Book Jackets Sink or Sell a Book! Editors Should Not Write Jacket Copy! What’s With Those Bogus Book Reviews? Rate the Jacket Copy!
If the first thing a bookstore browser sees when picking up your book is the book title and the jacket design, shouldn’t that title and jacket just blow him away? And once he plucks your book from among the thousands in the store, shouldn’t the jacket promotional copy just sizzle and scorch his hands on the way to the cash register?
Of course it should, but more often than not (given the number of books that fail to ignite in the bookstore), the promotional copy on the book jacket is so lackluster that the potential buyer doesn’t even bother to take that critical next step—a peek at the first paragraph of the first chapter—before tossing the book back into the pile and moving on in search of a book whose jacket copy leaves him breathless!
The Story Can’t Sell Itself
Well before a book hits barnesandnoble.com, borders.com and bookstores, a huge mix of promotional elements must be in place to set the stage for robust sales. The most obvious pushes come from the author’s reputation for writing blockbuster stories. Charles Frazier’s Thirteen Moons soared onto the top-10 fiction list in the New York Times four weeks ago because of the success of Cold Mountain. The extraordinary publicity The Audacity of Hope received when Barack Obama appeared on “60 Minutes,” “Today,” “The Ophrah Winfrey Show” and the front cover of major magazines has catapulted this nonfiction book to the No. 1 spot on the New York Times nonfiction list next Sunday. Winning the Nobel Prize for Literature or The Booker Prize doesn’t hurt either (though they don’t always help.) A publishing company can also back a book with advertising, fire off extra author review copies (ARCs) to book reviewers, and even spend money for preferential shelving. All of these strategies, individually or in combination, work to move a book to the cash register or online checkout in the days or weeks immediately after publication, but the question is: how do you generate sales once the initial publicity push is over?
When the hoopla dies down (if there was any), when the word-of-mouth falters (if it ever existed), when a book is left to its own devices to promote itself (which all too often is the story from the get-go), what’s left to make the difference between an extended, productive middle age or early retirement to remainderdom? Just the promotional copy on the book jacket front cover, back cover and interior flaps.
Don’t Let Your Editor Write Your Jacket Copy!
Ninety-nine percent of editors are no more capable of writing “hot” jacket copy than they are of designing a “hot” layout for the book jacket. Promotional copywriting is a very refined skill. Editors may fancy themselves to be superlative copywriters, but if they really were, many more books should be selling in book stores and online. Great jacket copy is extremely difficult to craft, yet great jacket copy can motivate a reader who has never heard of your book to whip out his or her credit card.
Not Just Any Book Reviewer Will Do!
If you believe everyone who writes a rave review for the book jacket actually reads the book, then I have a you-know-what in you-know-where to sell you. Unless there is a full review in, say, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, from which a few lines have been grabbed “in context”, chances are the comments were just based on a quick glance at the book (cover/flaps) and the promotional material that accompanied the ARC. Editors love any sort of usable review no matter how inane, and reviewers working against deadline know how to knock off an insipid, meaningless review based on a glance at the jacket copy. (Well, that’s another good reason for great jacket copy, isn’t it?) Not surprisingly, the most effective reviews are from people who know the subject matter and have actually read the book. Take Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand. It broke from the gate as a niche book and galloped full-out down the stretch, across the best seller finish line and into the hearts of horse-crazy people and OTBers everywhere, but not all the testimonials that appeared on the back of the jacket had the ring of authenticity that springs from relevant expertise:
“Laura Hillenbrand has written one of the best sports biographies in the history of the genre.” –William Nack, Sports Illustrated senior writer and author of Secretariat: The making of a Champion. [Credible!]
“This is a thrilling American story, a book that succeeds as dramatic history and remarkable sports writing.” –Ron Rosenbaum, author of The Secret Parts of Fortune and Explaining Hitler. [I don’t think so!]
Pick and choose your testimonials carefully. Books without gold-plated publicity campaigns or easy-niche followings can’t afford to waste space on irrelevant reviewers. And by the way, you can always call a reviewer, thank him profusely for the review, and then get it shaped into something even more glowing (or coherent!) simply by putting words in his mouth and then getting the okay to use them. Words can be tweaked; appropriateness of the reviewer cannot.
