Using Killer Marketing Hooks To Gain A Much-Needed Edge

This is part one of a three-part series I’m doing over the next three weeks where I talk about book taglines, book blurbs, and marketing hooks for authors. I know marketing is about as exciting as watching paint dry for a lot of authors–either that or they feel like it’s going to bite them–but I hope by the end of this blog series you’ll understand why they’re so important.

This segment, focusing on hooks, draws heavily from Book Blurbs Unleashed by Robert J Ryan, and I am going to be quoting him heavily in this segment and wanted to give a shout-out to where I got the language for some of this. While I did attend business school and was a few credits shy of a degree when I switched tracks to history, I really like the way Robert J. Ryan describes styles of hooks, so I wanted to utilize that here.

Before we go anywhere, I wanted to explain what a “hook” is to those who may not be accustomed to marketing lingo. A marketing hook is a jingle, a slogan, or a phrase that people associate with a product or brand. In the case of books, however, it can be a whole lot more. We use the term “hook” several ways, including to describe narrative events. For writers it can be anything that makes a reader want to learn more or want to keep reading.

So where do authors use hooks?

• Queries
• First sentences/paragraphs
• Ends of chapters
• End of book (particularly in a series)
• Book blurbs
• Taglines
• Marketing materials

That may sound like an awful lot, but stick with me here. I promise it will pay off.

The aforementioned Robert J. Ryan lists out several specific types of hooks used for book blurbs and taglines (and this is where I am going to start quoting him!). These types of hooks are as follows:

• The Open Loop
• The Fact
• The Statement
• The “Say Whaaat?”
• The Poetic Hook
• Contrast Hooks
• The Direct Question

He says in the chapter covering these that there are many more types of marketing hooks, however, he has identified these as the ones authors are most likely to need when writing their marketing copy, and I would also argue that they dovetail into things like first sentences and end of chapter sentences somewhat as well. However, before I get too deeply into that, let’s look at what each of them is and how it used. The examples I list here are the ones he gives in the book; I take no credit for finding them.

The Open Loop

“Sometimes… Dead Is Better” (Stephen King, Pet Semetary)

This type of hook poses an indirect question to the reader. That question, of course, being, “What does that mean?” most of the time. They rarely tell anything about the story and are used exclusively to grab attention. As such, they are the least likely to have a very long shelf life. Their function is just to get readers asking what something means and possibly do a little to establish genre (as indicated by the above example).

The Fact

“Katniss Everdeen lives in a future where people, even children, are forced to fight to the death. For TV entertainment.” (Robert J. Ryan writing about The Hunger Games)

As suggested by the name, this style of hook provides a fact of the book and its setting that will grab attention of audiences. As such, it needs to be true (at least in context of the book). In counterpoint to the open loop, there is no question here. It just scoops an interesting element out of the story and puts it on front street to make readers go, “Oh my.” This technique is considered one of the best copy writing hooks and is also considered uniquely good for book blurbs because it’s not used all that often. This infrequency enhances impact on readers since they’re far more accustomed to other types of hooks.

The Statement

“Husband and wife treasure-hunting team Same and Remi Fargo ARE BACK in a brand-new thrilling adventure to find an ancient scroll which carries a deadly curse…” (Clive Cussler, The Oracle)

You will immediately notice a resemblance to The Fact insomuch as it’s telling a bit of the setting, story, and revealing information. However, in contrast to The Fact this doesn’t need to necessarily be true. This could rely on a character’s point of view rather than empirical facts. It also combines elements of the The Open Loop since the end of it with that ellipsis trailing off poses a question in a way. Granted, I’m not sure why there’s an ellipsis there; it’s a complete statement. But that’s me nitpicking Clive Cussler’s copywriters, which is pretty futile.

The “Say Whaaat?”

