The Book of Revelations
I have this novel, Company, due out in January,
and the author in me wants you to read it without knowing a thing
about it. Not who the characters are, not the theme, and definitely,
definitely not the big plot revelation that comes about a quarter
of the way through. The author wants you totally blind, so everything’s
a surprise, just as it should be.
The marketer in me, though, wants to tell you everything. Because if you don’t know anything about it, you might not buy it, and then where am I? Selling computer systems for Hewlett-Packard, that’s where. The marketer will spoil the whole plot if that’s what’s necessary to arouse your interest.
This wasn’t such an issue with Jennifer Government, because the biggest plot development happened in the first few pages. But Company starts with a mystery, and you don’t find out what the book is really about until you’re a way in.
I’m resigned to the fact that practically every review of the book will give this away. It would be too hard to describe it otherwise. But here is my dilemma: do I put it on the back of the book?
(Yeah, and you always thought blurbs were written by someone else. In truth the author usually writes it, or at least tweaks it. For example, the current draft of the US hardcover flap copy currently says Company is “bitingly funny.” I didn’t add that bit, but I bet I could delete it. And I’m not going to.)
It’s an odd transition when you go from trying to write the best story you can to trying to sell it. But around this time is when it happens. I think I need to give away my plot twist, although I’ll be as vague as possible. And hope that people who have already decided they’re going to buy it will avert their eyes.
(P.S. No baby yet. But it’s a day-to-day proposition. Maybe next blog!)
Comments
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Joel Kelly (#1517)
Location: Canada
Quote: "www.ingenioustries.com"
Posted: 6424 days ago
Rod McBride (#688)
Location: Gardner, KS
Quote: "www.MidwestRockLobster.blogspot.com"
Posted: 6424 days ago
As a rule, I don't buy a book I can borrow from the library. But then, after I'd read 'Syrup' from the library, I not only had to buy a copy, I had to go out on eBay to get the one with the cool cover. Sorry man, but the reason it didn't take off isn't the nutrition information, and it isn't the guy on the cover. It's a first novel, and word of mouth isn't always that fast. If anything, I like it better than Jennifer Government, it's the one I push on friends more.
But I had to have that cover with the nutrition information. The one they went with in the trade paperback doesn't even make sense to me. That's not who I picture when I picture Scat and 6.
One of the things I find inscrutable about the publishing industry is that they seem to think that if they follow some formula they can just invent a Harry Potter type thing. Even Grisham's first novel tanked initially. And he's the kind of writer they're looking for more of to squeeze the midlist out of existence.
If they wouldn't remainder or pulp a book after a few months, an author would have a chance to develop an audience.
The past few weeks, I've really had a crisis of faith when it comes to the business end with my own first novel. I haven't lost faith in my novel (though it still needs massive amounts of work to be anywhere near ready for publication). I've lost faith in publishers: I want to give my baby that I've worked on for four or five years to someone who's going to drive it out to the country and abandon it if it doesn't potty-train in a day or two???
Henry T. Monkeypimpenstein (#1212)
Location: Wellington, NZ
Quote: "Monkeypimp: Geeky enough to use his lame NS forum name here too."
Posted: 6424 days ago
Emily (#609)
Location: New York
Quote: "When in doubt, fuck it. When not in doubt, get in doubt!"
Posted: 6424 days ago
Man, I'm glad to know that's not just me. Of course I've never gotten to the point where I can even THINK about marketing a book yet, but I love to ponder the future, and I always wonder what in the world I'm going to put on the back of my books, because I love plot twists and I would never ever want to give them away, but sometimes logic demands it. The same goes with the movie trailers I want to eventually put together. At some point I'm going to have to resign myself to not being able to keep everything a surprise. *sigh*
Here's one reader who won't be looking at reviews or the back, though, I can tell you that much.
Good luck with the the babeh! :-)
-Em
Moonie (#1518)
Location: Indiana
Quote: "If someone tries to kill you, you try and kill 'em right back."
Posted: 6424 days ago
Melissa (#888)
Location: WI
Quote: "When you can't run anymore, you crawl, and when you can't do that, you find someone to carry you."
Posted: 6424 days ago
Adam A. (#256)
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Quote: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." -George Carlin"
Posted: 6424 days ago
Austin (#814)
Quote: "You might be stretching."
Posted: 6424 days ago
I think we all know what *should* happen, but I guess I'll just have to read to find out.
Tim Ashwood (#595)
Location: Sydney
Posted: 6424 days ago
So: Who's the guy, who's he work for, the fact that no-one knows what the company does; these are questions for the outside.
Mind you, I do that for new authors only, or authors who's prolific work I can't keep straight (Pratchett, Francis, Ludlum). Novel #3 does not count - I'm buying it anyway (and hoping Sneaky Pete makes a cameo).
Sophie (#891)
Location: Devon
Posted: 6424 days ago
I think Tim A is right - just put the questions on the back of the book, and hopefully people will be so intrigued to find out the answers that they'll buy the book. I've been duped in to reading some truly crap books before just because they had some mystery on the back cover and I wanted to find out what happened inside. So its a good strategy.Even though I know your book will, of course, not be truly crap like the other books I read that did that. In fact it'll be uber awesome (*waits excitedly for Company to come out*).
Hobbie (#1359)
Location: Cornwall, England
Quote: "There was a little man in his hair!"
Posted: 6424 days ago
Neil (#943)
Location: Manchester, UK
Quote: ""Democracy is the worst system, apart from all the others." - Churchill"
Posted: 6423 days ago
Anita Heiney (#292)
Location: Richmond, VA USA
Quote: "I came. I signed up. I got an error."