If the first few lines of jacket copy don’t sell the book, nothing will.
Assume a book by an unknown author had a title and jacket cover that were enticing enough to get a book buyer to start to read the jacket copy. (Authors hold your breath!) Let’s take a look at the first few lines of book jacket promotional copy found on some books I pulled randomly off my shelf or looked up online at barnesandnoble.com or borders.com. Do you think the copy sinks the book or sells it? Would you buy any of these books based on the first few lines of copy? [Where necessary, I edited the copy a little bit to obscure the title of the book!]
1. “On the Battersea Reach of the Thames, a mixed bag of the slightly disreputable, the temporarily lost, and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the great river’s tides….” A Mariner Book/Houghton Mifflin Company
2. “Set in North Dakota in 1987, [Book Title] tells the story of Gracie Smith, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Gracie’s fierce-hearted Indian “stand-in mother” insults three of the deepest racists in town, Gracie decides to spring them both free.” Penguin Books
3. “Senhor Gonzale is a low-grade clerk in the Central Registry of an unnamed city, a department where the living and dead share the same shelf space. A middle-aged bachelor, he has no interest in life beyond his daily routine of issuing certificates of birth, marriage, and death.” A Harvest Book/Harcourt
4. “By all accounts, especially his own, Frank Brown is a loser. An overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three year old drunk, Brown’s life becomes completely unhinged when he loses his beloved parents and long lost sister all within the span of one week.” Penguin Books
5. “A child wounded in body and spirit. An iguana driven mad by pain. A woman fighting to save them both and the man who is their only hope…” Dell Fiction
6. “If you could go back in time…and witness any event…where would you go? When Dr. Tom Greenbaum faces that question after successfully discovering the secret to time travel, he knows the time, place and event he will witness: the death and failed resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Lulu
7. “Tom Whitman, behind the wheel on Route 66 heading east with Allison at his side and their cat Caesar curled up on the backseat, would soon find himself immersed in a maelstrom of unimagined dimension. Newly appointed headmaster of Florence Bruce Seminary, Tom was heading toward an unexpected clash of styles and of cultural expectations.” Xlibris
8. “My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth itself. What succor, what consolation is there in truth compared to a story. What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney?” Bond Street Books/Random House
9. “In the crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mt. Everest lives an embittered judge who wants only to retire in peace when his orphaned granddaughter arrives on his doorstep.” Grove Press
10. ‘[Name of Book] is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century—a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Jackie Smith is ready to have some fun.” Farrar Straus Giroux
Well, are we buying or still browsing? Are you yawning, turning to the first page, or trampling people to get the cash register? Knowing nothing about these books, which ones would you actually consider buying for yourself or a friend?
How do you wring great jacket copy out of a publishing company that expects an editor, associate editor, or marketer (who will barely skim the book, believe me) to write it? Can an author write promo copy that is any better than an editor’s copy? If so, how so?
To be continued…
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: 1. Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald (the Booker Prize 1979), 2. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, 3. All the Names by Jose Saramago (Nobel Prize for Literature), 4. The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty, 5. The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans, 6. The Didymus Contingency by Jeremy Robinson, 7. Behind the Hedge by Stanley Cummings, 8. The Thirteen Tales by Diane Setterfield (New York Times Best Seller 2006), 9. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Man Booker Prize 2006), 10. The Corrections by Jonathan Frazen (Oprah Book Club)
November 10th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
~yawn~
#2… maybe.
Then again, perhaps my taste is all in my mouth.
The short (very short) synopsis offered in a query letter to hook an agent might well do better than these turgid examples.
Frankly, I find them quite dreadful.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Bernita is from Ontario, Canada. Her blog,”An Innocent A-Blog—Journal of a Barely Post-Luddite Miranda,” is very funny.
November 10th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
I’d never buy a book without checking out at least the first interior text page, and usually more than the first interior text page. I usually ignore all blurbs and author credentials, and front covers for the most part too–unless a cover is offensive to me, which is when I ignore the whole damn book.
