When a press is getting ready to publish a book there are a lot of things that have to happen. One of those things happens to be writing the back cover copy that will be one of the things that may sale the book. So, I though it would be fun to share a little bit of that process. The first thing that needs to happen is that the manuscript should be read. I'm sure for a lot of marketers actually reading about what you are trying to sale isn't always possible. Fortunately for me, as a student, I had the time to read Lincoln's Daughter. So, then the task is how best to sum up the book and hopefully get people to buy it. Here is what I started off with for the back copy of the book:
The year is 1964 and Sarah, the only daughter of Abraham Lincoln, is ready to meet her father.
On a trip to New Salem, IL, Will Studebaker finds himself trapped in a blizzard. He wakes up in 1833, where he soon comes face to face with Abraham Lincoln, the subject of his life’s work. In Lincoln’s Daughter, the final volume of the Lincoln Out of Time trilogy, author Tony Wolk weaves together the story of Lincoln’s life as a young man with the story of a daughter searching for her fathers.
After coming up with my version of the copy it's time to meet with the marketing and editing team and, uh, "get their opinion" of it. Not always a fun process, but necessary none the less. Finally, after what seems like an eternity of the group debating it, tearing it apart, and generally finishing off any of your beliefs that you're a decent writer, it's all put back together again. Here is the final version of the text that is on the back cover of Lincoln's Daughter.
It's 1964 And Abraham Lincoln's daughter, Sarah, daydreams about meeting her father. Mer mother, Joan, met Lincoln nine years earlier when he was transported to 1950s Evanston, Illinois, from his own time and place for a day. When Sarah's stepfather, Will, a Lincoln scholar, doesn't return home from an overnight trip, Sarah and her mother have no way of knowing that he has gone back in time to 1833 in the same, mysterious way Lincoln came forward in time. The two grow more and more nervous while waiting for him to come home. A stranger's phone call and the discovery of an abandoned car will push daughter, mother, and their old dog, Rusty, away from home in search of Sarah's stepfather.
Sarah's journey has just begun.
1 comment:
I agree that marketing a product you're not familiar with is troublesome, especially for publishers who not only have a wealth of products, but those products are often infinitely complex.
Wolk's Lincoln's Trilogy is difficult to explain. It doesn't fit easily into any category. Did you know that Brian K and Tony did a duet at the latest book launch? Awesome.
Post a Comment