Hook, line, and sinker
The Hook: What it is, why it matters and how to write a good one.
‘It’s got a great hook’.
‘It’s really hooky.’
‘I’m looking for something with a really solid hook.’
Editors and agents love to talk about ‘the hook’, but what on earth does that actually mean? In short, it’s the bait that you’re going to use to get the attention of your reader. It’s the sentence that sums up your novel in the catchiest and most memorable way. You might have written the best book in the world, you may have the most compelling characters and greatest world-building anyone has ever known, but if you can’t present your book in a quick, enticing way then you’re probably not going to sell many copies.
Why does it matter?
I’ve been in countless editorial meetings where an editor has sat down and told the rest of their team about an incredible submission they just read over the weekend. They talk about the characters and the setting and how much they loved this book, and at the end of their speech, someone always says, ‘okay, so… what’s the hook?’ At which point, invariably, the editor sits there in silence. I’ve been the editor sitting there in silence, desperately trying to work out how to sell this book to someone because you don’t always have five minutes to extol the virtues of the prose and the characters. Often, you don’t even have 30 seconds.
Think about it this way: when you’re standing in a bookshop or browsing online, there’s something that makes you want to buy a book. Often, it’ll be the cover that gets your attention but you’re buying a book to read not a piece of art, so there needs to be something about the story that interests you. You might read the first page or two, but often a reader will buy a book without even opening it – they’ll just read the blurb and the tagline. The hook is the starting point for these. It’s the elevator pitch for your book. It’s how you sell your book to someone before they’ve even read a word – how you get them to open it to read your wonderful writing.
Unfortunately, writing is an art but publishing is a business, especially in commercial fiction – and for the avoidance of doubt, I’m talking specifically about commercial fiction as that is where my experience is – your book has to stand out from the crowd. As publishers and authors, we’re competing not just with thousands of other books for attention, but also with Netflix, TikTok and all the other demands of modern life. The best and most successful pitches cut through that noise. They have a hook that makes their target audience sit up and listen. They make them want to know what happens next.
Is that really the author’s job?
The reality is that a good hook can really be the difference between a novel that is a mega-bestseller and one that never makes it off your hard drive. It’s what you’ll use to get an agent’s attention and, if it’s really good, probably what they’ll use to sell your book to an editor. The editor will probably then use it to pitch your book for acquisition, the sales team might use it to talk to retailers and the marketing team might use it to get the attention of readers. It might even end up on the cover of the book as a cover tagline.
It doesn’t have to be perfect at this stage. Nobody is expecting you to come up with a Mad Men worthy ad strapline that will end up on tube posters, but the reality of modern publishing is that it is filled with people who are overworked and busy and if you can catch their attention early, it is only going to help you. It change or be tweaked for different audiences, but as an in-house editor, if I received a pitch from an agent with an attention-grabbing and immediately clear hook, it often moved up my to-read pile. It would leap-frog other submissions because I wanted to read more, and because I knew other editors would too. It’s the same when your submission lands in an agent’s inbox. This isn’t laziness or people in publishing not wanting to put in the work, it’s the reality of a system filled with people who are overworked, underpaid, and probably burned out at every stage and every level. As much we wish we did, agents and editors simply do not have the time in the day to dedicate hours to every submission. We work in publishing, not medicine but sometimes we still have to triage and the most polished submission will always rise to the top of the pile.
But here’s the other thing: finding your hook is not just about getting an agent’s attention.
Refining your hook helps you get to the core of your story. Doing this work helps you to understand your book better. It helps you to refine whether you’re focusing on the right, most interesting parts of the story. Are you telling it from the right character’s perspective? Can you distil it or increase the stakes further to make it even more enticing? It also helps make sure you and your potential agent/ editor have a unified vision for the book and see it in the same area of the market. Understanding the hook for your book helps you know that you’re on the same page with your team and reduces the chance for any disconnect in vision that may come later in edits, cover design, the blurb, marketing etc.
