Senior Editor Robert Lee Brewer identifies four common ways to write effective hooks for books—based on actual elevator ...

Writing this blurb meant not working on my own book, not doing other things I needed or wanted to do, for the 12 hours or so, spread over several days, that it took to read my friend’s book.

Writing and endurance sports make for an unlikely comparison, but it’s one that author Lauren Groff does poetically. Groff, a former collegiate athlete who runs, skis and plays tennis, likens writing ...