But I do always read inside book jackets and back covers. I think your emphasis on book jackets is correct with respect to a book’s interior contents. When I’m browsing in a bookstore, I want to know what a book’s insides are about. I’m buying whole books, not just covers. I can’t stand there and read every interior page. A book jacket’s text can give me an idea of the content of the rest of the pages, which is my primary complaint with too many jackets/covers: don’t give me sexy, give me simple. I want to know what the inside pages will likely reveal. I don’t wanna see numerous hype-filled blurbs and vague gibberish, just plain descriptions accurate to the insides. But I may not be the norm there….
I’d turn to the first page of 1, 5, and 8. But I wouldn’t buy any of those books if I didn’t like what I saw on page 1 and after skimming through a few other pages.
Are many editors writing jacket copy now??? Is there anything else we-must-cut-staff publishers will pile on top of editors while no doubt not giving them raises–maybe editors should manufacture the paper too?
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Fran is an artist, short story writer and author. Excerpts from her three novels, Honest Care, Remember Me and A Strange Arrangement, are available on her Web site.
November 10th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
I love it when you give us these challenges, Lynne…. it makes one really focus on the suject in hand; and illustrates your (excellent) point.
The only two books I would even consider reading — based on these blurbs — are numbers 4 and 8. The rest were all quite blah and boring; not compelling or attention-getting at all.
I’m going to hire YOU to write my jacket copy when I’m published. (And I’m not joking…)
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Thanks, Bridget, but, ideally, I’m not the one to do it either.
November 10th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
I like #8, and might look at page 1 of #10 and see…But I admit, I’m the aforementioned editor who writes jacket copy (we’re a niche publisher with a work force of 6, I do most everything–what do you want?).
Sample, form “The Kelemen Journals” dustjacket. What do you think?
In 1933, Pál Kelemen, a dashing former WWI cavalry officer turned amateur art historian, visited the Maya ruins of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with his new wife, Elisabeth, a former opera singer. Both were soon captivated by the then-little-known art of the Maya and that trip inspired a lifetime of travels throughout the Americas. This is their first-person account of those journeys—a romantic tale of discovery in an age when travel in most of Central and South America, and much of Mexico, was still an adventure.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Jennifer is an editor at Sunbelt–The Source for Books on the Californias. She is also the author of Sea of Cortez Review (March 2000).
November 10th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
They’re ALL awful. Which I guess tells me the critics (and Oprahhh) can spot a good book long before I can. Just tell us what’s good and we’ll buy it, right?
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: It’s frightening, isn’t it, Andrew!
November 10th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Uhhhhh, Lynne? I think there may be a couple of errors in your list….I’m assuming you meant “horse” instead of “iguana” in the Horse Whisperer blurb, and #2 does sound familiar, but it ain’t “Secret Life of Bees,” which is set in South Carolina (and since I heard Sue Monk Kidd give a speech about it last night, I feel fairly qualified to object).
You know how books get sold? Well, yes, the jacket copy does make a difference. At least one of my favorite
books of last year, “Rocks that Float” by Kathy B. Steele, remains a hard sell because of very oddly written jacket copy that GIVES AWAY THE ENDING. But, well, you can see this coming, can’t you? You, Mr. Publisher, sell a book by getting advance copies in the hands of dedicated independent bookstores, and, if the book has what it takes, the rest will take care of itself. Again, I bring up the example of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, which wasn’t a blip on B&N’s radar until the indies had been selling the hell out of it for MONTHS. The American Bookseller’s Association has even published a case study on Sara’s book because of how effective indies were in selling it, and how we scooped the chains. First announced print run on “Water” was 20,000, upped to 50,000 after positive independent bookseller reviews….now they’re closing in on 200K in print, nearly 500 of which have been sold by our store.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Frazer, you are right, handsellers at bookstores like Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina, can make all the difference in the success or failure of a book, even if the cover stinks. I know you’ve been raving about Water for Elephants for quite a while, but what happens two years down the road when you stop hawking (in the nicest way!) that book and it is supplanted by the next ten books you want to handsell into stardom? The cover will count. (Oh, and the iguana is my sly joke! Guffaw! And I tweaked some facts in the promo copy to throw readers off the scent of the obvious current best sellers!)
