How do you pull in a potential reader to consider your book over another book? Never an easy task, because as an author you want to tell your story in such a way as to pique the reader’s interest from the very beginning. Page one of your book is the “hook” to draw the reader’s interest right away. For ideas on how, try exploring your local book store. It is a good place to learn how popular authors do it. Take the classic novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville for example. It begins, “Call me Ismael.” This reads much better than if it began, “My name is Ismael,” doesn’t it? Bernard Cornwell, the prolific writer of historical fiction novels, is a master of this. One of his most popular series is the Sharpe novels. The main character is a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) named Richard Sharpe. In each novel, Sharpe works his way up in the ranks of British riflemen. Here is the opening sentence from the prologue of Sharpe’s Sword: “The tall man on horseback was a killer.”

Got your attention, right? From there Cornwell goes on to describe the killer in more detail which builds suspense in leading to Chapter One of Sharpe’s Sword. Another example is from the author of the Dirk Pitt adventure novels. Clive Cussler’s book Atlantis Found begins: “The intruder came from beyond.”

The reader is intrigued as Cussler describes a comet hitting the earth to begin the story. In each of these examples, the idea is to get the potential reader’s attention and interest in reading on. If you are not sure how to begin a novel, experiment. If you are writing a murder mystery try this as an opening line: “He watched as his victim slumped down to the ground, his blood staining the polished wood floor.”

 The reader is thinking, what happens next?  Depending on what type of story you wish to tell, there are a number of possibilities open to you as the author. Like a person on a fishing expedition, you can lure your potential reader in with your “hook,” then reel them in. Writing a non-fiction book also requires a good beginning to pull the reader in. Take historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer prize-winning book No Ordinary Time. Chapter One is titled The Decisive Hour Has Come. The first line of the chapter reads as follows: "On nights filled with tension and concern, Franklin Roosevelt performed a ritual that helped him to fall asleep. He would close his eyes and imagine himself at Hyde Park as a boy, standing with his sled in the snow atop the steep hill that stretched from the south porch of his home to the wooded bluffs of the Hudson River far below."

How is that for an opening? The reader becomes engaged with Roosevelt immediately. We want to read more about this ritual and how it enabled him to lead the country during the stressful days of a world war. Practice reading your opening aloud, and perfect it. Good luck.