You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Of course you know that’s true when you’re meeting people for the first time, but did you know the same is true for your book? You have a tiny window of opportunity to grab your reader and convince them to finish reading your book. Only 50% to 60% of readers finish the books they start. That means there’s a 50/50 chance that a reader will finish your book. Shortsighted authors may not care if a reader finishes because the sale has already been made. But it’s important to realize that readers rarely recommend a book they don’t finish. All your marketing strategies should aim to get your reader to finish your book so they’ll recommend it! That reader-to-reader recommendation ignites the word-of-mouth marketing, but it never happens if a reader doesn’t finish your book. Your book must make a first impression that hooks a reader in the first few pages, convinces them to buy the book, and retains their commitment to finishing. That’s a lot of pressure on those first 50 pages. If you haven’t captured their attention by page 50, you’ve lost them. They may not realize what’s happened. They’ll simply put your book on their nightstand and let it collect dust. You probably have a stack of unfinished books on your own nightstand. But you don’t need to feel guilty about it. It’s not a moral failing on your part. Those authors failed to capture your commitment within the first 50 pages, and the blame for your unfinished stack of books falls on the authors for not holding your attention. How can you, as an author, write a book that people just have to finish? They’re committed to finishing the book because they can’t stand not knowing how it ends. So how do you do that? I asked Angela Hunt because, with 165 published books to her name and millions of copies sold, she clearly knows how to make a powerful first impression with the first 50 pages. She’s a friend of the Novel Marketing show and a Christie Award winner. If you’re wondering how she writes so many books, listen to her interview about How to Write More Productively. How do you craft a character readers care about right away? Thomas Umstattd, Jr.: Novelists must grab their readers in those first 50 pages and make them care about the characters. Readers must care about your characters enough to want to know what happens next. How do you craft a character readers care about right away? Angela Hunt: You have to create a bond between the reader and the character, and the best way to create that bond is to give your character certain qualities. You need to create a character that is vulnerable, admirable, flawed, and, in some way, funny. How do you make the character vulnerable? If you’re writing a kidnapping story, for example, you have the option of choosing your protagonist. You could choose the kidnapped girl, her father, or the detective. Whoever you choose, you must allow the reader to bond with your protagonist by getting inside the head of the character. If you choose the detective as your protagonist, you could make him vulnerable by giving him a new partner. Maybe he didn’t defend his last partner,