romance – Page 5

is for jacket.

The jacket of a paperback book is the outer covering, and on a hardback; it is the loose cover around the actual book.

An eBook does not by the nature of its publication have a physical jacket, but it must have the pertinent information found on traditional books. This is known as the ‘blurb’, or jacket blurb. It is that aspect of the jacket that I’ll look at today.

The blurb on the jacket is a follow up to the title and front cover. Just as those two items are important in attracting a reader’s attention, so too is the jacket blurb. On a physical book it will be on the back, but for an eBook, it appears on the screen, usually slightly further down than the cover graphic.

What should be included on the jacket information?

On physical books, on the front, we will have a title, perhaps a sub-title, author’s name, and a graphic of some description. On the spine we would expect to see; title, author’s name, publisher, and perhaps a miniaturised graphic. On the back cover we would find the jacket blurb, a price and a barcode. On occasion the graphic may be continued around the entire jacket, including the spine.

How much information will we find within the jacket blurb?

This depends on a variety of things. Publishers will have guidelines. The story will have one or more key characters and a plot to describe. The key is to give enough to interest a reader, but not tell them the entire story in brief. I aim for between 100 – 150 words. That may not sound like much, but any more than 150 words feels long when it’s being perused.

Rather than include my own jacket blurbs here, I will provide links, and then you my dear readers may, if you wish; check them out. My romance, “Ten Days in Panama” contains 158 words of jacket blurb. My thriller, ‘Beyond The Law’, contains 97 words of jacket blurb.

I’m about to head out on my blog patrol, but before I go, I’d like to thank you for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow with my thoughts on … ‘K’

In keeping with the advice given by many successful writers, I have become a firm believer in leaving a piece of writing to one side. Stephen King is one such writer who suggests this idea in his book ‘On Writing’.

The idea, short story, chapter or entire first draft can be left in a drawer, tray or on file on a computer, but the important thing is that it is left alone. You the writer, will come back to the piece at some stage down the line and see it differently. It may be days, weeks or even months, but having already experimented with this theory – I know it works for me.

I have now reached a point where a short story is not released for public consumption until I have written at least three drafts – spread out with a week between each. Does that sound like a chore? Perhaps it is, but what if you manage to have at least three or more ideas on the go at any one time, as I constantly seem to do? That is where I believe it works.

Apart from short stories, I have my thriller ‘Hawk – A Manhunter’ patiently waiting for my return. I have reached the end of a second draft with it and haven’t revisited the manuscript for weeks now. I have taken the precaution of writing passages in a notebook when ideas come to mind so I have fresh new scenes to include in the next draft.

My new venture is ‘Discovering Amsterdam’ which was born from a suggestion by my very good friend and fellow writer Carmen. Yes, the same person who is acknowledged in the cover of my first novel, ‘10 Days in Panama’.

‘Discovering Amsterdam’ will be a romantic novel which looks at the relationship between Dan, a British writer/journalist and Crystal, an American Fashion Designer. The plot will see them meet in Amsterdam, having been in touch by email for over a year. Crystal is eager to trace her European ancestry and Dan is her sidekick in the quest.

During the project they will visit many of the wonderful museums found in Amsterdam and through their eyes so will the reader. Well, that’s the theory anyway. I have a basic knowledge of Amsterdam and it’s main museums but I will be double-checking any factual information with more than one source – plus another visit.

Thank you for reading – and a special thank you to anyone who managed to follow both Part 1 and Part 2 of this session.