Making Something Unexpected Happen in Your Opening Pages

In today’s Book with Hooks episode, Bianca, Carly, and CeCe critique an upmarket women's fiction query and a dark romance one (spicy content warning!).

They discuss the need for cause and effect between your plot points; avoiding overwriting in dialogue; the difficulties with having a very insecure protagonist; the need for something unexpected to happen in the opening pages; the concept of dark romance; specificity in your query; teasing backstory about your main character in your query; avoiding trying to do too much in your query; making your letter as readable as possible; starting novels with racy scenes; and being mindful of positioning and movement in sex scenes.

Note: Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra are literary agents at P.S. Literary Agency, but their work on this podcast is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly and CeCe on this podcast are solely that of them as podcast co-hosts and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.

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