Tag: hook

Categories
Kids Lit

Our Most Important Sentence

Kids Lit

Once the dream book is finally contracted, the most important writing starts. Essentially what we write in preparation for the book to sell many, many copies. The HOOK!

Bob Hostetler in his article Hooks and Gimmicks quotes Tamela Hancock Murray:

“A hook is a line that makes the reader say, ‘I’ve GOT to read this NOW!’ A gimmick is when the reader says, ‘Not ANOTHER one of these! I’m soooo tired of this same old same old.’

“Amazon completely dominates the bookselling landscape, controlling over 80% of ebook sales, 65% of online print book sales, and 83% of the U.S. e-reader market.”

The hook is the first sentence of the write up, often in bold face type. Your book’s hook should say: “I’ve GOT to read this NOW!”

I have a picture book coming in 2026 about trees. Every four months or so I check Amazon to see how tree books are being described.

Hook 1: drop a famous name or familiar title

Listening to Trees: George Nakashima, Woodworker by Holly Thompson. Neal Porter/Holiday House

A poetic and moving picture book biography celebrating the life and work of the visionary Japanese American woodworker George Nakashima.

Ecologist Suzanne Simard photographed in Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. Two decades ago, while researching her doctoral thesis, Simard discovered that trees communicate to each other.

Mother Aspen: A Story of How Forests Cooperate and Communicate by Annette LeBox. Groundwood Books

A lyrical story of an aspen grove through the seasons, inspired by the ground-breaking work of Dr. Suzanne Simard on how trees and fungi talk to each other.

Hook 2: mention a familiar theme

My Olive Tree by Hazar Elbayya. Anne Schwartz Books/Random House

In this simple, touching picture book about the healing power of a loving community, a girl’s grandpa and her neighbors help her grow an olive tree in a war-torn land.

I am Tree Rex! by Mo Davey. Berbay (Australia)

A character-driven dinosaur story about protecting the environment, one tree at a time. 

Hook 3: tell us about the characters

Wonder of the Woods by Bonnie Kelso. Little Press

A young girl explores the wooded area near her home and encounters a variety of animals that are curious about their new visitor. 

Together, a Forest: Drawing Connections Between Nature’s Diversity and Our Own by Roz MacLean. Henry Holt

Explore a forest with a curious classroom in this breathtaking new picture book by the author of the beloved More Than Words and experience the essential beauty of diversity in humanity and nature.

 Hook 4: Crack out the buzz words

Our Tree by Jessica Meserve. Tiger tales

For readers ages 3-7, this is a stunningly illustrated celebration of tolerance, togetherness, and the power of community.

A Forest Song by Kirsten Hall. Random house

Beautifully illustrated by an award-winning artist, this cento poem about experiencing a forest with all of your senses will make the perfect read-aloud for nature lovers and curious explorers of all ages.

Manuscript sold and contract signed. Begin now to write the Most Important Sentence: the HOOK!

Multi award winning author Robin Currie learned story sharing sitting on the floor during more than 1000 story times. She sold 1.7 M copies of her 40 storybooks and writes stories to read and read again. Watch for her tree book HOOK in 2026!

Categories
Book Proposals

How to Grab Attention in Your Opening Paragraph

 “Don’t Bury the Lead” is a common instruction to new writers. Literary agents and editors receive high volumes of email and physical submissions. If your prime material is over on page six, it may never be read. According to some at any given time there are over a million manuscripts and proposals in the in boxes of agents and editors. With that volume of material, most of us have seconds to give a submission and decide if we are going to do anything other than delete it (yes harsh but the truth).

As writers, it is our task to capture this attention and get the recipient to keep reading and ultimately to work with you on getting that submission published. Your words count and will be the attention-getter for that individual.

There are many ways to capture positive attention from these professionals. Almost every element of a book proposal is important. If you don’t know what goes into a book proposal, then I would encourage you to begin there. Every writer—even if you self-publish needs a book proposal because this document contains information which does not appear in your manuscript but is your business plan for your book.