November 10th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
I think that many books are affected by cover art that misrepresents what the story is about and the only
jacket copy that annoys me is the type that doesn’t give you an idea of what’s inside. Yes,you don’t want to give the whole thing away like an overdone movie trailer, but I’d rather know something about the contents than a bunch of pats-on-the-back there.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Lady T, were you thinking that the graphic designer took the time to read and understand the book before creating a book jacket design? Hah! NO way. Time is money! Graphic designers are handed the copy for the book and work around that.
November 10th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Good Stuff Ms. Scanlon!!!
Ok I’m being really honest. I would pick up two books here.
# 6 is a best selling book from lulu. As a lulu author, I know it well. Even though I’m a little bored with stories with the Jesus twist, Mr. Robinson wrote great copy. I believe that is excellent too. As a self-published author, I know when you are so close to a book it’s hard to capture its essence. I have about fifteen versions of jacket copy ha ha!
Aside: Still I don’t think anyone has quite hit the Jesus Hook better than Greg Iles with his “The Footprints of God” It’s a compelling read.
#9 - Isn’t that an updated version of “Silas Marner?” Ok it did get my attention. I would read it just to find out.
November 11th, 2006 at 12:31 am
#8… but, actually after seeing the title, I never would have looked at the jacket copy, so I guess I’ve passed by a lot of really good books just because I didn’t like the title.
However, as you stated, Lynn, the author’s name sells books long after the first flush of love simply because of the name. I have read horrible stories by big name authors that repackaged their first efforts. They should have tossed them in a drawer and locked it, like I did with my first effort. Therefore, even Author Name isn’t as dependable as it actually should be, right?
I have no credentials or alphabet behind my name except I have read a couple thousand books in my 5 decades of life, which should make me sort of an expert. It doesn’t. After talking with my managing editor today, I find that I am wildly naive about a lot of things and I still don’t have the hang of AP style which comes from my Southern heritage. After reading and reviewing numerous books in my Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, my literary taste is not even close to the drivel that quite a few publishers are churning out. I have some books stacked by my bed that I would have bought but would have been incredibly sorry. And I’ve lost count of the books I never would have bought and am sorry that I said I’d review. Shall I take up some space here and share?
1. “Enter where you’ll find yourself thrown into a killer’s deadly game in which the only way to win is to lose…and the only way out is in.”
2. “She’s a sassy single woman full of household hints and handy advice …except in matters of the heart. Her first romantic outing in months is a blind date…but things go from bad to worse when the date winds up dead and Jo finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.”
3. …”Jackie loves her job until she is forced to divide her office into cubicles and share space with a new history instructor…she goes online to vent but eventually finds herself admitting her conflicted feelings about this office neighbor who drives her crazy and makes her heart flutter.”
4. “A vampire… A werewolf… can two who were wronged make it right? One selfless act–by their faith.”
#1 — House, Ted Dekker & Frank Peretti; #2 Blind Dates Can Be Murder, Mindy Starns Clark; #3 Cubicle Next Door, Siri L. Mitchell; #4 Never Ceese, Sue Dent.
Every single one of the above was well written. But, each had lengthy yawn spots and one, Cubicle, was way too preachy about conservation--I will continue to buy straws no matter how detrimental to the environment! “Never Ceese” had subject matter that makes my stomach churn so I still don’t know how that one turns out, yet.
This is a long rant, but it is something that get’s my dander fluffed and frizzy. I intensely dislike spending my money on a disappointing book. I do depend on recommendations a lot. I also depend on reviews. However, the thing that makes a book continue to sell even after the first flush is a faded memory is the STORY. It is why we still buy Jane Austin’s offerings and other classics. Even a badly written GOOD story is preferable to a yawn, unless one has insomnia troubles.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Well-written, but poorly edited! Maddening.
November 11th, 2006 at 12:40 am
You’re right, of course, Lynne…and thanks for being a guide and mentor about how all sides of the industry think. (I’m stuck, obviously, in the bookseller mode, but I’m only part of the equation.) And “hawking” may be a bit perjorative, though in no way inaccurate; that’s why we invented the term “handselling.”
