A jacket blurb for a fantasy epic

Long ago the peaceful world of Altoria was ravaged by fierce conflict. Twin sorcerers, brothers torn apart by envy and bitter hatred, battled to decide the fate of the world. Through foul treachery, deciet, and demonic pacts one brother prevailed. The other was entrapped in a magical prison for all time, and his allies were scattered or destroyed.

For nearly seven centuries the Deathless Emperor and his followers have held the world under their iron fist. Through him, his demon patron manipulates the mortal world. No one escapes the depredations of his Dominion. Under the dark emperor and his high priest the people of Altoria have been broken and controlled.

But a time of change is coming. Arius Thell, one small boy, the last of a long line of wizards, will soon discover his magic and his heritage. In so doing, he will embark upon a quest to free his long imprisoned ancestor. Along the way he will awaken his own powers and re-ignite a hunger for liberty in the people of Altoria as he searches for the five stone keys to freedom.

[x] I feel a wave of ennui wash over me when i read that cover copy. It sounds just like the cover copy for every other cookie-cutter fantasy series.

And by the way: In current industry parlance, that's not a blurb. It's a bit of cover copy, or flap copy, or catalog copy, or ad copy, depending on where it appears. The collective term for such material is "sales copy". A very short, punchy bit of sales copy which appears on the front cover of the book -- viz., "She was all things to two men", or "Human enough to love, alien enough to kill" -- is called a "sell line".

Sales copy, sell line. Hmmm. Ok. Does the publisher usually have marketing write it or does the author?

Oh, and you lose two points for being pretentious enough to use the the french term "ennui".

Usually the publisher writes the sales copy. That's a marketing department kinda thing.

Yup. Default mode, the authors don't package their books. They don't decide on the artist, or commission the painting, or approve the finished art or the cover design. They don't write the sales copy or design the advertisements. They may very well help with promotion -- helping set up signings at bookstores, giving interviews, asking their writer buddies for cover quotes -- but they don't write the basic press release or send out the initial review copies. They don't decide on the book's pubdate. They do decide whether their books are going to have dedications, chapter titles, tables of contents, etc., and they decide what the text of those will be, but they don't pick out the typeface in which those things are set.

Is this because publishing employees are control freaks? Generally speaking, no -- except in production/managing editorial, where being a control freak is sort of a professional requirement. Things are organized that way because packaging and marketing a book involves a lot of seriously arcane expertise and complex interlocking schedules and processes, and authors only think they understand all that stuff. A few authors think that and are right; but the vast majority of them are best left to write more books, which is after all what they do best.

If left to their own devices, too many authors would ignore a short, punchy rave-up from People or Time or The New Yorker in favor of a six- or seven-line quote from the Punkydoodle Picayune & Packet-Courier because ithe latter happens to exactly capture their own vision of the book. They yearn to have their body text set rag-right in nine-point Universe, and think it would be a great idea to use one of their niece's lovely paintings as the cover art.

Sure, a few authors are also great copywriters or publicists or cover designers. But for most authors, having all those tasks dumped in their laps -- which is what many POD, electronic, online, etc. publishers do -- is like being a six-year-old who's allowed to run around loose, without any supervision. From a distance it may give the impression of freedom, but in practice the effect is more like neglect.

In short then,

The publisher is smart enough to let writers write, and salesmen sell?

Random aside: I think mileage varies on whether or not the use of ennui is pretentious.

"N is for Neville, who died of ennui." - The Gashlycrumb Tinies

Covers

Oi... one thing that annoys me as a reader is when someone does the cover of a book and it looks like they did't even read it.

Like some of the covers for R.A. Salvatore's books. On the cover of some of his books shows his main character as a pale, old looking elf with white hair. The white hair is correct, but the character is a (relatively) young Dark Elf, meaning he should have dark skin and shouldn't be all wrinkly.

(Please excuse any misspellings or parts that don't make sense. I have the flu and am not fully coherent.)

Re: Covers

>> Oi... one thing that annoys me as a reader is when someone does the cover of a book and it looks like they did't even read it.<<

That's because a lot of the time they haven't. Often all the artist is given is the concept the marketing department has come up with, along with a few directives for clothing, physical characteristics, landscape, etc.

