Chris Eboch on Does a Book Need a Hook?

A girl in ancient Egypt uncovers a plot against the Pharaoh as she hunts for her missing friend (The Eyes of Pharaoh)

An orphan explores his magical powers at a school for wizards. Twins discover they are really genies. Death narrates a World War II story. The young descendants of Sherlock Holmes tackle one of his unsolved cases. A boy discovers a world of monsters, where he has superpowers. Twins deal with pirates, some of them vampires.

A hook—in this case the “high concept” idea—can grab the reader’s attention and make a book stand out. Here are the books with the above hooks.

Harry Potter series, by J. K Rowling

Children of the Lamp series, by P. B. Kerr

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.

The 100-Year-Old Secret, by Tracy Barrett

Billy Hooten, Owlboy, by Thomas E. Sniegoski

Vampirates series, by Justin Somper 

Do you need a hook? Well, in today’s competitive market, it sure doesn’t hurt. It’s a quick way to summarize your idea for an editor or agent, handy for writing conferences. So how do you figure out what yours is—or if you have one?

One option is comparisons—I So Don’t Do Mysteries was described as Nancy Drew with a Devil Meets Prada makeover by the publisher sales team trying to sell the book to bookstores and libraries. After Die Hard, action movies were often described as “Die Hard on a plane” or “Die Hard on a boat.” Be careful with comparisons, though—you don't want to name a book or movie that isn't familiar to the editor, or that wasn't successful.

On the jacket flap, books often used an “except” or “but” twist. The second part is the twist on a common plot. — A girl thinks the new boy isn't human, but it turns out she's the one with strange powers.

If your book isn’t trendy, don’t despair. What hooks the reader is individual to that reader. Some may read any book set in a certain time or place. Some may love talking animals or sports stories or geek girls. Don’t try to make your book sound like it fits some hot trend, if it doesn’t. Instead try to hook your readers. Who are your target readers, and what will draw them to this book?

A Mayan girl challenges the high priest trying to take over her city (The Well of Sacrifice)

  

A good hook is simple and short—sometimes it’s referred to as a one-sentence synopsis or an elevator pitch (from the idea that you might have 30 seconds in an elevator to grab an editor’s attention). It’s not long-winded, where you try to cram everything into one run-on sentence. The hook doesn’t necessarily tell you the plot, but it gives you the flavor of the book and arouses interest. It may be simply the premise or the most unusual aspect of the story.

EXERCISE: For practice, name a favorite or recent book—how would you describe it to a friend? Would you pick it up if you heard that description?

EXCERCISE: Write a simple synopsis of your work. Don’t worry about length or clarity. Jot down the who, what, when, where and why.

EXCERCISE: Describe your book to someone else. Let them ask questions. Then ask what they found most compelling about the idea.

Now you have some idea of the most interesting aspects of your work. Time to turn it into a one-sentence synopsis with your hook. It may help to ask, What is the conflict, in terms of X versus Y?

A brother and sister travel with a ghost hunter TV show and try to help the ghosts, while keeping their activities secret from meddling grownups. (Haunted series)

Once you have your hook, you can expand upon that one-sentence synopsis for a query letter or longer conversation.

All the Other Kinds of Writing by Dianne K. Salerni

I think all aspiring writers imagine what it’s like when you finally publish a book:

Digging back into research
for a book I wrote 7 years ago.

deadlines for your editor, biting nails over your reviews, book signings, and etc. But I for one never realized just how much writing I’d have to do that wasn’t manuscript writing.

A lot of us have our own blogs, of course. Personally, I post twice a week at my own blog and once a month here at Project Mayhem. Occasionally I post for my agent’s blog.

Then there’s blog tours around the release of your book. Some authors create one release promo and send it out to everybody participating in the tour – or offer a choice of three. In my opinion, it’s a bit of a cheat to the bloggers and the blog readers when the exact same thing appears on 30 blogs. I’ve stopped accepting those on my personal blog, and I’m definitely not going to take that approach for my own blog tour. Anyone who's kind enough to host me is going to get an original post.

Interviews are easy. You answer the questions. Guest posts are trickier, especially if you’ve just publicly declared (ahem!) that you plan to make each one unique.

