I downloaded 2 samples of kindle books for a good summer read.

First one, Michael Connelly’s Dark Sacred Night…latest in the Bosch series.

Second one, I won’t name the author but he’s  mid list with several books published, and this one sounded promising.

I started the 2nd sample first…  25 pages of rambling, sarcastic self-talk until something finally happened – meh.

Picked up Bosch.

3rd Paragraph…we are rolling.  We are in the game and wheels are spinning.

The difference between the two was astonishing.

In this sound byte world we live in you have a few seconds to grab somebody’s attention.  Whether it’s a movie, a book, a blog post or a 4 minute YouTube video…the rule is the same:

It’s the first page or nothing.  Grab ’em by the throat and take ’em for a ride.

A trick I’ve used:

…when you’ve got it written, throw out the first chapter.  The less that happens before the action takes place, the better.

Now go show us what you can do…

J