My forthcoming book has a very striking cover--but it has only the most tenuous relationship to the scene it's supposed to depict. Sometimes the author can advocate for changes--for instance, I was able to ask that the heroine be put in a dress rather than the belly-dancer outfit they originally had her in. But most of the time you just have to accept what the publisher comes up with. Readers do notice these things, though. I know I do.

- Victoria
www.victoriastrauss.com
www.writerbeware.com

Re: Covers

Maybe nonfiction books are different, or perhaps just my publisher is.

I was given cover approval and love the one I picked, tho it was the publisher's least-favourite of the 3 "finalists." (Once it was done however, they saw the light )

They also ran the back cover blurb by me and I nearly completely re-wrote it. Again, they kindly went with my version.

Perhaps it was because they are a smaller house or again, maybe the rules are different for nonfiction.

Re: Covers

is that a royalty publisher, aka?... mind telling us which one?

love and hugs, maia

Re: Covers

Don't mind at all mama. It was Ragged Mountain Press, a division of McGraw-Hill. And they'll pay royalties; assuming I earn back my advance that is.

Re: Covers

oh EJ, that flu is horrible. take good care of yourself, rest a lot, and stay away from the computer if possible. :hat

Re: Covers

Oi... one thing that annoys me as a reader is when someone does the cover of a book and it looks like they did't even read it.

Like some of the covers for R.A. Salvatore's books. On the cover of some of his books shows his main character as a pale, old looking elf with white hair. The white hair is correct, but the character is a (relatively) young Dark Elf, meaning he should have dark skin and shouldn't be all wrinkly.

Without naming any names, there is a certain fantasy illustrator who drives me rather insane, because he has the covers for a well-known series, and the central characters NEVER look the same from cover to cover, nor do they REALLY resemble the characters beyond one or two points.

I bet the R.A. Salvatore cover happened because the artist was told the elf's age, which though young for a dark elf, would be old in human terms, and so the artist thought, "He's old. I'll make him wrinkly."

Mr Macdonald....Question! Question!!

I had read not long ago in a writing ref,that even though most publishers generally provide these kinds of PR, but that they sometimes appreciate the authors input or opinion(If Its good) on such things as the story brief,cover art,dust cover design,etc.Have you found this to be true for the most part or not ??? I have considered doing my own artwork,as I am a professional artist,or is this best left to the 'pro's' regaurdless ?? And what If you really HATE the ideas they may happen to come up with...where do ya go from there?? Or is It just best to go with the whims of the publisher,just to GET PUBLISHED ???
Any thoughts?? Carybelle

Question! Question!!

>>Or is It just best to go with the whims of the publisher,just to GET PUBLISHED ???<<

If you're talking about a commercial publisher, the answer usually is yes, because they know a whole lot more about it than you do.

I did get asked for ideas (some of which were incorporated) when the editor and the marketing people were brainstorming about a cover concept, and the initial sketches were shown to me. The basic concept they came up with, which I didn't like (I write fantasy, but really dislike fantasy-style covers), was non-negotiable, but I was able to advocate for other changes--the female figure's outfit, some aspects of the background, the fact that the characters are non-Caucasian. I was also told who the artist was going to be and given a chance to look at samples of his work. I think that if I'd been really dead set against him I might have gotten them to pick someone else, but I actually like this artist's work very much. I've also come to like the cover, if I turn off the part of my brain that reminds me how little it has to do with the scene it's supposed to depict. (If anyone is curious, there's an image here: www.sff.net/people/victor...land.html)

I re-wrote the cover copy (as many authors do). The people who write cover copy often read only a synopsis of the book and may get a lot of stuff wrong. In my case, there were some major inaccuracies, not to mention a bunch of grammatical errors, all of which I got rid of as best I could, while keeping their basic format. I'm still not crazy about it, even re-written, and don't think it gives a good picture of the book. But the book is all about religion and revelation (an invented religion; it's not religious fiction), and the publisher seems to be trying to minimize that in its marketing.

