Don’t Judge a Book by its Back Cover

The Grind

Jan 7

I’ve noticed lately that the back cover description of novels seem to have their own language. And that these descriptions are more similar to each other than representative of the words within. I suppose that is because the back covers are written by the publishers and the marketers instead of by the authors.

Perhaps, in the future, back cover copy will be all written by AI (if they aren’t already).

Here are some singular back cover sentences that I’ve come across lately (lightly edited to protect the guilty):

This revelatory novel moves briskly among characters caught between mysteries in their pasts and questions about their futures.
While exploring the brittle nature of our connections to one another, [novel] asks deep questions about the constraints society imposes that buckle and break, leading us to deny those things that make us fully ourselves.
While following separate leads toward [character’s] final destination, these oppugnant souls are compelled to examine their loyalties, test their convictions, admit their frailties, and confront the spirits lurking in their pasts, resulting in an invigorating climax.
The book is a love story, but also a story of what even love can’t save; of obsessive dreams and waking psychosis; of trickery and the inexplicable; of pain’s destruction and what pains can never be eased.
[Novel] follows [protagonist], a self-employed single mother, as she navigates a tumultuous year of inescapable change.

So, what? There are too many books to read them all so we have to narrow it down, right? And if we’re being judgemental, the back cover copy is a better indication of what’s inside than the proverbial cover, sure.

But as a writer, I don’t think in back cover copy. I’m too close to my drafts to know exactly how to strip out the most compelling (apparently) plot points and tease a potential reader.

That normally wouldn’t be a problem, that’s job security for publishers and marketers. But, increasingly, it seems that in order to enter the world where publishers and marketers reside, authors have to learn the language of publishing and marketing.

It’s not enough to write a book, you have to learn how to sell a book.

As an experiment, I asked ChatGPT to write some back cover copy to see how they’d fare. Here was my prompt: “write the back cover copy for a literary novel about a woman, a manatee, and the greatest mystery of the universe.” *

Here is the result:

When a young woman named Sophia stumbles upon a injured manatee while on a swim in the Florida Keys, she never could have predicted the journey that lay ahead. As she nurses the manatee back to health, the two form a deep bond that leads Sophia on a quest to uncover the greatest mystery of the universe.

Along the way, Sophia must confront her own troubled past and come to terms with the hardships that have held her back. But with the help of the wise and gentle manatee, she finds the strength and determination to unlock the secrets of the cosmos.

A heartwarming tale of friendship, self-discovery, and the power of the human spirit, "The Manatee and the Universe" is a literary novel that will leave you feeling uplifted and inspired.

Damn. That’s pretty good.