“I was dead when they offered me the mission. I accepted it anyway.” (Robert J. Ryan, written as example)

He wrote it with exactly that many A’s, so I am going to continue and blame Mr. Ryan for that one. Though I like it. Still. This type of hook harnesses cognitive dissonance which has ties into the limbic system and triggers the fight or flight system in most people juuuuuuust a little (okay, that one was all me). It is a way of confusing a reader and making them pause long enough to make them read the blurb and explore more of just how in the heck that works. It may seem like a dirty trick, but it isn’t really. It just tweaks someone to be interested in reading more. None of this is forcing anybody into a purchase; you have to actually interest them, and the hook is a small part of that.

The Poetic Hook

“Whoever wins… We lose.” (Alien vs. Predator)

I would argue this one and the next one are some of the hardest to do properly because in order to pull them off you must have an understanding of poetic form or else you will fall flat. It is not just a matter of making something that sounds vaguely poetical. You should consider iambic pentameter, rhyme, alliteration, and other elements if you’re going to make use of this style of hook. If you do it badly, it will do nothing but make you look sophomoric. However, it can absolutely sell books and draw readers because, let’s face it, people do like poetry even if they don’t read much of it these days.

The Contrast Hook

“All for one, and one for all.” (The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas)

Much like the poetic hook, this does make use of meter and rhythm, but the contrast is the thing here that sticks out. (One vs. all, for example.) Both in literature and copy writing, this technique is timeless and highly effective. However, it does require some understanding of literary forms and poetry, so use it with caution much like The Poetic Hook because using this improperly will also fall flat harder than some of the other hooks out here. You also need to ensure that whatever you do with this hook lives up to the content, much like The “Say Whaaat” type of hook as well. It also includes elements of that, which will make readers pause to consider the dichotomy and can entice them to read more to discover what in the world that means.

The Direct Question

“Could you murder your wife to save your daughter?” (Her Last Tomorrow, Adam Croft)

This final type of hook listed in Book Blurbs Unleashed is probably the most common of all of the ones on this list. It resembles the open loop but asks the question directly rather than implying it. Able to use elements of other hooks on this list, it invites the reader into the story with said query. Whether a moral question (like the above example) or a question about whether or not someone can survive, it all ties in together to create a hook.

The application of these hooks to blurbs and taglines will become more obvious in the subsequent blog posts on those subjects, so I want to zero in on how we can use these hooks in other places (beyond marketing copy). Remember at the top of this blog where I mention that these types of hooks can be used in things like the end of chapters or for opening lines? That’s where we are going with the end here.

The way you would use these hooks at the end of a chapter would be to entice a reader to keep reading onto the next one and keep tension flowing. This isn’t to say using a hook at the end of every chapter is mandatory. It absolutely isn’t. Nor do you need to open every chapter with one. However, you may find that using a hook to grab a reader’s attention in those locations will increase read-through rates.

Also, there is endless literature written about how to hook a reader with your first sentence, and these techniques work for that as well. A hook is a hook is a hook in the end. Think about some of the more famous opening lines in books out there–I’m willing to bet you can probably slot them into one of these various types of hooks.

“Call me Ishmael.” (Moby Dick, by Herman Melville)

This is an example of “The Statement.” It invites the reader to wonder who Ishmael is while also stating a fact of the story from his POV. It is a little cryptic, also, because it doesn’t say his name is Ishmael. Just that’s what he chooses to be called. So who is he? Why does he go by Ishmael?

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” (1984, George Orwell)

Another brilliant example, this hook could easily be described as a “Say Whaaat?” because it obviously makes you pause and do a bit of a double take since clocks don’t strike thirteen in the world.

I won’t bore you with repeated examples, but you can see where I’m going with this. Hooks exist all over the place in writing, and understanding them on an intellectual level will give you the power to choose to use them rather than just have them happen by mistake. Assuming they happen at all.

Now, let me end this post by reminding folks that there are two more to come. Next week we’ll be talking more specifically about taglines in books and how to write them, how to use them, and what elements are required when writing one. Understanding hooks is the first part of this journey, so stay tuned for the next two!