Here's my keynote for ALDEN RIDGE:
What would you do if you had to choose between your daughter's soul and the life of every other living person you knew?
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Keynotes
Anne Mini recently made a very interesting post on keynotes, or book concepts, as part of her excellent ongoing Book Marketing 101 series. I highly suggest you check it out. The rhetorical question style of keynote is definitely not something to try on literary agent Nathan Bransford, who is well known to loathe rhetorical questions, but for my own keynote that's the style I chose. This keynote certainly won't be in my hook or query letter, but as a one-liner to pique someone's interest (or get them to ask about my full hook) it might be just the ticket.
Here's my keynote for ALDEN RIDGE:
Here's my keynote for ALDEN RIDGE:
Rhetorical questions are perfectly legit. Movie ads use them. I think it's unfortunate that Nathan, Miss Snark, and other influential people have come out against them, because often they're the best way to go.
ReplyDeleteAs in your case. Great hook.
Thanks, Stephen. And I suppose the lesson is that everyone has their own personal pet peeves, but that applying those to the industry at large is likely to be a mistake. But I think it is an excellent thing to remember that sometimes you run up against personal preferences/prejudices that have nothing to do with your actual writing. I guess that's why Miss Snark always said "query widely," right?
ReplyDelete