The marketing experts say that having a great “hook line” or “log line” for your book is critical. Here are a few lines on the topic from AuthorSalon.com:
- This much shorter description is really your “Hook Line” or “Log Line” as it is known in the film industry. A good and hooky one liner is just as necessary and useful for promoting novels and nonfiction books as it is for film scripts.
- Also, like many other aspects of your Author Salon profile, it forces you to consider your work in a manner that strongly encourages you to realize those primary elements that will help sell it (see below), or at least convince an agent or editor to take it seriously from the onset.
My hook (in THE PROVING profile at AuthorSalon.com) has been pretty weak. So I am re-working it as part of this week’s push towards massive progress on the book. It needs to be no more than 70 words or so, two or three sentences, but capture conflict, characters, distinction, setting, and action at a very high level.
Let me know what you think, and PLEASE suggest improvements. You can’t hurt my feelings with this stuff… I am all about improvement!
THE PROVING, by KE Jackson: Hook Line
Emergents, they are called; young people in the kingdom of Touran who manifest incredible supernatural powers but inevitably become murderously insane. But when a brash young adventurer and a royal princess begin to manifest Emergent powers, they learn of their calling to lead a band of fearful, hunted youths against powerful dark princes in a contest called THE PROVING – with the fate of their world in the balance.
~Kevin
Notes from the Tome Writer 
Hi Kevin, I was excited to see a blogpost from you. I am a bit of a writer myself, though certainly not as good as you, as I haven’t worked on a novel in years. I’ve spent more time in blogging, short stories and etc. I wrote a lot of poetry as a teen. At any rate, feel free to check out my blog as well. I need to conjure something new. It will be quickly apparent that since right before the wedding until now, there has not been much time for blogging. My site is bloggybloggerville.wordpress.com.
Now, on to your post. I like it. Would this tag line be akin to the little synopsis-ish attention-grabbing blurb on the back cover of a book?
Awesome, Matt! I will definitely check out your blog! The hook line is more of a super-short synopsis for Internet listings and such. The synopsis for the book is longer and I am about to re-post it to the blog since it has changed. Thanks again for checking it out!
I am excited to read what you’ve written so far. It looks like you have the first 4 chapters up. When I have time later, I am definitely jumping into it.