Posted: 6423 days ago
Don't do it!! Can't wait to get & read the book. Don't GIVE anything away on the back - make us PAY for it! Speaking of the new book, I can't help but wonder, are you still going to use that same, wonderful picture of you with your tongue up your nose???
Location: Sydney, Australia
Quote: "Why are the pretty ones always insane?"
Posted: 6423 days ago
Oh I guess you could add to it and say something like "But that's not really what this story is about, oh no. There's some really weird shit that goes down partway in that'll knock you up like a pregnant rhino. If we told you about that here dude we'd have to, like, kill you."
No, don't give the twist away, please! Any reviewer that does should be immediately reported to the authorities as a terrorist suspect.
Zerbe (#1358)
Location: Pennsylvania, The States
Quote: "I'm just a-goin' to the top-a the hill."
Posted: 6423 days ago
Erin (#1481)
Location: Seattle
Quote: "Living is easy with eyes closed"
Posted: 6423 days ago
Anyways, whatever you put on the back, I want you to know that I won't be reading it. At least not until after I've read the whole thing. Then maybe.
If you _have_ to put something on the back, make it a sort of red herring or a half-truth. Just tell them enough to pique their interests a bit. That or else write about how awesome the reader will feel when they know what happens and no one else does.
Kalle (#1278)
Quote: "Sex is herital. If your parents never had it, chanses are you'll never have it either."
Posted: 6422 days ago
http://www.bokus.com/book_pics/919/754/9197543306.jpg
The blurb(back to topic!) is incredibly stupid too. Literal translation:
In the future the trademark is more important than your passport.
In the future marketing is a form of war.
In the future you change surname when you change jobs.
In the future we shoot you if you buy from our competiters(sp?)
In the future we shoot you if you got the wrong credit card.
In the future we shoot you if you have the srong shoes.
Jennifer Staten is a hard and breathtakingly funny thriller.
The government agent Jennifer is struggling against baby-sitter problems in the same time as she has too save the world from aggresive marketing methods like torture, mass murder and strategic nukes... A satire from the wonderful world of the big companies, not too unlike from our own...
The 32-year old bestseller author Max Barry is probably the worst that ahs happened to the big compaines since Michael Moore.
He is definatley the best that has happened too SF-satire since George Orwell.
Sucks, doesn't it? They probably hasn't read it.
Location: Morristown, Indiana
Quote: "Why do I blog? Simple, because Max Barry blogs."
Posted: 6421 days ago
I'M ALL WASHED UP...
Well, it appears that I have nothing interesting left to say(not that I ever have), and my stories were failures. I don't think that anyone even reads my blogs. I have just been riding on the glory of when Max blogged about me on May 13, 2005(which was so long ago that I had to open up another tab just to check the date). It was a glorious day when my friends from school who were with me from day one of metablogging came to me and said,"Hey, dude, did you see that Max Barry blogged about you!" Then I was like,"You are such a bad liar," but by this time another one of my friends had overheard the conversation and said something to the effect of,"Dude, you're the metablogger. I noticed the name but it didn't dawn on me that it could be you." I wanted to instantly run to the back of the classroom and log on to the internets, but it was to risky. So had to instantly wait a couple of hours, and then the moment of glory...Max Barry quote,"So, moving on. For a while there I had a metablog: in late March, a guy called Adam left the comment:
Max Barry has inspired me to start my own blog, and since I dont have a website, I will start writing on the comments of max barrys blogs. It will pobably be really boring and have a lot of grammatical errors because I am not a professional writer.
But it wasnt! I was enthralled with whether Adam would ask Jennifer to the prom, and what would happen to his simmering rivalry with Eric, even if this was all clearly fictional. And damn, he made some good points: why isnt 2% milk called 98% milk? Unfortunately, Adam seemed to lose enthusiasm in April, and then he stopped posting. So my metablog is no more: Im back to just a regular blog."
I even showed this to my English 11 teacher, Mrs. Sheets and said to her,"Well, it appears your class is paying off. I am getting proffesional recognition for my writing abilities."
Unfortunately, I now realize that the only time that I was blogged about was when I stopped metablogging.
THIS COULD BE THE LAST METABLOG BY ADAM of morristown, Indiana.
So I have reached the conclusion of the first week of my senior year at Morristown High School. Nothing to exciting has happened. I don't really like Jennifer anymore, but there's this new girl whose name will remain annonymous at the time(for my friends will read this) who is pretty cool. I don't know how to say that I like her though, but I have developed a plan. I will ask one of her friends to talk to her and see if she likes me. It's a flawless plan!
There may be an update to my situation in the near future.
Stay tuned...
Adam
Location: Morristown, Indiana
Quote: "Why do I blog? Simple, because Max Barry blogs."
Posted: 6421 days ago
Adam
Pineappleman (#1527)
Location: Saratoga Springs
Quote: "If someone were to make something idiot-proof, the world would make a better idiot."
Posted: 6421 days ago
Ruth (#288)
Location: Bath, United Kingdom
Quote: "Only the insane have strength enough to prosper. Only those who prosper may truly judge what is sane."
Posted: 6421 days ago
Keely (#1602)
Location: easy-peasy-24.livejournal.com of course!
Quote: "I always wanted to see the lights of Broadway... but then you get there and they're really kind of annoying."
Posted: 6378 days ago
Ahem. Anyway. Just talk about doughnuts. And mention a few vague terms (a scandal, a big surprise, he investigates).
By the way, I read Jennifer Government and it's my favorite (-est) book in the whole wide world. That's enough of a reason for me to get "company". (And "syrup" too, now that I think of it.
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