Admit it: you've gone to your local book store, picked up a book, and skimmed the opening page. Don't be ashamed. You're not alone. Now, as a writer, ask yourself this: if a casual consumer picked up your story, your novel, what would they think of your first line? Scary thought?

If you're a writer, chances are you've been stuck on how to craft an opening line. This book can help. Analyzing some of the greatest first lines in fiction can help us find the techniques the masters used in creating some of the most enduring lines in literature. But more than just a simple analysis, this book will show you how to compress things like character, conflict, voice, and setting into a line that will embody an entire work, and immediately establish your authority as a writer.

After reading this book, you'll have the confidence and tools to craft a first line that will make editors and casual consumers stand up and take notice. And regardless of the words you choose to use, your first lines will say, very loudly, very proudly, "This is a book you have to read."