What Is the Hook, the Book, and the Cook Query Pitching Technique for Writers?

Writers looking to get their books published often find out early in the process that one of the most important tools for finding success is a strong query letter. A query is the key that often opens doors to the next step of the publishing process, which involves sending sample pages and/or a nonfiction book proposal. It's also an opportunity to get an agent or editor really excited about your book.

(Find 39 examples of successful queries.)

So writing a strong query is super important, and one of the best methods for putting together your query is called "the hook, the book, and the cook" technique. And this post dives into how writers can make this technique work for them.

The hook is a succinct statement that will do two things at once: 

This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. For fiction, it might be a really compelling elevator pitch. For nonfiction, it might be a startling fact or statistic that's related to the subject of your book. For either genre, an author could do a juxtaposition (something like Jaws meets Love Actually).

(60 examples of hooks for books.)

And if you're a household name already, that would be your hook. But 99.99% of people, including myself, fall outside that threshold. 

As you may have guessed, the book is all about the book; but not ALL about the book, if you know what I mean. That is, "the book" part of the query gives the gist of the book, not a summary or explanation of EVERYTHING that happens in the book. 

If you haven't included it already in the hook, you'll want to immediately start this section off by mentioning the title of the book and the word count. Then, you'll want to paint a picture of what happens in your book.

For fiction, this might be like the copy you would find on the back or inside cover of a book: two to three paragraphs that share the stakes of the story without getting sidetracked into discussing the other deeper elements of the story. Instead, focus on one or two characters, what they want out of life, what's making that difficult, and how things are getting even more complicated/dangerous/etc.

(When is my novel ready to read?)

For nonfiction, this would still be like the copy you'd find on a book, but it will be appropriate for the type of nonfiction you're writing. For instance, the essence of a nonfiction history book will be captured in a different way than the essence of a self-help book. 

For either genre, you'll also want to provide comp titles, but that subject deserves an entire post all its own. 

The cook, of course, is the author. So this is where the writer talks about themselves in a flattering and truthful way. The most important things to share are those that are relevant to their book.

Important things may include (but are not limited to):

Writers should limit this section to one paragraph and don't stretch the truth. Agents and editors are good at double-checking that kind of stuff. 

In most cases, you'll probably want to assemble these pieces in the order of the hook first, the book second, and the cook third. However, there are cases when you may wish to move the cook section above the book and even above the hook (because the cook is sort of a hook unto themself). 

Above, I mentioned that if you're in the 0.1% of the population that would be considered a household name, that you might want to lead with that. But there are other situations to consider leading with the cook section. 

For instance, if you're writing a spy novel and were an actual spy in real life. That's kind of a unique thing that could make you very attractive to agents, editors, publicists, and the general public. So you'd want to make sure that's not buried, because it could be the type of thing that makes your query stand out.

Now that you have the ingredients, go cook up an amazing query.