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Hook Them In and Keep Them There.

The hook is the thing in the first couple of paragraphs that makes the reader want to keep reading. Any publisher who's interest isn't peaked by the end of the first page will not get to your hook on page 5.

I'd even go as far as to say some publishers wouldn't get to the end of the first page if the hook wasn't in the first couple of paragraphs.

Good, clean writing may interest them enough to want to look into you further and make suggestions on changes that could be made.

And in actual fact, many publishers and agents won't even begin reading if you don't hook them in with the cover letter ans synopsis. So finding the hook to your story overall is ultra-important. The hook is the thing that sets your Romantic Suspense novel, with a newly met couple running from the killers, apart from the rest of the books on the market with the same theme. It might be that he is a cat lover and she is allergic to cats. It might be that she never wants kids and he has 30 foster children at home. it might be that she is a surfer and he has a fear of water.

Whatever it is, find it, and make that the first thing you use in a cover letter. Hook them in and make them want to take a look at your work. I find it easier to write a hook first and create the story around that, looking for the natural conflict that might arise. Make things opposite to normal, use the what if principal. What if someone who is a staunch environmentalist meets and falls in love with a logger who's family relies on the industry to survive?

If a publisher gets back to you and asks for a rewrite take notice of them. You are closer than ever to getting published. They aren't criticizing your work, but rather recognizing something they like and helping you bring it into line for their publishing house.

How do you know the hook is a good one, if it's even effective, what the heck is a good hook? Yeah, I know where you are coming from. Let's explore the possibilities of what might be a good hook.

First of all, pick up some books. Read the first page, identify just what about it got your interest if it did. Which sentence really had you wondering what next? Or maybe one of the characters proved so compelling you just had to see what happened to them. Or maybe it was the descriptive on the cover jacket. This is where you will find the hook. They are used to get readers to want to buy the book.

The worst thing you can do is start off with your heroine staring out over the

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