Ignoring whether this is a good business, I feel like this is a pretty terrible way to judge a book. If it took off it would result in everyone just starting their book with a real hook, which only works for a small number of genres and only if nothing else needs to be setup before "hooking" (simple "nothing is unfamiliar" stories).

I've read plenty of books on recommendation that I think are great, but they were not the kind of books that could start with a hook I think.

But, the counterargument to this is if it helps people start books, then who cares if it is an effective strategy or not.

> But, the counterargument to this is if it helps people start books, [...].

It certainly doesn't. Not that it matters to people who love reading books, for they know judging a whole book by its first page(s), or based on some formula extracted from one of those silly self-improvement tomes, is just ridiculous (especially the latter reminiscent of "Pritchard's graph" from Dead Poets Society).

Still better than judging by the cover. Also, it is important to know that there aren't any deal breakers in the author's style.