Yesterday we announced that Hookline authors were available to visit book groups in their area.
Today, we have another offer to make to book groups - 25 percent discount and free postage when you order directly with us.
Hookline Books could not exist without book groups - you choose the fiction we put to press, the least we can do is ensure a few perks.
Continue reading ...

Readers like to meet writers - especially when they've enjoyed their work. 
Writers like to meet readers - especially when their work has been appreciated.
So Hookline Books is offering readers visits from authors.
Bryony Doran, author of The China Bird, and Jilly Wosskow, author of A Young Woman's Guide to Carrying On, are both able to visit book groups in the area around South Yorkshire.
Author of The Partridge and the Pelican, Rachel Crowther, can visit groups in Cheshire.
Book groups in London...
Continue reading ...

This is the final TWO DAYS of voting for 1^st stage of The People’s Book Prize.

One of our novels, Seven Days to Tell You by Ruby Soames, has been nominated.

It is tough for a small publishing company like ours to rise – we may have great stories, terrific writers and a wonderful niche in allowing reading groups to choose what goes to print. But what we don’t have are the finances for a publicity campaign.

So this competition is an excellent opportunity for Hookline to air its wares...

Continue reading ...

Our 2012 manuscripts are going out to reading groups - always exciting as we pack, but daunting as we arrive at the Post Office and have to unload 30 boxes and queue for service. Those behind us fire daggers at the packages, but what can we do?
Reading groups - I hope you enjoy your work, and we look forward to hearing your results.
Continue reading ...

We've received a few favourite first lines from readers:

'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.' from George Orwell's 1984.
I haven't read this novel but the first line definitely wakes up the reader.

Another old classic came forth:

'Happy Families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way' from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. A thought that cannot be denied.

But we also had first lines submitted from contemporary fiction:

'I'm unsure why one trifli...
Continue reading ...

Sorry to harp on about these, but when browsing a book shop I am more likely to read the first line than the back cover. A good first line will make me read on, perhaps even to the end of the page. A bad first line, one that lies in a quagmire of unprepared detail, can make me shiver as I shut the page fast before it leaks out. Consider:
  
 The news about Walter Bergland wasn't picked up locally - he and Patty had moved away to Washington two years earlier and meant nothing to St. Paul now - b...
Continue reading ...

For the next few days I will be airing my favourite first lines - and looking at why I think they work.
Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan sets the topic of the novel with his introductory sentence: They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible.
This novel is immersed in sex and intimacy, and this first sentence immediately introduces the reader to the characters and their challenge...
Continue reading ...

First lines are the entry into a novel. If you're like me, you read the first few lines, paragraphs or even pages when browsing for something to read. And if you're like me, a good first line can pull you straight into a story and have you at the till, ready to purchase, without a second thought. 
I felt like this when I opened Anne Tyler's Back When We Were Grownups and read, One upon a time there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.
I so wanted to know more.
The mos...
Continue reading ...

All submissions for this year's Hookline Novel Competition have been typeset and the files have been uploaded to the printer - I love those words, 'uploaded to the printer'. It doesn't mean our work is done - in the next two weeks, we should be in receipt of the paperbacks and the floor will be littered as we pack them for our book groups and drive to the post office where everyone in the queue shoots irritating looks at our 30 plus boxes. 
But 'uploaded to the printer' means that we can have ...
Continue reading ...

This is the final two weeks of voting for The People’s Book Prize.

One of our novels, Seven Days to Tell You by Ruby Soames, has been nominated.

It is tough for a small publishing company like ours to rise – we may have great stories, terrific writers and a wonderful niche in allowing reading groups to choose what goes to print. But what we don’t have is the money for a publicity machine.

As a result, we rely on readers to promote our good name.

To refresh your memory Seven Days ...

Continue reading ...

Much praise has been heaped on Charles Dickens this year - rightly so! His stories have engaged generations, and his depictions of life at the bottom of the ladder helped alter Victorian sensibilities. But I think we have to discuss why his work captivated so many readers over so many years.
My theory is his serialisation - his chapters, written for periodic journals, had to grab readers so they couldn't wait for the next episode to be printed. So often today, a novel might grab us in the firs...
Continue reading ...

Kate and Marc have a perfect marriage – until one morning Marc goes out, and doesn’t come home. Where has he been? Is a week long enough to learn the truth?

Seven Days to Tell You by Ruby Soames has been nominated for The People's Book Prize - however it needs votes. Yours! Please follow this link to read an excerpt -
http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/section.php?id=6 
ease follow this link where you can read an excerpt -  http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/section.php?id=6 
































 ...
Continue reading ...

Mention reading groups to most people, and they expect middle age, middle class and middle brow.
How wrong!
Reading groups are a growing force in publishing, and some big name authors owe their success to word-of-mouth recommendation through book groups. For instance:
Number One Ladies Detective Agency
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Devine Sisters of the YaYa Sisterhood
The Kite Runner
These were all small-time debut novels until discovered by reading groups.
Following the success of these books, publish...
Continue reading ...

Hookline is now four and we think it is big enough to have it's own website. To be honest, with so much work, we hadn't noticed that it had grown bigger than it's mother - Bookline & Thinker. 
So, this is it - a lot more work to do on the Hookline Books website, but we hope you will read, respond and air your views on what we do.



Continue reading ...