Mouse and Dragon Poll: May Contain Spoilers!

[rolanni]

This poll asks you to read something and then answer some questions. Please feel free to leave opinions and observations in comments.

Part One:
Aelliana Caylon has escaped her abusive family. She's found love in her starship co-pilot--a man who turns out to be the leader of Korval, the most powerful clan of the Liaden Universe®. But destiny never intended an easy life for Aelliana. Insidious  forces within the empire are determined that a new line of Korval heirs be destroyed and that Clan Korval itself be blasted to interplanetary dust. The fight for the future of the Liaden Universe® is on, and one heroine is determined to protect her family and her soulmate at all costs!


Part Two:
[Poll #1790197]

Comments

[caoilfhionn.livejournal.com]

I've read a lot of back-cover synopses and written many as well. Most of the authors with whom I've worked haaaaated writing the synopsis and were eager to have someone else do the painful work of reducing a long and complex story into a soundbite. Publishers that actively promote books generally have some internal plan for getting books to readers and want some control over the packaging. I therefore assume that back-cover copy is either written by someone on the in-house editorial team and revised by marketing or just written by marketing. Marketing seldom reads the book; their business is to sell things, not to understand them.

I therefore expect the synopsis to be only vaguely in line with the actual contents of the story. I passed "annoyed" and into "cynical" a long time ago. With a series book, the synopsis's purpose is to sell the book to people who are new or newer to the series. (The fans probably know all about it already, especially these days.) So I assume that the synopsis will contain the phrases deemed most likely to draw in new readers. The oversimplification required, combined with the overexcited tone of a sales pitch, usually makes me cringe. But if it does bring in new readers, I'm not going to carp too much.

In the case of this particular synopsis, though, I think that it's awfully wide of the mark. I can see writing a summary that plays up an unusual angle to get into a different niche of readers, but I wouldn't use it on the book itself.

Marketing

[(Anonymous)]

A common thread of these replies seems to be a grudging acceptance that some inaccuracy and oversimplification in the synopsis may be necessary to sell books. Just out of curiousity, is there any effort spent to determine whether one synopsis is better than another for selling books ?

Also, a publisher may do well to write synopses that induce readers to buy the book (the publisher's measure of success) rather than enjoy the book.

Like many things in life, some actual data would be interesting. I have no connection to the publishing industry, so can't speak to their practices. In a web based sales environment, it would be quite common to put up two synopses, randomly present them and see which did better. Book jackets are less easy to change than web pages.

Bob