So would I have packaged the book differently if I could have done it all myself? Probably. I'd have a beautiful abstract literary-style cover. I'd have intelligent, detailed cover copy that stressed the thematic and philosophical aspects of the book. And probably it would go over like a lead balloon, because this isn't how readers in my genre expect or want books to be packaged. Despite my ups and downs with all of this, I do believe that the publisher is doing its best. I also know that I take this stuff much too seriously, and get far too worked up about it.

So commercially published authors do sometimes--but not always--get at least some input into the process, although that input is usually pretty limited. If you're someone like James Patterson, of course, you have a lot more clout--I read somewhere that Patterson vetoed 50 or more cover designs for one book before they came up with something he liked. The rest of us, though, just have to deal with the process as best we can, and hope to have at least some voice in the final product.

- Victoria
www.victoriastrauss.com
www.writerbeware.com

Re: Question! Question!!

James Patterson was also a major advertising executive before he became a full-time writer, and presumably knows something about selling. He's also gotten some major clout with his publisher thanks to his sales figures. At some point in your career you can say, "Don't like my idea for a cover? Maybe I'll go find a publisher who does..." and have it make a difference.

The cover of a book is a point-of-sale poster. It's a sign telling the readers "This is the kind of book you like to read." It isn't meant to be a literal illustration from the story (though it can be).

Same for cover blurbs.

I've had input on covers on with several publishers, in the form of providing four or five one-page descriptions of scenes from the book. I've had the chance to comment on illustrations on occassion. I've even had the chance (not because it was in the contract, but because I'm good at it) to write my own sales copy (the back-cover blurb). Other times, I find out what the cover looks like when I get my author's copies.



(Not to blow my own horn really loudly, but I'm also a professional back sales copy writer. You see blurbs on books? You may be reading one of mine. Pay's not great, but I get a lot of free books.)

Re: Question! Question!!

OK, another question.

I have a young artist friend whose work is amazing and loves my writing. He is going to the Dallas Art Institute, and actually has some credible references, even if I do not. He has been doing everything from character studies to various cover concepts based on my book, he also did a map for me. Should a publisher be foolish enough to publish this particular work, what are the chances I will be able to hand them some of his art and get them to use it?

He really is wonderful, and no doubt would be willing to go cheap on his fee just to break into the business...

Here is the map he did for me:



More of his work can be seen here: www.greenskins.com - The Art of Tal Hollingsworth

You may not write the jacket blurb, but you'll need to market your novel to agents and/or publishers. You'll want to emphasize what makes it different, basically what makes a reader think, "Wow, I wonder how that plays out?" That's what I didn't see in the sample blurb you posted.

Re: Question! Question!!

Have your friend prepare a portfolio and get in contact with the art directors of various publishers. You'll have a far easier time getting him to work on your novel if he's already one of the artists the publisher has on file. He can start his career separately from yours.

Not that there are any guarantees.

Re: Question! Question!!

So what you are saying is that the sales copy has to leave them hungry for more, much the way the story should from chapter to chapter...

Well I seem to be pretty good at generating dramatic tension in my stories. I should be able to to the same with some jacket copy. I'll post a few alternatives after I have finished my current task of revising my outlines and providing my artist with some additional profile info.

I understand what many of you are saying now. The bit I posted does a decent job describing the milieu. IT gives a little info about the protagonist and his antagonists, but it doesn't reach out and grab you by the collar.

It has to say, "Hey! Read me! I am the sort of book you like, but I am new, different, exciting, and here is why!"

Re: Question! Question!!

Thanks there,Uncle Jim!!! Preciate It muchly.I suppose I will go with their suggestions untill I am able to aquire enough 'clout',to insist on my own work or go elsewhere an be
fairly comfortable that I can choose an alternate publisher who will. Makes sense to me. Thanks! Carybelle

Re: Question! Question!!

...untill I am able to aquire enough 'clout',to insist on my own work or go elsewhere...

By then you might have enough experience to know whether or not their suggestions make sense.

Uncle Jim...

Granted.Good point there.I'll play It by ear,then!! Gee,sure is nice to have some good advice floating around in here!! Loved the T-shirt !!!! Too funny!! An so true !!! Carybelle
( Horror short story writer extroirdinaire'.......wanna B..) Ha!