I like thought-provoking literature usually based in a futuristic type setting. I like fiction that attacks issues and provides interesting answers based on the knowledge of the author and his/her belifs of truth. But just as important I depend on character driven stories. I would rather read about Harry Potter and wonder whether he'll fight Draco in the hall or meet his dead parents than pick up Asimov and focus more on a society over an extended period than individual characters.
As for being a publisher and reading only a few lines and an outline to either reject or greenlight a novel... I don't have the foggiest idea what I'd look for. What publishes, what sells, and what do you want to read most of all?
A publisher looks for something that they feel can sell, something that is written to the standard of quality that is printed by publishers. Publishers also look for new and exciting stories, as well as clear and decisive writing.
As for a hook, it depends on what length your story is. If it's a short story, the hook pretty much should be in the first couple hundred words, possibly as soon as possible. If it's a longer work, a novel, then the first few pages is fine.
Clear writing can even be used as a hook if the reader likes the clarity that the writer has given, given you haven't already given the hook.
Genre and setting won't do it. Characters won't do it. And plot definitely won't do it. These things can be important, but the hook comes from tension.
I usually try to hook the reader in a specific way. Firstly, I think it's always best to start with a scene. It will nearly always be more effective than narrative exposition.
OSC says the first sentence is free, but I still make sure that I have a one-sentence hook in the first two sentences. That sentence hook is to get the reader to read the first paragraph or two.
In that one or two paragraphs, I introduce a character and something unusual - something that will grab the reader's attention as being unusual or make the reader wonder "why is it like that?" This, combined with clean, precise writing, should get the reader through a couple pages/the prologue/etc.
Those pages are the big hook that sets up your plot (or part of your plot) and really draws the reader in. If I pull them that far into the book, they will be committed. Barring any major stupidity, they'll be willing to follow me for a while.
So the whole idea is a tiered system of hooks: a sentence, a paragraph, a page or two, roughly speaking. I won't claim it's a perfect system, but it does make writing an effective hook easier for me. Maybe it'll be helpful for others too.
[This message has been edited by authorsjourney (edited August 07, 2006).]
There has to be something in those first 13 lines that evokes an emotion in the reader. It can be any emotion. Concern, curiosity, horror, fear, fascination...but not confusion.
I have been hooked by all sorts of ploys. Even just a lyrical feel to the text.
I find the "hint" to be one of the most common and powerful ways to open a story in the first 13 lines.
Hints come in all kinds of ways.
It all started on Wednesday. (What started? If the next sentences are well-written, I'll probably read on a little ways to find out what started because it sounds important.)
a variant -- Wednesday went wrong from the very beginning. (From TIME AT THE TOP by E Ormondroyd)
A great, black ship slipped over the horizon, its running lights off and its ID broadcasting a fake name and number. (Okay. I'm intrigued. Why is it being so duplicitous? What's it hiding? What is it intending to do?)
John Stevens was an ordinary guy with highly polished horns and a long pink tongue lolling out of his mouth and halfway to the ground. You'd never pick him out of a crowd. (Whoa! I'm definitely intrigued here. I'd read on at least a little ways. And -- for me -- it would be the second sentence that really set the hook.)
The open barrel of a stun gun was six inches from John Stevens's nose. John's day had gone bad from the moment the alarm rang ten minutes early.... (This sets concern/worry which carries me through a bit of what would otherwise be less interesting details. I know that somewhere -- hopefully soon -- we'll get to where John is cornered.)
Oh, and here's a great one from David Brin's GLORY ROAD
Twenty-six months before her second birthday, Maia learned the true difference between winter and summer. (The common idea of a little girl learning some real world truth here is made interesting by the details --26 months before her second b'day and the "true" difference between winter and summer. I'm curious. I read on and on and on and read the whole book because of that opening.)
Anyway, that's my thoughts on hint openings. I'm very receptive to them. I think a lot of people are.
[This message has been edited by arriki (edited August 07, 2006).]
A hook makes us ask a question.
Whether we like the hook, depends on what we think of the question it makes us ask. The example I was given at 10 was the first line of The BFG by Roald Dahl. I can't remember what it was exactly, but it was about a girl waking up in the middle of the night. And I was immediately thinking "why?"
These days "why did the girl wake up in the middle of the night" might not do it for me, but that's because Roald Dahl wasn't writing for me, he was writing for the kid I used to be.
So I suppose a good hook makes us ask a question that we want to know the answer to. And we read on to find out what the answer is.
I'll put it in with OSC's wise reader critique and step it up a notch.
If, at the end of 13 lines you are asking...
Huh?
Oh yeah? os
So What?
You're not going to keep reading!
I also sometimes find myself asking:
Did he pass third grade English?
Do I have to keep reading this? (This one is general and can cover man things, but at the moment I'm picturing the stories written poorly, despite being grammatically correct.)
I LIKE to ask:
What's going to happen next?
Will she live?
Why would anyone do something like that? (the characters, not the author...if I'm thinking this in relationship to the author it would be up in the bad category)
Doc, I agree with you that suspense is what makes a hook and conflict makes a story. And suspense comes in so many different forms sometimes I don't even identify it---I just enjoy it.
[This message has been edited by Zero (edited August 07, 2006).]
quote:
What things are consistantly likable among people of almost all ages, cultures, genders, etc
Tension is seldom a hook for me, unless it's really well done, because without a character to care about, I don't give a damn about tension. Of course, you could argue that good tension also includes a character
I've seen few hooks that made me think "I absolutely have to read the rest of it". There've been the "that's kind of cool, I'll ride along", the "there's some promise here, I'm sticking around for a while", and the "let's put this back on the shelves".
Most of what I put back on the shelves is because of clichés (the damsel in distress, the evil mastermind, etc.), occasionally because nothing happens and I'm bored (I'll give you more than 13 lines for that, even in a short story, but I'm a very forgiving reader on that count). Far more often, it's because I just don't care about the subject matter. Sadly, it's got nothing to do with your storytelling skills, and more about my own interests. For instance, battles in space, or anything that sounds like military SF, turns me off.
For me, a hook is either "something is going to happen, or has already started to happen, and I care about the people this happens to (or it's a cool thing, I'll give you a few more paragraphs to throw in the characters)" or "I like the style or the voice" (an idiosyncrasy of mine, I suspect)
My two (Euro-)cents 
I need to not see an alarm clock or a mirror or any other cheesy excuse to describe the MC's eye color.
I need the first word to not be a pronoun.
I need at least an attempt at proper grammar. Minimal Passive voice and run-ons. And none without a very good reason.
It's not always a question.
You have to evoke an emotion. Curiosity is just the easiest to detail. You could evoke horror or -- even more difficult -- a splendid, pleasant feeling. I've seen that accomplished a few times.
Whatever, it is the emotion evoked in the reader's mind by the text that compels him to read on.
That's what I've come to conclude.
[This message has been edited by Zero (edited August 07, 2006).]
But for a novel, I'm much more likely to read the back first, then, if that interests me, to check a paragraph or two just to make sure the writing style is something I'll like. There are very good writers out there whose writing style bores me silly, so if the back of the novel interests me, style is all I'm looking at before I head to the counter.