The Importance of a Great Hook

Pop quiz: Would you pick up any of the following books?

• Science Fiction: “A middle school science teacher wakes up aboard a spacecraft and has no idea how he got there.”
• Personal Growth: “A step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.”
• Memoir: “A marriage collapses overnight, and in its wake, a woman discovers what it takes to keep living when everything unexpectedly changes.”
• Mainstream Fiction: “A trad-wife influencer time travels to the 1850s and is forced to live the actual life she previously curated onscreen.”

Chances are if you’re interested in their particular genres, you’d take a look at these books. And you wouldn’t be the only one. All of them (respectively, Project Hail Mary, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, and Yesteryear) are runaway bestsellers. Why? There are a lot of reasons, but a primary one is because each of these books has a great hook.

What is a hook? Simply put, it’s a single sentence that draws in potential readers. Particularly when the book is new on the market, the hook is often the leadoff sentence in the book’s back cover description (which is also generally displayed on retailer sites such as Amazon). Later, the hook might be replaced by accolades such as bestseller status, a movie adaptation, or awards, but when the book is new and doesn’t yet have wide recognition, the hook is what piques a reader’s interest.

So what makes a great hook? There are several key factors:

• Brevity. The hook is rarely longer than a single sentence. This doesn’t mean a longer description of the book doesn’t exist. Most books benefit from a description of about 200 words (what fits on a standard back cover), but the hook sums up the book’s basic premise while taking mere seconds for a reader to digest.
• Tone. The reader should be able to grasp the book’s tone based on the hook. Are they in for an adventurous read? Will the book be humorous? Is it sad or melancholy? For nonfiction, is the book academic in tone, or geared more toward a general audience?
• Emotion. Regardless of genre, readers should experience something internal when they read or hear the hook. For example, when the hook intrigues, excites, or shocks potential readers, their next step is to learn more about the book. If the hook falls flat, your potential reader might very well move on to something else.

Coming up with an effective hook takes time. One way to start is to draft your book’s longer description. Once you have a strong sense of this expanded description, whittle it down to a single sentence, creating a hook.

The hook is often called the “elevator speech,” because it’s short and precise enough that if you mentioned during an elevator ride with a stranger that you’d written a book and they asked, “So what’s it about?” you’d be able to deliver the hook before the questioner reaches their floor and exits the elevator. While this exact scenario might not ever happen to you, it’s wise to prepare as if it will. That way, when you’re asked about your book in social or business situations, you’ll have an answer at the ready. Practice saying your hook in front of a mirror. It may feel silly to do this, but practicing aloud makes it easier to comfortably and naturally state your hook in any situation.

If you’re struggling with either your hook or the book itself, we’d love to help. Mark Graham Communications’ team of experienced, talented ghostwriters and editors have worked with authors on successful books in all genres. Not only can we provide an edit or help you write your book, we’re also able to assist with tasks such as positioning the book in the marketplace, determining your hook, and figuring out your key audience. If you’d like to learn more, please get in touch!