries the meaning. Test 3 (Declared decline) failing alone, with tests 1 (Shelf) and 2 (Core promise) passing, is the commonest pattern in a book written in a genre’s mode: the book keeps its own promise and borrows another genre’s question without saying it will not be answered. The repair is a sign inside the book, early, not a change to the ending.
Test 4 (Variation) failing alone is not always a fault. An episodic series can pass on the scheme alone, as Eco argued, and a writer should fail test 4 (Variation) knowingly, for a reader who wants the scheme. Tests 5 (Volume question) and 6 (Series step) failing together are a series hook that has replaced a series question: the volume leaves its own question open because it has no larger one to advance, and the repair is to close the volume and find the step. Test 7 (Re-entry) failing is cheap to mend and test 8 (Criterion across volumes) failing expensive, since a criterion reset without a scene breaks the arc of Arc and Theme (Chapter 12) in every volume that follows.
A clean pass on all eight, with readers who still feel cheated, usually means the paratext made a promise the text did not; look at the jacket before the book.
See also: the full treatment, section 5, with the procedure for each test and the household’s promise inventory.