Hook, Line, and Sinker: Grab the Reader & Never Let Them Go

“‘Follow your passion’ is dangerous advice.’”

Now that is what I call a good hook. Grab the reader, and never let them go…

On its own, it works for more than one genre. I can see that in any number of novels, fantastical or realistic. In fact, it’s the opening to Cal Newport’s famous nonfiction self-help book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love.

How you start your book matters. No matter how amazing the guts of the story, we’ll never know unless we’re enticed to read on, first.

Why a Hook is Important

Book readers like to check out a little of a book before they buy it. They want a taste before committing money. Does it seem to live up to the cover and the description?

Amazon’s no dummy; they recognize this behavior. That’s why they have the “Search Inside” or “Look Inside the Book” feature.

Where do readers often look while previewing? The beginning of the book.

This is only natural. Sure, they can sample other pages, too. But why not start at the beginning?

This means that the opening of your book needs to do a LOT of work for you. How you start determines whether your reader decides to go any further—whether they want to purchase your book in the first place. You need to immediately give them reasons to invest their time (and money!).

This is what we mean by “hook.” Hook them from Page 1, from the very first sentence, if possible. No warm-up, no long lead-in, no backstory.

If you drop the ball here, you may never get another opportunity to play catch.

What Makes a Good Hook?

Drop us into the middle of the “action.” By this I mean a scenario we’re desperate to know what happens next in, or a question that immediately intrigues us. Meandering, “by the way, you should probably know [X],” preludes are not a hook.

Here are a few more examples:*

“It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.”

“As the man dressed head to toe in khaki turned the corner and began racewalking uphill in my direction, I had to wonder: had we met before?”

“People have trouble making lasting changes. They quit nutrition plans, don’t adhere to medication regimens, and can’t keep New Year’s resolutions to lose weight or stop procrastinating.”

“Anna opened her eyes and saw a pair of hands, streaked and shiny with blood.”

“I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a dumpster.”

“I was intimidated. I’d spent more than two decades in the FBI, including fifteen years negotiating hostage situations from New York to the Philippines and the Middle East, and I was on top of my game. At any given time, there are more than ten thousand FBI agents in the Bureau, but only one lead international kidnapping negotiator. That was me. But I’d never experienced a hostage situation so tense, so personal.”

The specific details of a hook will vary by genre, but the effect of a good one is always the same. A good hook identifies the key elements of the forthcoming story and sharpens them into a point that touches reader expectations specifically, immediately, and intensely.

The Hook is About the Reader—Not You

A good hook necessarily takes into account your reader’s interests, pain points, background, beliefs, preferences, expectations, and more. You had better care about your reader, because that’s the only way you’ll get them to care about your book.

Who is your reader? “Everyone” is not an answer. A (small) group of people is better; one specific person is best. Below are a few questions that can help you:

• What do they expect out of this genre/type of book?
• What’s their background? E.g., age, profession, education, where they live, etc.
• What results does your reader get from reading your book?
• When they recommend your book to their friends, what do they say?

Bestsellers have figured out who their readers are. That’s why those books do so well—they’re meeting a reader interest, desire, or need. Time for you to do the same.

How to Start Composing Your Hook

It’s easier to recognize a good hook when you see one than to start writing your own. Good news is, this is the best place for you to start gathering ideas. Start by looking at what other successful books in your genre are doing. Find the bestsellers, the ones everyone is talking about. Then look at their:

• back covers
• first chapters

Deconstruct these. Would you want to read the book? Why are you interested? What’s drawing you in? If you’re not so enthused, make note: why are you lukewarm?

You might notice that a good hook isn’t doing warm-ups. It’s already mid-sprint.

Set your manuscript aside and let it sit for a while as you look at your comps. Then come back to it fresh. You might be surprised what early paragraphs, which seemed so essential to you at the time, can go.

What you’re going for is “Wow!”

Bottom Line

There’s a line from the movie Jerry Maguire that gets a lot of mileage, whether in earnest or as a joke: “You had me at ‘hello.’”

Your book should have your reader at hello. Have you checked recently how many other books are out there for them to choose from? Don’t waste this opportunity. It’s a reader’s market.

Get them from the beginning—hook, line, and sinker.

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*examples: Outlander, Turn Right at Macchu Picchu, Stick with It, Red Bones, The Glass Castle, Never Split the Difference

Need help with your hook? Let’s schedule a book structure intensive or some coaching!

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