"What's Your Book About?"
I cringe whenever I hear the question. I'm guessing most novelists do. After all, it's no small task, summarizing 90,000 words in just 25. Film folks like to call this a log line, and after approximately 1.7 billion revisions and tweaks, I came up with: "A man who has died and come back to life three times must unravel the mysteries of his own deaths to stop a killer." It gets across the unique hook of the story--a guy who has recurring deaths--and establishes the genre as a suspense/thriller with supernatural elements.
But just try saying it aloud with a straight face. Go ahead and do it now. I'll wait.
See? Doesn't work so well, does it? Especially when you get to that "must unravel the mysteries of his own deaths" part. It reads fine, but it's not exactly casual conversation. So I usually have to re-tool the statement a bit: "Well, it's about a guy who has died and come back to life three times. And he has to find out why he keeps dying so he can stop a killer."
As I say this, I carefully study the faces of the people I'm saying it to, gauging their reactions. By and large, folks seem interested. Still, a part of me wants to keep chugging along: Does it sound too brutal, because it really isn't that brutal, well, okay, it has a serial kidnapper who preys on kids, but none of that really happens on stage, and it's not really ABOUT the serial kidnapper, it's about the guy who keeps having Near Death Experiences, but I don't really like that term, "Near Death Experience," because the guy really DOES die three times, so it's not "Near Death" at all...
I don't envy the people at the publishing house who have to come up with marketing copy for books--especially when they run it by the authors.
Posted by TLHines at September 7, 2005 04:51 PM
I hate writing summaries and synopses and log lines, etc...but I like yours okay.
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See? Now there you go, Mike, feeding that dark heart of insecurity. "He likes it okay," I say. "Why doesn't he LOVE it? Maybe if I change..."
Ah, but that way lies madness. :)
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Thanks for that post. I'm working on pitching my novels at the ACFW conference next week. Man, breaking it down to a single paragraph. That's rough. My first 2 conferences I didn't memorize a paragraph, just kinda told them the story. Mostly I rambled.
This time, I've been practicing. One paragraph for each book. Hopefully if the editor is worried my stuff might be too edgy they'll ask questions and not just say, "Next!"
Pitching in person is about as stressful as it gets.
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Okay, okay, I love it...on the back of a book or whatever. You're right about it reading well, but to say it like that to people, especially when they actually care about what you are writing - well, it falls kinda flat.
Don't be insecure about it, though. It works for its purpose.
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