Step Thirteen Point Five: Cover Copy

Communicating The Essense Of Your Book

For those newcomers who aren’t familiar…welcome! This post is part of my paid craft series delineating the 22 Steps of a novel’s lifecycle from concept to publication day, following my journey as I write my new novel, LAST SEEN. Start here if you’d like to follow along in order, and upgrade your subscription to get the entire series as it releases.

Well, shame on me. Remember back in the beginning when I said 22 Steps, give or take? Well, here’s the give. I forgot to put in a step for a vital part of the process: the cover copy. And because it’s been finalized, I’m so excited to debut the cover copy for LAST SEEN here today!

First, let’s talk about what this actually is. Some people call this the blurb, which is the common term in indie publishing and in the UK. But in the US, it’s commonly known as back cover copy. Sometimes even promotional text.

Regardless of the nomenclature, this vital step isn’t one we can overlook. It’s the marketing hook that gets everyone excited about buying the book. It is the path through the proverbial woods that leads you, the reader, to the heartbeat of the story, hopefully enticing you to part with your well-earned cash or save to your library queue.

You’ll see this copy on book flaps (hardcover) or back cover (trade/mass market), as well as online, as this description is the primary summary metadata for the book (digital and audio). It goes everywhere. It is your books calling card. You guessed it—good cover copy is a huge deal. You can imagine how exciting it is for an author to hit this moment in the process, too. Suddenly, months of work are distilled down to a few short paragraphs, and that means it’s go time. The copy goes up online, and the book is suddenly real.

On the surface, it looks simple. There’s generally an intensive, catchy log line, sometimes establishing the author’s bona fides as well as describing the overarching plot of the story, followed by two to three short, punchy paragraphs describing the story itself. But trust me, encapsulating a 400-page story in a few evocative paragraphs that will entice the reader without giving anything away is a genuine challenge.

Photo by John Mccann on Unsplash