That might work in a cartoon, but you just can’t start your story with backstory.

It seems like such a pity. The easiest solution is to start at the beginning and when we get to the end, stop.

And y’know, in the beginning, the gods created this really cool world, and it had magic, but only certain people could use it. And there’s this really great story to go with it, but before I can tell it to you, you have to understand all the magic rules and nifty creatures so you can enjoy it, too.

Snooze. And the silence of yet another reader not clicking on your buy link. (Trade publication would not be a likely possibility.)

I can hear the screams. But why?! Tolkien did it. Eddings did it. Insert-famous-author’s-name-here did it.

Yeah, okay, but chances are they didn’t do it in the last twenty years.

You’ve got…