Writing Bylines...

Byline? Are you sure you've got the right word? Bylines are usually a journalism term for the writer's credit.

JANE007 said:

When do you normally write your bylines? When you've finished the book, after you have your title, or whenever "it comes to you"?


How much (or little) do you give away with your byline?

Do you have any tips / advice for writing effective bylines?



Thanks for your help!!
J007
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Don't follow your reference to a byline - what's it for?

I think the poster means "logline", a screenwriting term. A super short synopsis. Like: "Fighter pilots train at a prestigious academy and engage in a lot of subtle homoeroticism in Top Gun."

That's a bad example. But.

Byline = by soinsoinso. Perhaps you mean something else.

Jane, do you mean the subtitle of the book? The part after the colon when a book title has a colon in its middle? Like My Life: Believe it or Not. You write that along with the rest of the title.

By the way, it's "the throes of depression," not "throws" – just in case you're using the phrase in what you write.

I'm pretty sure Hang got it right. The book equivalent of a logline. Like my fave from Alien:

"In space, no one can hear you scream."

That's a tagline more than a logline.

When is a tagline not like a logline? When it's a byline. On a zipline.

Freeline.

Yeah, but whose line is it anyway?

That's a tagline, mostly used in marketing.

Or are you talking about a jacket blurb... usually a 1 or 2-paragraph "tease" of what the book is about. That usually comes AFTER you have a contract and during the publication process...

Since you're posting this in novels, Jane, I'm going to presume that you're talking about a logline or a blurb.

A logline is what is placed in a catalogue the publisher sends to distributors, wholesalers and bookbuyers for stores that describes the book in about ten words. A logline for Harry Potter might be: Boy wizard learns magic while battling sorcerer who killed parents.

A blurb is what you might see on the back cover of a book. Unless you're self-publishing, it's usually the marketing department or your editor who will write this. Very few authors with small or large presses are given this opportunity, so you don't need to worry about that. If you're self-publishing, then the goal with a blurb is to give "teasers" about the book that will invite people to open the cover to find out more.

On the other hand, are you asking about something like a "high concept" to sell the book to a publisher? A high concept (again using Harry Potter) could be something like: "Lord of the Ring's Frodo meets Dune" or something like that. It's intended to give information about the genre and give an editor some concept of other works the book might be like.
Does that help, or just give you more questions?