In this article, I’m encouraging every writer should give their opening paragraph a little bit of extra polish before sending it. Here’s a number of ways to get read:

man working on an article

Tips for an attention-grabbing opening paragraph

1. Begin with a startling statistic related to your book or yourself. If you have millions of potential readers for your topic, beginning with this statistic captures attention. Also if you have a large email list or a social media following, this statistic can kick start the reading process.

2. Ask an intriguing question. A thought-provoking question is another great beginning to a proposal.

3. Open with an engaging story. Everyone loves a moving story. If you can tell this story in a few words with intrigue or entertainment, you pull the editor or agent into your proposal.

Whatever method you use, it is important to get the editor or agent reading your submission. Several years ago I interviewed another acquisitions editor and asked how he found a good submission. He answered: “Terry, I read the first sentence and if it is a good sentence I read the next sentence. If it is a good paragraph, I read the next paragraph and if it is a good page, I read the next page.” This editor revealed if it is a poor sentence or paragraph or page, he stops and goes on to the next submission. To learn more about proposals, I encourage you to check out my free webinar: askaboutproposals.com

Writers have confided to me their key material in the sixth chapter. My advice: don’t do it. Your reader may never get there. Start your proposal with a bang.

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s newest book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. The revised and updated edition will release October 5th. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Categories
Blogging Basics

Increase Your Blog Visibility

You pour out your heart and passion out on the page crafting your blog for the world to see. Satisfied with your words, you publish and wait. Days later, you view your blogs statistics to find few readers. How do you gain readers and raise visibility?

The following tips suggest ways to help you share your passion to a wider audience.

Do your Facebook family and friends know you have a blog? Tell them. It can be as simple as, “Hey, did you know I have a blog? Check it out here.” And then add your link. Note: You can share your blog on your Facebook feed if it is not sales oriented. If you want to sell your book or product within Facebook, use your separate author page or your business page.

You can also share a specific blog post on your Facebook feed and author/business pages. Don’t just share your blog post, tell the reader why they would want to read your blog. Many people won’t stop scrolling to read your blog unless you give them a reason to click on your link. Give the reader the hook of your post right up front.

Definition: Hook–this is a literary technique that grabs the reader’s attention within the first few sentences.

Carol Graham posted her blog in the Facebook group Blogging Lounge with this hook: Could you live off the grid for a year with little human contact–if offered $100,000? She then posted her blog titled: What Would You Sacrifice for a Huge Reward? Did Carol’s hook get your attention? Check out her blog here:

Are you posting your blog in appropriate groups? Is your blog themed toward mothers? Find a moms group in Facebook like Coffee & Motherhood with 51K+ members. Do you have a travel blog? Find a travel group like the Facebook group, Travel Bloggers with 4.5K members. Does your blog offer writing tips for authors? Try posting your tips in the Authors group with almost 40K members. Find your niche in Facebook groups to find your audience.

  • 200 million people are members of meaningful Facebook groups.**

Many Facebook groups only allow you to post your blog on certain days only. And other groups allow for free posting without having a set time to post within the group. Here are a few examples.

Specific Post Days:

BTR–Blogger’s + Instagram Community:

Christian Moms Who Write (Share Wednesday):

Free Post:

Blogging Lounge: 

Christian Bloggers café:

When you post in a group, be sure to hook your reader. Posting the link with the title only may not be enough to encourage your audience to click to your blog. Also, interact with other bloggers to build your tribe.        

Do you share your blog topics in group discussions? Have you ever been in a group discussion and thought, “I wrote about this issue in my blog.” As long as the group allows it, post your blog in the discussion feed. Use your blog post to share your passion and build your audience. The sales opportunity will hopefully come after you build relationships.

Note: Be sensitive to group rules if your blog post is sales focused or offers affiliate links.

Social Media Visibility

Being visible on your social media channels helps to fuel followers to your blog. Getting others to know you and your passion can naturally lead to an opportunity to share your writing. Here are some tips to encourage exposure.

  1. Be consistent–Post on a schedule that works for you.
  2. Engage with your followers as well as family & friends.
  3. Use Video & Live Video.

