Get a Hook!
An important part of your book idea is your hook: The catchy concept that grabs readers’ attention and compels them to buy the book. You need it from the start — it's the litmus test for why anyone would read your book.
Richard Carlson’s bestseller Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff . . . and It’s All Small Stuff has a great hook: It takes everyday problems that seem enormous and insurmountable and puts them into perspective. It does this by (1) telling you in the subtitle that it’s all small stuff — that’s a relief! (2) by having extremely short chapters — just a few pages, and (3) by being small in size. Everything about this book tells you the same thing: Your problems are manageable!
Do You Have a Hook?
Does your book have a hook? If you're not sure, ask yourself whether, and specifically how, your hook connects with one or more of these consumer needs:
Why You Need a Hook
The idea of coming up with a hook for their books is something that often troubles new writers. “Why,” they ask, “do I have to come up with a hook? Shouldn’t the agent/editor be able to tell what makes my book so cool?” The answer is no. Editors and agents don’t have the time or the inclination to figure that out.
In every single category of nonfiction books, from business to romance to cyberspace to memoir, many, many books are jostling for scarce shelf space and readers’ attention — and that's true even in a cyber-bookstore like Amazon.com. Few books are bestsellers. To put a new book on the market with all those other books, publishers have to be confident that it will prompt consumers to pluck it — rather than any of the other choices — out of the pack.
The hook is almost literal: It must extend out of the book and into the consumers’ hearts and minds so that they believe that they need this book enough to plunk down their cash for it.
Some Sample Hooks
These successful authors display their hooks prominently in the titles of their books. It's easy to see why titles on practical nonfiction books tend to be quite long and descriptive.
Even less practical and more serious works of nonfiction have hooks, but they're more about the "good read they promise" or the information they deliver. For example, Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America promises just about every kind of thrill and chill: Aren't you just dying to know what happened at this worlds' fair? Other examples include Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation.
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