Your hook is a promise your book must keep – here’s how to hook from first page to last

Ever felt overwhelmed when you’re choosing a book to read? With over two million new titles published worldwide every year, the feeling is inevitable.  

So how can a new writer break through the noise?  

What you need is a brilliant hook: that irresistible question or situation that makes agents, and readers, want to get stuck into your novel (instead of the next book/phone game/YouTube reel).  

But a strong hook is only half the story. Woe betide the author whose hook doesn’t deliver. Agents and readers alike get mad when they don’t get what they expect.   

So how do you find a powerful, and authentic, hook that’ll seduce and satisfy readers? I’ve helped hundreds of new and established writers with theirs, and here’s what I know…

Hooks and pitches

First of all, what exactly is a hook? And how is it different to an elevator pitch?   

The hook is a sentence or two that creates the desire to read on. It usually poses a story question or introduces a fascinating character and conflict. If you can’t hook your reader, it’s game over. 

The pitch is longer: a paragraph or two that’s like the description printed on the back of the book. This can also be used in email queries to agents. 

And the elevator pitch is the shortest: a super pithy pitch for when you’re in a Hollywood elevator with the director of your dreams and have only the journey time to make them fall in love with your project. It works best with high-concept ideas and often uses memorable comparisons:  Alien was pitched as ‘Jaws in space’.   

To break this down, let’s take one of this year’s biggest debuts, Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear. The title is already part of the hook: it’s the name of the farm where it’s set, it captures the nostalgia the influencer heroine sells to her followers, and it’s where she ends up trapped.  

I don’t have access to the elevator pitch that persuaded Amazon MGM and Anne Hathaway to snap up movie rights. But I’d guess at something like: A tradwife influencer who pretends to live a homestead life wakes up in 1855.  

And the slightly longer hook would be something like:    

When a tradwife influencer with eight million followers wakes up in 1855, she must discover if it’s a hoax, a reality show, or something more sinister to escape the brutal homestead life. 

Immediately, readers and agents want to know why, and what happens. We also see the irony in this ‘fake’ having to experience the bitter reality she’s been acting out. The best high-concept ideas have conflict built in, alongside surprise or irony. 

Hook-finding, step-by-step

If getting your hook right sounds high stakes, that’s because it is. But don’t panic: I promise you it’s there, waiting to be uncovered. The secret is to go step-by-step. Try to see your book afresh – I find using Post-its or a pen and a big sheet of paper more freeing than sitting at your laptop.  

Think about these three aspects of your book. Note down all the elements that occur to you:   

Character 

Who is your protagonist and what fascinating qualities would make a reader want to spend a whole book in their company? What aspect of their struggle and pain will resonate?  

Where there are two central characters, the relationship between them, or their mirrored journeys, may be the hook.  

Set-up and setting

What conflict are you setting up and where? Settings aren’t a hook on their own. The influencer’s farm in Yesteryear is interesting, but it needs the mystery of the time-slip element to make it irresistible.  

So, it’s not enough just to set your book in a war zone or a magical forest. What big unanswered question makes us keep turning the pages to reach the end? 

Style and approach 

If you’re writing a more literary novel, or non-fiction, considering your style and approach might hold the key to locating your hook. Your stylistic choices might be a hook in themselves – from an unusual narrator, such as an animal, to using letters or emails to tell the story (see Virginia Evans’s hit, The Correspondent). For non-fiction, you might be approaching a familiar topic in a fresh way, with new discoveries.  

Now, look at the strongest options…  

Try turning each of the points you’ve come up with into a question. You might combine elements, as in Yesteryear, which combines the mystery with anti-heroine Natalie’s acidic voice to keep readers hooked.  

The question that will help you decide if your hook works  

Imagine a reader has just finished your book. How will they enthuse to a friend about it?  

‘It’s about a judgy tradwife influencer who gets sent back to the 1800s and can’t work out why’, or ‘it’s about this female scientist who changes women’s lives by presenting a TV cooking show.’

But does your book keep the promise?

The hook needs to be outstanding, but it also needs to be true to your book. When you’re looking for an agent, they need to know the hook works all the way through. And after publication the same applies: readers let rip in one-star reviews if you don’t keep the promise of the hook. 

So, if your hook highlights one character, is their journey the main one in the book? A multi-POV novel might frustrate readers who want quality time with your most fascinating creation.  

And does your character change or grow? Static characters are strictly for sit-coms. 

If your hook is the set-up, does that drive the whole story? If it starts with a bloody crime and ends as a love story, you need to reflect that flip in your hook.  

Likewise, if your hook is an unusual narrator or form, does it deliver, or is it a gimmick? 

Your hook and story question must be resolved in a satisfying way. ‘It was all a dream’ means your problem is your book, not your hook! 

When the hook exposes a crack…

But if identifying your hook does reveal structural issues in the book, that’s useful. Now you have the chance to fix those before you submit to agents or indie-publish.  

Print out what you want the hook to be and keep it visible as you edit. As you work, ask yourself if every scene and chapter in your book takes you closer to fulfilling the promise you’ve made your readers.

Feel the fear and hook it anyway!

Don’t be scared of hooks. It takes work to reveal them but it’s worth the effort. I love working with writers and helping them find their hooks on the Path to Publication course – and it’s amazing how radically these improve. An outsider can often spot instantly what appeals about a book you’ve been writing for years. 

So, when the competition makes you feel overwhelmed, remember: a powerful hook will help get your book noticed. But delivering on that hook from first page to last is what’ll make your book loved.

Interested in receiving direct support and feedback from Kate on our next Path to Publication course? This intensive programme help you navigate the world of traditional publishing and leave you with the best chance of getting your book published. To have the course brochure and some further information about the course delivered straight to your inbox, fill in this form. As always, you can unsubscribe from email about Jericho Writers courses at any time.