Be consistent in how often you post content. Look at your schedule and dedicate pockets of time where you are able to post. Perhaps, the best days for you are Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Whatever schedule you choose, keep at it. This should keep your followers engaged.

“If you make a habit of posting several times a day and then transition to only a few times a week, you will start to lose followers and generate less engagement per post. This means that the best posting frequency for Instagram is the posting frequency that you can consistently maintain for the rest of your natural life.” states Social media pro, Neil Patel. *

This post suggests the following posting frequency:

Instagram: Once a day.*

Facebook: Once a day or less.*

Twitter: 10 or more times. Lifetime of a tweet is 18 minutes.*

LinkedIn: 3 times a week.*

Engage with others by commenting on their posts to increase your visibility on Facebook. This engagement lets the Facebook algorithm know you are interacting. And when others respond, your posts will be boosted to your friends which increases your visibility.

Be sure to ask questions to draw others in to engage. Ask “What was the highlight of your day today?” And then add a picture of your pet for a visual. Or ask for a favorite family recipe and post a picture of your best dish. Ask “how to” questions like, “How do I get this stain out of my favorite shirt?” Your audience answering these questions equals engagement which helps to boost your visibility. 

Use Live Video to gain exposure. 71% of people have increased their online video viewing.** With this increased viewership, your authentic and original content is more likely to be seen.

Go live to read an excerpt from your blog. Be sure to ask questions at the end to encourage engagement and start a conversation. For those not able to watch you live, label your video with an attention grabbing title and then offer your hook. Use a title generator to title your blog video.

To learn engagement techniques for your video’s, sign up for a live video boot camp.

**https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-statistics/

Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.

Categories
Child's Craft

Get in Here!

My husband and I recently spent a few days in Napa Valley. We stayed in a quaint Bed and Breakfast on the edge of downtown Napa. I was excited to don my running attire and explore the town that morning and what a beautiful town it was!

The town was built along the river, so naturally restaurants, Inns and condos lined the River Brick walk. I loved the unique restaurants and shops beckoning one to enter. I loved the signs and the dance lessons on the sidewalk. That’s right. A permanent etching in stone demonstrated how to do the Cha-Cha. Loved that. It kind of made me want to do the Cha- Cha.

As I kept running, I noticed a sign pointing into an establishment that read, “Get in Here!” with an arrow pointing the way. By golly, I felt like I needed to get in there.  I believe it was a coffee shop. What was it about those words that summoned me in over all the other inviting signs and establishments? After all, those are the words that an angry parent uses to a child that has done something wrong. That instance may evoke terror. I didn’t feel that at all.

Those words seemed to signify more that something exciting was happening inside that I wouldn’t want to miss. That there was an occasion, an event and I had received an invitation. It seemed to demonstrate that my presence was requested. Whatever I was looking for could be found inside.

Do your books do that? If you write for children, is there something about your book that beckons a child to enter or beckons a parent to want their child to enter into the world your book creates? Is there anything about your book that would cause it to be picked up over another one? If a parent is browsing a book store, would your book stand out to them?

What about your proposals? Is there anything within your proposal that would jump out at an editor or editorial board? They look at gazillions of proposals. What is it about yours that says, “Get in here! You don’t want to miss this!”

Beyond your hook, the ‘specifics’ section of your proposal is where you mention this. Point out what makes your book different. Is there a character that children may relate to? Is there rhyme that catches a child’s ear? A pull-out that children may post on their walls? A lesson hidden within the text that parents may love? Does it evoke an emotion? Cause children to think of others in new lights? Does it highlight a holiday in a new way? Spark an interest in scripture? Does it conjure up parent and child interactions? Perhaps it may cause children to ask more questions?

If you don’t have a hook to draw people in, work on it a little bit more. Look through books that lure you in. What made you pick certain books for your children? What books do they already enjoy and why do you think that is so?

Once your proposal has piqued an editor’s interest, will the story hold her attention? Is your story written well? And by well, I mean perfectly. Editors don’t have time for multiple fixes and rewrites. Send them the already fixed and rewritten manuscript.

