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The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Archives for Bob Hostetler

Bob Hostetler

Nail the Hook, Nail the Book

By Bob Hostetleron June 4, 2025
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I get together often with other writers—at conferences, online, via email, etc. So I’m often asked, “What are you looking for as an agent?” My typical answer: “Irresistible hooks and irresistible writing.”

When I say that, I’m talking about both fiction and nonfiction. And you’ll notice I didn’t mention that wretched word “platform.” To be fair, I don’t mind “irresistible platforms,” either; but in my experience, an irresistible hook and irresistible writing can overcome a modest platform. More so, I think than an irresistible platform can overcome the lack of an irresistible hook and irresistible writing.

I’ll also often say, “Nail the hook, nail the book.” At least in my own writing life, I often find that when I’ve landed on a great hook, the book takes shape, if not effortlessly, at least energetically.

So, what’s a “hook,” and how do you nail it?

Good questions (which usually means you’re about to get a lousy answer). A great hook:

    • grabs attention,
    • sparks interest,
    • defines what’s unique about your project,
    • makes (or hints at) a promise.

And all in a few words—no more than a sentence or two.

This is true for both fiction and nonfiction. For fiction hooks, I’ll often suggest writers think in “movie trailer” voice: “One man. One woman. Unforgiving wilderness.” Or to borrow from Louis Sachar’s Holes: “There is no lake at the boys’ detention center they call Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.”

A great fiction hook promises, “Stick with me, and I’ll deliver something worth your time.” A great nonfiction hook promises a definite reward, a met need. For example, “You could keep trying to fit in…. Or you could rest in where you already fit” (from Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s new release, Being Fully Known: The Joyful Satisfaction of Beholding, Becoming, and Belonging). Sometimes the title (and/or subtitle) is a hook itself, as in Dr. Dalton-Smith’s book or Susan U. Neal’s 12 Ways to Age Gracefully: How to Look and Feel Younger.

I suggest spending as much time as necessary on your hooks—brainstorming, mind-mapping, trying different approaches, and critique-group-testing. After all, the hook is your book’s first impression; it should hit hard and deep. And if you really nail the hook, you’re more likely to sell your book to an agent, editor—and ultimately—reader.

 

 

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Category: Book Proposals, Pitching

Things You Don’t Know You’re Saying

By Bob Hostetleron May 7, 2025
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Publishing is a funny business. Not funny “ha ha” but funny “strange.” And funny “mystical.” And funny “inscrutable.” Is that enough funny for you? Not laughing? That’s funny. But seriously, folks, one of those funny things I experience in my work as a literary agent is that people often say things they don’t mean to say, in person and in their book proposals (which is how I start the conversation …

Read moreThings You Don’t Know You’re Saying
Category: Pitching

A Writer’s Prayer on Beginning a New Project

By Bob Hostetleron April 2, 2025
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Abba, Father, thank you for the work you have given me to do, for what I am about to write. I begin in fear and trembling, not at all sure that I can start well, let alone finish well. But your grace is sufficient for me, in writing as in all of life, for your strength is made perfect in my weakness. Take my weakness, all of it. I give it to you. Take my strength, what little I have. Take my mind, …

Read moreA Writer’s Prayer on Beginning a New Project
Category: The Writing Life, Theology

Congratulations on Your Rejection!

By Bob Hostetleron March 5, 2025
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You say you got a rejection from an editor, agent, or some other unenlightened knuckle-dragger? Congratulations! No, seriously. I mean it. Congratulations. Because, though rejection feels crummy, being rejected means something. Something good. “What?” you might ask. Let me list the ways. Rejection means you wrote something. Good for you! Rejection means you demonstrated faith in …

Read moreCongratulations on Your Rejection!
Category: Rejection

What’s the Magic Number for Platform?

By Bob Hostetleron February 5, 2025
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I get asked this question a lot at writers conferences, in webinars, and even in line at Dunkin’ Donuts (to be fair, I buy a lot of donuts). It was posed this way in an email from someone I’d met at a writers conference: “At what point is a platform attractive [to publishers]? 10K, 20K, 50K or more?” Simply speaking, writers want to know “What’s the number?” To which I routinely (and sagely) …

Read moreWhat’s the Magic Number for Platform?
Category: Platform

Who and What I’m Looking For (Bob Hostetler)

By Bob Hostetleron January 8, 2025
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(Updated 1/8/2025) As another year dawns, much has changed—and much remains the same—in the world of Christian publishing. With all that in mind, let me offer an updated answer, as up-to-the-minute as I can make it, to the frequent question I field from aspiring, developing, accomplished, and skilled writers: “What are you looking for?” Influence Aspiring writers often imagine, “Once I have a book …

Read moreWho and What I’m Looking For (Bob Hostetler)
Category: Agency, Agents, Book ProposalsTag: Agency, Agents, Get Published

An Agent’s Christmas List

By Bob Hostetleron December 11, 2024
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You may be one of those strange and wonderful people who by this time in the holiday season has finished all of your Christmas shopping. Maybe even wrapping. Well, bully for you. I’m not that person. I still have a ways to go. I have a few things yet to get on my list. Among those outstanding items are things I wish (and pray) for my clients, writer friends, and readers of this blog, such as you. …

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Category: Agency, Inspiration

A Writer’s Thanks

By Bob Hostetleron November 27, 2024
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A Writer’s Thanks Gracious Lord, thank you for the joy of writing. For the honor of being published. For the blessing of being used. The miracle of being paid. The wonder of being read. The blessing of my words being translated and traveling around the world. Amen.

Read moreA Writer’s Thanks
Category: Inspiration

Write Through Your Fears

By Bob Hostetleron October 31, 2024
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What are you afraid of? Poor sentence structure, such as that question? Or something else? Writers may not fear ghosts, goblins, ghouls, or other Halloweeny frights. But anyone who writes—and especially those who write for publication—must face his or her fears, or choose some less terrifying profession, such as bomb squad technician. Some of us dread ridicule. Rejection. Insignificance. Poverty. …

Read moreWrite Through Your Fears
Category: The Writing Life

My Best Reading Advice

By Bob Hostetleron October 16, 2024
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My wife and I, newly married and preparing to enter training for ministry, hosted a seasoned pastor in our home for one of our entrance interviews. He asked what sorts of books we’d been reading, and we answered. I expected him to be impressed with my answer. After all … well, never mind. But he smiled kindly. “May I offer a piece of advice?” What were we going to say? “No”? So we gave the …

Read moreMy Best Reading Advice
Category: Book Review, Career, Encouragement, Inspiration, Reading
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