Writing And Your Hook

January 12, 2007
I was reading the Publishing Contrarian blog today and she had some interesting things to say about hooks.

The Catch-22 in Publishing: A book by an unknown author has to become successful on its own before the publishing company will do anything significant on its part to add to the success. Even worse, the truth is that most publishing companies are much too content with a book selling well on its own to ante up any extra marketing money in an effort to boost sales over the top. “Next book, please!” So if your book-in-progress can’t already boast a hook, you’d better add one. And if you already have one or better, two, (good for you!), you’d better hit the people whose attention you’re trying to attract over the head with it.

Never forget that you have to sell your book to the literary agent; the literary agent has to sell your book to the editor; the editor has to sell your book to the publisher; and the publisher might have to sell your book to the president of the company. Not to mention that once it is published, your book has to be “sold” to the marketing department as something other than the usual fare worthy of no more than the usual ho-hum effort. (Get those 300 ARCs ready to blast into oblivion!) Even if you self-publish, a good hook will get you in the door of independent bookstores where you live and where your story takes place, Starbuck’s where you live and where your story takes place, libraries where you live and where your story takes place–wherever the hook fits well.

Now, I have to confess, I'm not really sure I "get" hooks and how to write them. Rather inadvertently I may have come up with several good ones with the Derek Stillwater novels--that is to say, 1) biological and chemical terrorism, 2) extremely tight timeframes, 3) Derek's panic attacks and general ambivalence about a job he does rather well (more Spiderman than Superman, I guess).

And I think sometimes writers just write the story they want and happen to be lucky that the story has a hook. I kind of doubt that the author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter thought, "There are 350,000 people with Down syndrome in the U.S., and most of their families will read my book and talk about it." No, I suspect the author thought, "I want to write a story about someone with Down syndrome that treats the disorder as something besides a cliche."

Still, given the current state of the publishing industry, it's probably a good idea to think about your hook. A genius detective with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, anyone? Oh yeah, "Monk."

Best,
Mark Terry