Does this manuscript elicit emotions, laughter, spark pleasant memories? Is it creative? Different from other stories out there? How so? This goes in the ‘comparison’ section of your proposal. Note what is already published and why yours still needs to be out there. Do your homework and discover what is already published similar to yours. What does yours offer that the others don’t?

Your proposal and manuscript should both work together to appeal to first the editors and publishing houses and then to the buyers and readers. Both should be written as if to say, “Get in here! You don’t want to miss this!”

Categories
Guest post archive

Hooking your Audience Part 1

sarahzimmerman

By Sarah Zuehlke

Magazines. They come in a never ending stream of styles and forms. In spite of the push to move everything into the digital realm, you can still find a magazine on just about anything: fishing, hiking, sports, science, and even rare pets. So now comes the fun part, have you ever wanted to write a magazine article? Most likely the process seems daunting, but with a little help from the good sport of fishing, your magazine article will be just what you were hoping for. Today we are going to look at hooking your audience.net

The first thing in our proverbial tackle box is a net. Nets are important because they can cover a specific target area. You need to know who you are writing for, so research your audience. For example, if your magazine article is for kids, pick age appropriate sentences and vocabulary. Don’t throw in complex hard to understand sentences. If your article is aimed for scientists or engineers do some research on technical terms they might use. Once you know the audience you intend to write for, begin crafting your article. If you were fishing you would find out what kind of fish you were looking for before you started, and pick a net accordingly, otherwise you wouldn’t know how to catch them and you just might lose your fish.

A good example of an article written for a specific audience is in the 2016 July/August issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist where there is an article about Freshwater Filtration. This article, written by Kate Barrington, describes the numerous types of filters in the aquarium hobby as well as the importance of the right kind of filter. This article is written for a specific audience, tropical fish hobbyists. If the reader were completely new to the hobby they might become a little lost, but someone interested in the subject will enjoy the details. However, the author correctly researched for the appropriate target audience. I am a tropical fish hobbyist, and I found myself being hooked by the author’s research, which was informative and well written.

Going backtacklebait to our tackle box, the second thing we need is bait. You want the people that read your article to go for the bait and take it. If the article begins on a boring note or has no interest to them they will pass over it. A fish will often completely ignore the wrong bait. Think of an exciting way to start your article. You want that first sentence to draw in your audience. If you are writing about puppy training start off with a cute story, then slowly weave in training advice. Or maybe you are writing about an experience that happened to you. If that is the case, start off with the most exciting part, then back track to the beginning and lay out how it all happened.

In the June 2009 issue of National Geographic there is an article about river dolphins. The author, Mark Jenkins, hooks the audience by colorfully describing the way the dolphins swim in the rivers of the Amazon, then precedes to get to the main points of the article. From the first sentences I found myself captured by the descriptions and interesting facts. If you have the right bait you will be able to catch the right fish. The same goes for writing, if you get the reader interested they will be sure to read your article and enjoy it.

Lastly, near our tackle box is our dependable fishing rod. The rod not only holds the bait; it can bring the bait to life from the movement of the rod. A great way to hook your audience is to write about something totally new, or even an old story in a new way. Maybe your topic has been trampled by uncountable authors but you have a different and new perspective. A novel perspective on an old topic can bring new life to a subject. Perception is important because every author brings a new perspective. It is the same for the fish. The same old bait comes to life when the fishing rod is moved about. There are endless possibilities of new and exciting news, information, and stories. So why not get your audience hooked by that norodvel story idea for an article?

Writing a magazine article might seem impossible, but we can see from our fishing gear that it is not so difficult in the end. Next time we will return to our tackle box.

Bio: Sarah Zuehlke

Sarah Zuehlke, a budding fantasy novel and short story writer, greatly enjoys hiking and exploring the outdoors. When not tackling her insect collection, she co-writes with her brother on their fantasy book series. Additionally, she pursues her graduate degree in Entomology with University of Nebraska.