Ultimately, though, it’s neither the cover nor the quality of jacket copy that sells a book in an independent store. Despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary, I still subscribe to the quaintly romantic notion that quality will out–something that’s good enough to blow the top of the reader’s head off (figuratively speaking, of course) will eventually rise to the top of the stew and find the recognition it deserves. But, of course, it doesn’t always happen that way. I’m hoping this winter that it will happen for a book by perennial cult favorite sci-fi/fantasy/horror/hardboiled author Dan Simmons, an excellent novel called “The Terror,” due out in January. (For more on it, see my blog at www.sibaweb.com/frazer.) I’ve mostly finished hawking, if you will, Zafon’s “Shadow of the Wind” and Sean Stewart’s wonderful Ya-Ya-Sisters-with-voodoo novel “Mockingbird,” though I still recommend them. The life of the independent bookseller is waiting for the next great–not necessarily big–thing to come along. And, to my delight, there’s always something wonderful in the wings.
November 11th, 2006 at 2:47 am
Interesting post, Lynne.
The book has one quick, 10- to 20–second glance to be picked from the shelf, then the copy better entice the reader to purchase.
Not much of a “window” for a sale but with a strong cover at least you can be noticed and that as you point out is the first step.
Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Hi, Steve. Yes, the book jacket (dust jacket in the old days) has to deliver the goods to the reader. That said, what happens when the book gets shelved, alphabetically by author’s last time and ”spine-out,” in the bookstore. I can’t remember the last time I browsed the shelf in the library or a bookstore (as a kid I did, routinely) happily looking for books of a specific genre that might interest me. Shelved like that, your book, Sand Storm, would be at the mercy of the first letter of your last name (thank goodness it begins with a “C”) and the book’s title. Good luck!
November 11th, 2006 at 9:55 am
First, I have to tell you that the majority of the books waiting in my queue were recommended to me by friends and relatives.
That being said, there are only three on the list that would inspire me to explore further.
#6 - I would read the opening and the blurbs on the back. The slightest whiff of Evangelical influence would, however, send me packing.
#8 - You got me with “wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney?” Definitely would leaf through some chapters and check out blurbs on the back.
#10 - I would have read opening and blurbs had the description stopped at, “easy fixes.” However, wife and mother ready to have fun is too formulaic for my taste. (What wife and mother doesn’t long to have more fun?!!)
November 11th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Dunno ’bout #5…
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Welcome back, LatteGirl!
November 11th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
1. No. Sounds like the beginning of a Monty Python sketch where John Cleese parodyies a pompus BBC announcer.
2. No, but at least it gives a precis of the story.
3. No. Makes Senor Gonzales’s life sounds deadly dull. Why would I want to partake of his zombielike routine?
4. No.
5. No.
6. Yes. The copy gives the novel’s set-up, and it sounds intriguing.
7. No. What’s the story? Give me a hint what the story or premise is, unless there isn’t one, which is always a possibility (See #3).
8, 9 & 10: Sadly, No.
November 12th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
So what works?
The first step (I would guess) is to look to your own experience. What draws you to one book over another?
Artwork: A startling image (I’m thinking of one by Chip Kidd of water being poured into a glass, with the stream suddenly turning upwards. Ah, “Magical Thinking,” it’s called.
A drawing of historical characters, posed is if drawn from a 19th century piece (the “Flashman” books by Fraser, pick one).
Old record album covers could provide inspiration, particularly by a studio called Hypgnosis. (They did the classic Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin albums). Their work is chronicled in the coffeetable book “Walk Away Rene.” Any of those images on the cover of a book would startle me into picking it up.
Text: DON’T follow the standard back-of-the-book style. “Emma Kate was expecting the usual date until he showed up dead on her doorstep.”
I suspect any different style would be more effective: character speaking in first person, a sonnett, sign language. The flap copy for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books are always entertaining.
The rule: Don’t be boring. Don’t be good enough. Back of the book copy has become so formulaic that I suspect even bad copy, interestingly styled, would stand out.