But that’s not all. My publicist pitched me and my book to Huffington Post, and they said they’d consider accepting an article on X topic. So, there’s an assigned article for me to write – and hope they like – and hope they post. It’s not guaranteed.

My agent recently asked for a 1 page synopsis on two different books, to be used in pitching for film and foreign rights. So don’t think you’re done with the dreaded synopsis after your querying days are over. I also didn’t realize I’d be the one to write sales announcements. They are harder than they look!

Last week, I wrote an 8-page synopsis of the second EIGHTH DAY book and a 5-page plan for the series story arc.  This weekend, my To-Do list includes: the proposed Huffington Post article, 2 posts for my own blog, this post for Project Mayhem, and two guest posts for THE CAGED GRAVES tour -- one on the inspiration for the story and one on mortsafes.

Then, on Friday night, the producer of the short film based on WE HEAR THE DEAD called me. The producer and director are working on a “series bible” – a proposal for a television series based on the film and the book. The producer wanted to know if I could compile a list of events in the Fox sisters’ lives that didn’t make it into my book, as well as every séance trick I can think of. So exciting! But since I wrote that novel in 2006, this is going to require digging back into my original research. 

I've been writing like a maniac all week and never touched any of my manuscripts. Who knew?

What the Kids Say ...

THE most important factor in book choice for MG readers:
the cover synopsis

A few weeks ago, Matt McNish posted about first lines. And he got me wondering: How important are first lines to MG readers?

Since I have a captive audience of MG readers every day, I decided to find out. I divided my class into discussion groups, gave them a stack of unfamiliar books, and asked what factors were most important in deciding whether or not to read any of them.

I specifically asked them to consider the first sentence, first paragraph, and first page. In spite of this, every group focused on the back cover or dust jacket. They had to be reminded to open the book and look inside before answering – even though that was part of their directions – because the cover blurb was the deciding factor for them.

A few students were more reflective. “You should really look inside,” Alexa said. “I wasn’t very interested in this one, from the back cover, but the first page is really interesting. I might read this.”

The Kiss of Death: no synopsis, only review blurbs.
Or worse -- nothing at all!

But in each group, the decision to start reading was almost always based on the blurb.  Not so much the front cover, which surprised me. “Covers don’t always show what the book’s about,” Grace said. “But the back of the book tells you the problem in the story, which is what I want to know.”

I asked how important the first page was in determining whether the students continued reading. If they weren’t hooked by the first page, did they keep going?  Some did not.

“I want some action on the first page,” Zoe admitted.

“I’ll give it till page two,” Grace said with a laugh. “And then I’m done.”

“If I don’t like the first chapter, I’ll skip to the next one,” Mike said.

Grace challenged him on that. “You mean, go back and read it later?”

“Nope,” said Mike with a grin. “Just skip it. I know I’m not supposed to.” He shrugged unapologetically.

But most students said they would not quit if the first page didn’t hook them; they’d keep reading further – a chapter or two at least. “Unless there are too many words I don’t know on the first page,” Chris clarified. “Then the book might be too hard for me.”

Josh added, “I always look to make sure there aren’t too many strange names and places and words in the beginning.”  I pointed out that Josh reads almost exclusively science fiction and fantasy. Aren’t they full of strange names and places and words? “Yeah, but too many in the beginning is just confusing,” Josh said. “I want to learn them a little at a time.”

Owen asked his group if they would read a book because of the author or because it won an award. The answer was yes for an author they liked – Andrew Clements and Gordon Korman were mentioned – but an award sticker was not as respected. “They give awards because the book is ‘heartwarming,’” said Zoe, using air quotes to make her point. “And then it’ll have no action in it.”

So – the message for writers? Make sure your opening pages are engaging and don’t dump too many strange things in the beginning. But you absolutely need a cover synopsis that’s a grabber. Even though the author doesn’t usually write that, (unless he or she is self-publishing), make sure the publisher is putting as much effort into that summary as they do on the front cover design.

Don’t worry if you don’t have an award sticker. Kids don’t care. And if you happen to be Andrew Clements or Gordon Korman, you’re golden.