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in this lesson we'll talk about how to

hook a publisher and work towards your

final project which is to write the

first two pages of your novel you may

already have an idea for the beginning

of your novel as part of your big idea

but if not this is where you need to

come up with something that is going to

hook a publisher from almost from the

moment they sit down to start reading

your book my editor once said to me your

job is to write the book that you love

it's our job to sell it but I already

had a book deal so I was really lucky in

that respect if you don't already have a

book deal in advance then you need to

give your publisher some idea of how

they might sell your novel remember

literary agents and Publishers are

literally looking for a reason to say no

they get sent so many manuscripts so you

need to give them a reason to say yes

and I think that needs to happen within

the first couple of pages of your novel

you want to make sure that anyone

reading it whether it's a literary agent

or a publisher or just your reader is is

so intrigued by what happens in those

first couple of pages that they can't

wait to read on think about how a

publisher might Market your book in the

case of my debut novel Lucy in the Sky I

gave them an idea in the very first

couple of pages about this idea of this

heroin sitting on a plane going to

Australia and receiving a text from her

boyfriend's mobile from the woman

claiming to sleep with him the posters

that appeared on the Underground Station

posst the question how would you react

if you received this text message just

before a 24-hour flight I have slept

with your boyfriend for four times this

month just in the first couple of pages

my character Lucy received that text

message and it gave my publisher an idea

for how they might sell my novel because

readers were intrigued you know what was

going to happen like was her boyfriend

cheating on her they wanted to find out

so it gives the reader a reason to read

on so you want to make sure that

something similar something that shakes

your character out of their comfort zone

and makes the reader think you know

what's going to happen next

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these first couple of pages won't be

quite as imperative for any other novel

that you write because once you have a

book deal you already have an editor who

has you know you've bought yourself some

patience they can read on and it might

be that something much bigger much more

exciting happens later on your novel

that will be where all of the marketing

goes or all of the advertising goes you

know to really push your novel to

readers and and retailers but certainly

for your first book just because you're

trying to hook a publisher or a literary

agent in it needs to happen really

really quickly as in the case of Only

Love Can her like this which is my 20th

novel we actually ended up focusing on

the earth shattering secret this twist

that happens later on in the novel and

that's what all the marketing sort of

focuses on we had videos that go out

saying Earth shattering secret a

life-changing love story and the front

cover of my book literally has those

words there now but the back cover blur

which is on the back of the book and

this is what any reader who is

interested in buying this book off the

book shelf shelf will have a look at to

see whether or not it's something that

they might want to read that opens up

with what happens actually in the first

two pages when Ren realizes her fiance

is in love with someone else she thinks

her heart will never recover so it's

still really really important to make

sure something exciting enough that

could feature on the back of your book

does appear very very

quickly it might be that your writing

Sparkles so much that it would be the

writing itself that keeps someone

reading on and that is absolutely

amazing that's certainly the case for

one of my favorite books watermelon by

Marian Keys her writing Sparkles so much

in those first few pages but it does

also focus on the fact that her husband

leaves her her character on the day that

she gives birth to her baby so that also

happens in the first page so combination

of writing sparkling and a really good

idea is what will help make a literary

agent stand up and take notice but also

prologues can be a really good way of

getting a reader interested and hooked

immediately I just read a book by Sophie

cousins called before I do and the

prologue is all about the bride running

out of the church she's got a bump on

her head she's Barefoot and you know

straight away I was thinking what

happened to make this bride run out of

the church and I love the tagline the

tagline was what would you do if the One

That Got Away turns up the night before

you're due to say I do to someone else

so tagline together with idea together

with a prologue and a really strong

opening really made me want to read that

book I've actually used a prologue for

for Only Love Can Hurt Like This because

sometimes it's a really nice way of

drawing the reader's attention to that

lifechanging moment and then you know

you're straight there straight in with

the action and it's really really

exciting and then you can kind of slow

things down a little bit in chapter one

and it may even be that you explain what

happened in the prologue at a later date

or in flashbacks so it's just about

something really exciting happening

really quickly to make someone want to

find out what's going to happen next

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so I'm going to talk you through the

opening pages of Only Love Can Hurt Like

This so to begin with I'm introducing

the setting because for me the setting

is really beautiful reality it's set in

this gorgeous Park in beron Edmonds

which has these fairy tale ruins all

these old Cathedral ruins and it's just

a really lovely setting so you know I

first of all open it up with the with a

description of where the character is I

also very quickly let the reader know

what time of year it is and in this case

it's early April but it's a really warm

day and funnily enough we're actually

going to release this book in April so

that ties in really really nicely for

people who are picking this book up off

the shelves and starting to get a bit

excited about summer this would be a

great book to read on the beach for

example so it's quite nice to set your

book around the time that you think your

readers might want to read it if you

decide that it's going to be a really

cozy Christmasy love story then

guaranteed your publisher is probably

going to put it out there at Christmas

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and then in the third paragraph I'm just

talking about my character Ren is

wandering around the Abby ruins and

she's just looking for somewhere like a

nice wall to sit down and drink a coffee

when she sees her fiance sitting on a

bench just not that far away from her

there's a tiny little bit of an

introduction to her fiance without going

into too much detail because you don't

want to weigh down the beginning with

too much detail so I'd just say that

Scott set up a landscape gardening

business when we moved here about a year

ago so that kind of very quickly tells

people that she hasn't been there for

very long and what her fiance does also

and the fact that he actually is her

fiance I should also say that before I

got to this point I had managed to

explain that Ren Was An Architect okay

so that happened after when she's saying

that she's got out of the office with

her coffee having had to deal with a

nightmare client and this client is

sometimes someone who could put her off

architecture for life so I've kind of

introduced so far a character a sense of

place you know we know what she does for

a living and we know that she has a

fiance who is a landscape

Gardener at the end of the third

paragraph my character Ren realizes that

her fiance is sitting with his co-worker

then there's a short description about

the cooworker who is a lovely girl she's

absolutely beautiful Ren really likes

her so she's a little bit unsure why

seeing them together like this why she

hasn't shouted out to say hello but

there's something about their body

language that makes her just

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pause now I read this moment is one of

my key scenes in the last lesson so I

won't go into in too much detail here

but basically Ren sees this moment she

sees this moment where her fiance turns

and looks at his coworker and she sees

this look of what she later realizes as

longing on his face and she just gets

this sense that there is something

between them there is chemistry between

her fiance and his coworker and her

intuition tells her that something is

very very wrong so that all happens

really really quickly and it gives me a

foundation for my story it gives my

character something to react to and

that's what you want to do your

character needs to be going about their

ordinary day as Ren was just going about

her Ordinary Day having a coffee out in

the gardens and seeing something that is

going to change her life forever so

whatever your character does or sees or

who she meets and it might be that she

meets you know maybe the moment that she

meets the main love interest will be

that opening scene that big sort of

life-changing moment for your character

something needs to happen that's really

exciting and makes you question what on

Earth is going to happen

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next I really recommend that you have a

look at some other books that you love

and just see what happens in the first

couple of pages it may be that something

there inspires you you might be able to

think of a Different Twist on it or you

know look at another way of something

similar happening but just have a look

for inspiration elsewhere and really now

start concentrating on what will happen

to your character in those first couple

of pages it's really really important

that it's exciting enough not only to

make you want to write the rest of it

but also to make whoever picks it up to

read want to read on in the next lesson

I'm going to talk to you about how to

plan your novel and how to write a

synopsis

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