November 13th, 2006 at 4:05 am
You are so right Lynne, editors and authors should not write the jacket copy.
I spent agonizing weeks trying to put the few dozen words together for the back cover of my novel. In the end I blogged the process and invited fellow-bloggers to comment. My original version was universally trashed, what emerged was much better, but not, I suspect, as good as it should/could be.
Derec
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Derec Jones is a writer, editor and publisher from South Wales. One of the smart things Derec has done with the jackets is to show the front and BACK of the cover on his Web site. ”Skint,” by the way, is a British slang term.
November 13th, 2006 at 10:48 am
[…] The Publishing Contrarian – Discussions about Dramatic Change in the Business and Operation of Publishing Book Jackets Sink or Sell a Book! Editors Should Not Write Jacket Copy! What’s With Those Bogus Book Reviews? Rate the Jacket Copy! […]
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Thanks for linking to me!
November 13th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
How’s this?
In her latest book-length post, this outspoken publishing pro takes another ferocious swing at an oversized, ink-stained target.
Lynne Scanlon, often called “the Harridan of the Hamptons,” dynamites one of the book business’s treasured myths–that cover design and jacket copy are crafted with loving care by literary/marketing geniuses. From her gripping opening paragraph to her stirring challenge to one’s own illusions, Lynne Scanlon sends the reader for another harrowing ride on publishing’s nightmarish rollercoaster. This is a great read you dare not put down, in more ways than one.
November 14th, 2006 at 7:48 am
Hi Lynne,
I wrote back in Oct, to comment on your book-hook post (on The Memory Keeper’s Daughter’s success). At that time, I was waiting for my agent to read my new novel, which I hoped was more marketable than my previous (which she’d been unable to sell).
I’m excited to report I hit a home run with the new novel, relatively speaking. It sold to Ballantine, at auction. Also sold to seven foreign pubs including HarperCollins in the UK, as the lead title for its new Avon imprint.
I feel like it’s a debut that actually has a chance!
Your recent post about jacket copy is a lesson I’ll be keeping in mind as my book gets to that stage. Thanks for providing such useful info and advice for new authors like me!
Therese
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Click over to Therese’s blog and read about how her novel got picked up “backwards.” She also gives some advice about deleting emails a little too fast when you don’t recognize the name of the sender!
November 15th, 2006 at 5:22 am
I stumbled across your blog from a link on The Big Book Blog, and I just read through all your entries. You have a great voice and I wanted to tell you thanks for sharing your expertise. It really helps.
I’m a young author, so the publishing world is especially interesting to me right now. My first book on college recruiting will be published by Portfolio in July, and my second book (on personal finance) will be published by Workman in ‘08.
I run a blog on personal finance and personal entrepreneurship at http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com, which the second book is based on.
I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts. If you have a newsletter, p lease sign me up!
Thanks,
-Ramit
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: I can see why Ramit got picked up by Workman. Click over to Ramit’s “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” Web site Table of Contents. It’s impressive.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:49 am
“You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
Cliche?
November 16th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
This certainly is fun. Way more fun than trying to write jacket copy.
1. I’m always up for “the slightly disreputable, the temporarily lost, and the patently eccentric” — I’d flip to page one to decide whether this was great or crap. I’d be surprised to discover it was anything in between.
2. Zzzz.
3. The most interesting of the bunch, IMHO.
4. The copy isn’t bad, but I’m not so interested.
5. The worst kind of jacket copy, reminds me of a bad movie preview voice-over.
6. Straightforward copy, clear enough. But revisiting Jesus is not my thing.
7. Brought down by a “maelstrom of unimagined dimension.” And the baffling verb tense.
8. I have no idea what this is about, but would open the book to find out. Overblown, but intriguing.
9. Everest, embittered Judge, voice from the past. Intriguing elements set into motion.
10. Could be copy for any of a dozen novels and so does nothing for me one way or the other.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Antoine’s novel, The Interloper: A Novel, will be published in spring 2007. Check out his site and you will see his short stories have appeared in A Public Space, The Paris Review, Blue Mesa Review, Gutcult….