How do you know if you have a ‘good’ hook?
Ultimately, what you’re looking for in a hook is that instant ‘oooh!’ reaction. Some examples of my favourite hooks are below:
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Two people share a bed, but they’ve never met.
Our House by Louise Candlish
A woman comes home to find that strangers have bought her house without her knowledge.
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
A disillusioned romance author falls in love with the ghost of her undeniably hot but recently very dead editor.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
A troubled young woman takes a housekeeping job for a wealthy family, only to find herself caught in a dangerous game of deception and manipulation.
Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven
Two soulmates are destined to kill each other in every reincarnated life.
And a bonus, the hook for one of the books I acquired:
The Dinner Lady Detectives by Hannah Hendy
Two aging school dinner ladies find their kitchen manager dead in the walk-in freezer and take it upon themselves to investigate.
You’ll see that the format of the hook isn’t always the same, but what these all do is give you a clear sense of the premise, the stakes and a hint at the genre too. They don’t tell you everything about the plot. In fact, often they don’t tell you much about the plot at all, but they’re all an intriguing tease. They hook you in. They make you want to know more.
So, how do you actually write a ‘good’ hook?
A lot of writers, especially in commercial fiction genres will start with the hook and build out their plot from there. In reality, this is the best time to find your hook because you’ll be able to test if it has legs as a commercial idea before you put in the work. However, if you’ve already written your novel then don’t worry! Here are some tips to find your hook:
Focus on your inciting incident. What is the event that throws your protagonist’s life off balance?
Find the key conflict in your novel. What is the dilemma or journey at the heart of the story?
Highlight what makes your book unique. Is it the setting, time period or something about the character?
Take these elements and combine them. Play around with the wording and phrasing and take the time to get it right. Test different ideas and combinations on family and friends.
Common weaknesses
Too long
Ideally, your hook should be one sentence. So if it’s longer than this, try cutting out some of the detail. Keep it short and sweet!
Too vague
Be specific. Give the reader (or literary agent or editor!) a clear insight into what your story is about and who your characters are. Often the hook’s weakness is that it’s not strong and specific enough.
No stakes
Often, I’ll see pitches for novels that tell me a lot about a character’s past, but neglect to focus on the conflict of the novel itself. What obstacle do they need to overcome? Give the reader a hint at what is to come! Look forward, not back.
Still struggling to pin down what makes your book stand out?
Talk about your book out loud. You may find that a more casual, natural environment helps you to pin down the unique elements of your book. Take note of which parts of your story people react to and use these as the basis for your hook. If you’re still struggling, it might be a sign that there’s a problem with the manuscript itself and that it might benefit from further editorial work.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Despite what it may sometimes seem, publishers do value brilliant writing and well-rounded characters, and editors will often fall in love with something that doesn’t have the world’s most unique premise and publish it to great success. Or, often a ‘big’ book will inspire a thousand similar ones that all seem the same. But, if an editor or agent really loves something, they’ll often spend a lot of time thinking about how they could pitch it and what the hook is. Sometimes I’ve gone back to an author and we’ve worked together to make a proposal or book ‘more hooky’ with changes to the manuscript itself, but I’ve also turned down brilliant novels because I haven’t been able to find a way to pitch it in a way that will make it stand out. Sadly, editors can’t publish every book they love – they have to present a clear sales case to the rest of the company too. If you can work out your hook early on it will make their (and, by extension, your) life so much easier.
The other thing that’s essential to remember is that despite what it may sometimes seem, the hook isn’t the only thing that matters – your book has to be more than that. I’ve turned down just as many books with brilliant hooks that then completely lose their way when you start reading. A book has to live up to its promise. But we’ll get onto that . . .
Within a few minutes after reading this essay, I did in fact draft a hook for my book. Thank you, Sian, for your awesome guidance.
I found this essay very helpful, and it inspired me to start writing.