Key to the Hook
June 12th, 2008 by Allison Winn Scotch
After having two starkly different experiences with my first two books, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a book a smash hit. Mostly, I’ve been thinking about this because I’m struggling to come up with a concept for my third book that will be as well-received as the concept for my second, but I’m also thinking about it because, as I said, now that I’ve been on this merry-go-round for a few spins, I have a clearer idea of what an author needs to do to truly hit their book out of the park.
And my main theory is that it is all about the hook, the “high-concept idea,” as they say behind closed doors at their marketing meetings when they decide whether or not to buy your book and if so, how much to spend on it.
Agents, publishers, editors, booksellers and PR teams get very, very excited when your book has a big hook. By this I mean, it can be summed up in a super-excited, one-sentence plot that will immediately give someone a sense of what happens. My first book had a hook – girl gets cancer and redefines her life – but not everyone wants to read about cancer, and not everyone wants to buy a book about cancer (even when I explain that it really, really isn’t about cancer), but my second book has a BIG hook (according to those in the industry) – discontented woman goes back in time to tweak the mistakes she made the first time around – and people have flipped for it. The print run is exploding, foreign rights deals are closing. If you’ve followed my blog, you’ll know that we recently just closed a pretty big movie deal. So while my first book was well-received, this one is just in a totally different stratosphere. And I’m telling it, it’s because of the universally appealing hook.
So, as I’m considering the plot line for my next book, I am, admittedly, trying to stick to the premise that a big hook means big excitement which means big sales. Does this mean that I’m selling out?
I don’t think so. It means, to me, that I’m writing the best book I can while still keeping in mind that my career – and everything that goes into and along with it – is a business. Every writer wants to sell as many books as possible, reach as many readers as possible. And while there are a lot of things that are out of our control when it comes to hitting the big time, writing a widely-appealing book isn’t one of them.
I know. I can hear people grumbling and disagreeing. “You can’t write a book to echo the current trends,” you might be saying. “You have to write your best work and leave it at that,” you could be mumbling. And I agree with both of these statements. But my point is that, if you’re looking for a big audience or a big advance or a big marketing budget, you simply have to also remember that you’re writing something that people have a choice to take or leave. No one (other than your immediate family) is obligated to buy your book. Your marketing team isn’t obligated to toss money your way if they don’t think the audience is there. Your sales team won’t sell the hell out of the book if they don’t think that, pardon the pun, it will hook the booksellers.
Writing, as I’ve long said, is part-art, part-business. Spend too much time on either aspect, and I don’t think you’ll be successful. Finding that balance is a tricky one; I’m not willing to write a subpar novel because I know it can sell. But, hey, I’m enough of a narcissist to admit that I also want my book to hit the best-seller list. And if it means that I might have to forego a quieter, smaller book idea for a bigger one, well, I will, as long as I’m certain that the overall product doesn’t suffer. Which, I hope means that while I’m not a sell-out, my book most definitely sells out in bookstores across the nation.
Photo courtesy Flickr’s Leo Reynolds
If you are writing a pirate story because pirate movies are big this week, you are following the market. If you are crafting your novel to have punch, you are writing a better novel. Writing a story with a strong hook is putting that punch where it will do the most good from a business standpoint.
John Grisham’s career didn’t start with Painted House (”Boy experiences growing up poor in the rural South”) it started with The Firm (”Hot-shot lawyer gets in over his head with mob-controlled law firm”). Steven King’s career started with Carrie (”social outcast turns tables at prom using telekenisis”).
Dan
You’re not selling out at all! You’re smart and you want to devote your time and creativity to a book concept that people will flip for. I like your take on balancing the art and business sides of writing. I’m glad you wrote about “the hook” b/c it also applies to nonfiction. Happy b-day, btw!
I don’t even give the time of day to people who talk about “selling out” in pejorative terms.
There’s really only two ways you can go creatively… 1) You try to create something that interests and excites other people and has some universal appeal.
2) You make something obscure and eccentric that only you like, and you don’t really care whether anyone else understands it because it’s not just art, it’s YOUR ART.
Obviously there is some in-between, but those seem to be the two dominant attitudes among creative people.
In my experiences, #2 is often a bitter, envious perspective of a creative person who can’t find an audience and thus would rather rationalize why not having an audience is a good thing. Such a person will often do this by talking about things like “artistic integrity” and how everyone who is successful is “formulaic” and “un-original.”
Recognize the sour grapes for what they are. I think secretly we all crave some form of success — at the very least acknowledgment and recognition. A creative work, is after all, a form of communication and if nobody receives that communication or worse they fail to understand it, it’s likely the creative person is left with some ill feelings about that.
A hook is like a rocket you build onto your main concept — it will go farther faster with one than without one. Who doesn’t want to go farther, faster? Only bitter people who can’t see beyond their own sour grapes.
A hook is just a form of creative constraint. And all creative people perform better under the challenge of a strong constraint.
It’s like a painter who wants to see how far they can paint with a limited palette. The painter chooses the palette, so it’s not like there’s any lack of creative freedom or control.
It’s simply saying, “My story is about THIS and NOT THAT.”
Better than, “I don’t really know what my story is about?”
As the others have commented: EXACTLY. The hook snags, the writing reels them in.
Happy Birthday, btw!
I love this post; it’s so right-on in general. Specifically, it speaks to my current inner conflict as I sit here wondering why my agent hasn’t yet been able to sell my novel. She says the rejections are “positive” (some consolation), so what could be the problem, ultimately? It might just be that the hook is too quiet.
So, I’ve been thinking about this alot, the sell-out versus big-hook dilemma. I agree that big hooks don’t equate with selling out. To put it at the most basic of levels, some of us without sugar daddies or trust funds have to earn a living! We gotta thing in terms of the business.
From an artistic level, it also doesn’t equate. Many well-received, beautifully written novels have rockin’ hooks. (Think of Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones” in which is narrator was murdered and tells the story from heaven.
Thanks for a great post.
It’s not only essential to be able to explain what your story’s about in a few lines but to cause excitement with those lines. Having a mega hook is the best recipe for that.
Happy birthday, Allison!
Happy Birthday Allison!
I think you are correct to point out that ultimately publishing is all about business, it think not is to set yourself up for failure.
Having read your first book and eagerly awaiting your second, I know that you have the gift of crafting excellent novels. Getting the hook right is finding the blend of concept that is interesting enough to capture your imagination for the work of writing it, and thinking about the needs or wants of your readers. What ideas do they want to explore through the experience of reading the book?