Setting the Hook

The Strong Nonfiction Start

By Mary Rosenblum

 

            The hook start is important, and in nonfiction it can be critical.  Your reader has a magazine full of articles of interest to him or her.  You, in a sense, are competing for that reader’s attention.  You’re definitely competing for the editor’s attention as she skims those query letters.  A good hook makes a good opening line for that query letter.  So what is a good hook?  And what do you do after you’ve tossed out that hook? 

 

Snag ‘Em

            A good hook snags the readers attention.  You know who your readers are, right?  You’ve chosen your market.  So you know what their concerns are.  Now throw out a line that snags that concern.  Let’s say you’re writing an article for a dog magazine, slanted to dog owners with basic training issues.  You assume your readers have a dog that doesn’t behave well.  So  snag their attention.    “Come here!”  You whistle, but Rover ignores you, dashing  across the yard.  It’s eight twenty in the morning and you need to leave for work in five minutes.     The owner of that badly behaved dog stops browsing.  Oh yeah, he knows that scenario all too well.  How does the author suggest he fix it? 

            That’s the key to a good hook…make the reader look.    Good information is not enough…remember that your reader has all those articles to read and not enough time.  And editors know it.  A well trained dog is a pleasure to own, and every dog owner can have a well trained dog.  That line could open your article on dog training.  Compare the two.  Mr. Dog Owner knows he has a very badly trained dog and he has tried to train it and he hasn’t done well and he doesn’t need someone else telling him he’s not doing a good job.  Pass! But that line about the well trained dog and how it’s a pleasure is a perfectly good line.  It simply does not compel Mr. Dog Owner.  If he had time he might read it, but he’s always late because of the dog and he has lots of other things to do and he’ll read it…eventually.  Translate that to ‘never’.  But Mr. Dog Owner has to chase Snowball all over the yard every morning and he has been late five times this month and…   He’ll read that first hook.  And maybe keep reading. 

 

Lead On!

            Now what?  You’ve snagged Mr. Dog Owner.  He has to chase Snowball after all.  Now how do you get him to keep reading?  This is the lead.  It tells Mr. Dog Owner what he can expect from this article.  “Come here!”  You whistle, but Rover ignores you, dashing  across the yard.  It’s eight twenty in the morning and you need to leave for work in five minutes.  You stand up straight, yell “Rover, front!”  And Rover skids into a turn and comes racing to you.  Coming when called is one of the biggest training issues pet dog owners face.  But with a very small investment of  time, you can have a dog that turns his back on that squirrel he’s chasing and comes charging to you when you yell, ‘Front!’.

            This is the lead.  Mr. Dog Owner is hoping for a fix for his dog problem and the author tells him up front what she’s going to deliver.  Yes, I’ll teach you how to make Snowball come when you call in the morning.  And it won’t take a lot of time or expensive equipment.  Now our Mr. Dog Owner is committed.  His attention has been snagged, he likes the promise, and he’s all set to read.

 

Make Good

          Of course you must make good on your lead.  You have made a promise to the reader, so make sure you deliver.  You send the editor a query with this hook and lead.  The editor is all set for a solid training article that focuses on methods pet dog owners can use to teach their dogs to come when called.  But your article then goes off into a long discussion about dog and owner relationships and puppy training…Coming when called is barely mentioned.    All this might be pertinent, but it is NOT what the hook and lead promised. 

            Rejection! 

            Make sure that you know that your lead backs up your hook and that your article delivers what that lead promises.  Try for something ‘eye catching’ for your hook.  Even if this is a personal narrative about your Great Aunt Betty, you  can snag that reader eye.  Great Aunt Betty never settled for less than first place at the state fair.  And every judge knew it.  They had all eaten sugar cookies in her kitchen.  This might appear in a regional magazine, a ‘country life’ magazine, even a cooking magazine.  But readers skimming through notice.  Ah, an interesting old gal, what did she do?  Intimidate them?  Or was she just so great that they had to let her win?   And they read on.  The article might be about her special recipe (for a cooking mag), or about her presence in the community (nostalgia market) or about rural community values (regional mag), but the hook got them looking.

 

Query Letter Hook

            If you’ve taken the trouble to sharpen a nice hook, use it in your query letter.  “Come here!”  You whistle, but Rover ignores you, dashing  across the yard.  It’s eight twenty in the morning and you need to leave for work in five minutes. .   The most common complaint of pet dog owners is that their dogs won’t come when called.  Let me offer your reader some very simple training tips that can have Rover dashing to them with enthusiasm every time they call…

            What works for readers works on editors.  And then the editor knows that you can sharpen a really nice hook.  Now, just deliver on that promise.