Publishing
Back cover copy has a slightly cruel job. It has to promise mood, hint at the central tension, and still leave enough unrevealed that the book can do its own work.
Too often it ends up sounding like a tidy little spoiler machine in a nice coat. All plot, no pulse.
I’m always more interested in the line where a blurb starts to feel like the book itself. Not the whole book, obviously. Just the atmosphere of it, the pressure underneath. The bit that makes a reader think, this could be unsettling in a good way.
Too often it ends up sounding like a tidy little spoiler machine in a nice coat. All plot, no pulse.
I’m always more interested in the line where a blurb starts to feel like the book itself. Not the whole book, obviously. Just the atmosphere of it, the pressure underneath. The bit that makes a reader think, this could be unsettling in a good way.
The trouble is that some blurbs mistake vagueness for atmosphere. You can keep the secrets and still give the reader a proper sense of the machinery underneath. A good one usually tells me what kind of trouble the book is interested in, not just what happens in chapter three. Otherwise it reads like a locked box with a ribbon on it.
A blurb that sounds too neat usually makes me suspicious. If the prose is doing all the selling, the book’s probably been flattened into a premise card.
The better ones leave a bit of grit in the gears. Not mystery for its own sake, just enough shape to suggest the book has weather, not just events.
The better ones leave a bit of grit in the gears. Not mystery for its own sake, just enough shape to suggest the book has weather, not just events.