It’s not only agents and editors who judge a book by the first page: readers do too. In an industry driven by pitches, hooks, blurbs and the first paragraph of Look Inside the Book, writers need to get to grips with how a potential reader would first encounter their novel. What’s more, thinking clearly about what these condensed forms highlight about your current project can alert you to problems with it, or even inspire it in the first place.

But how do you draw the reader in without giving the game away, and what do you do if your novel has a non-linear structure? This practical, interactive tutorial will be based in part on material sent in by participants, to help us explore how to show (not just tell) a reader that you and your writing deserve their time, money and attention.

You should leave with a clearer sense of how pitches and blurbs can be a developmental technique as well as a selling tool, and some new ideas for how to make the best use of them.