November 17th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
WW of P:
I couldn’t agree more that editors should stay away from writing jacket copy. The PR person is more appropriate, but so many of the book publishing PR people these days are 13 years old and aren’t good writers, and may not be that well-read either.
My new book (yes, this is a blatant plug) will be in stores around December 10, and when you see “Halsey’s Typhoon: A Fighting Admiral, An Epic Storm, and An Untold Rescue,” you’ll be reading jacket copy that I wrote and the publisher accepted verbatim.
Hey, if an author can write the 100,000 words inside the book, why not the 200 words outside of it?
Tom Clavin
November 19th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Oh, my! It my last post I completely ignored the purpose of this blog . . . I think! So to get back on track: I dislike books at once that have review blurbs on the back. I want to know what the book is about not what someone else thinks.
Jacket Covers should, IMO, have something to do with the book. That’s why I did my own and am very proud of ALL the wonderful comments I’ve had about it!!! Not even my publisher wanted to touch it. I’d be prouder except that I do have a degree in Fine Arts. For that reason alone, it should have been good. That’s not to say I’m a grand artist but I do know a thing or two about design, color etc. . . Even did another book cover for Wendy Decker, an up and coming Christian author of “Judy Blume” type books. It’s called The Bedazzling Bowl. You should check it out if you have young kids. Especially girls.
Letting editors do your jacket flap. Well, I’m torn on this one. How about just letting someone qualified do it. I wrote mine, then let my editor tweek and fine tune because well . . . that’s her job!
Getting reviews to support a book is fine, IMO, if they help a reader know what the book is about. (If the reviews actually tell about the book that is.) Generic comments like, WOW!, awe-inspiring, suspensful . . .don’t actually do much for me.
Like many here, I will actully pick up the book and see how it reads, see if the first page holds my attention. I ALWAYS do this before making any comment or give any thoughts about how I think a book might or might not appeal to me. I have the upmost respect for any author who is traditionally published as I am now. Because despite what I think about their jacket blurb or book cover, or book content, they did what so many of us can’t do. They were published!
And chances are, if you stay in a genre you like, you’ll really enjoy their work!!!!
Okay, I’m finished–for now!
November 20th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
That’s a great post for my first visit. As the Director of the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, I see new books on an almost daily basis. The jacket copy is the first encounter a reader has with a given title. If it doesn’t blow them away, you’ve lost a reader!
But I think that the particular genres that a reader entertains themselves with, also has a lot to do with that choice. For example, out of all the cover copy you illustrated in your post, only #6 interested me. Not because it was about Jesus…I see that on a daily basis…but because it was about time travel.
After seeing that as cover copy, I’d peruse a few pages to see if I liked the style of writing, and those together would dictate my purchase!
Great covers also get my attention, but today I don’t see a lot of those!
December 7th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
I always get to these great debates late, after the last word has been uttered months ago. Perhaps, Lynne, you should invest in a “breaking news” button that you can email to your subscribers to get them moving your way.
I agree that jacket copy is an art best handled in the realm of advertising by copywriters who dream up the ads, brochures, catalogs, and other marketing materials.
But I’ve met many editors who have a talent for the craft.
Still, if, as an author, I had to choose between editor and copywriter for the task, I’d head for the copywriter everytime.
But I’d asked the editor to write a first draft for the copywriter and to make sure that the copywriter has a copy of the book…to read.
January 20th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I know I’m late to this, but…
I can only speak about the specific publishers I’ve worked for, but it’s rare that even the editor writes the jacket copy. It’s usually the editorial assistant, and usually it’s put off until the last minute (yes, waiting for blurbs, but also because everyone sees it as an onorous task). No wonder they’re so terrible!
Regarding the jacket design, it’s been my experience that the art department gets a brief with design ideas. If the designer reads the manuscript (which would be made available), it would be unusual. And then marketing gets the last say, unless the author is really selling books. It’s a sad state of affairs.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: A new visitor! Thanks for stopping by…and confirming what I, too, know to be true about jacket copy.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:49 am
[…] Lynne Scanlon thinks that book editors should never be allowed to write jacket copy, and gives examples. I hated all of them. I usually ignore jacket copy until I’ve read the book — or tried to. […]