Saturday, January 14, 2012

Rough draft of "Rising 1" blurb and concept cover art.

I think perhaps one of the most hair-pulling, head-desking things that comes with the whole writing/publishing process is writing the short summary. The blurb that would go on the back of the book. The bit of the query letter that hopefully makes someone want to read the story.

Because it's super easy to condense over 100,000 words into three paragraphs. (No, I'm not being sarcastic at all; why would you possibly think that?)

After hours of *head desking* and a dozen or so revisions, I have the basis for the blurb. I'll let it sit for a while and then come back to it to see about tweaking it more. Here is my current draft of the summary for Rising Book 1: Resistance:

EDIT: The first version is being reworked again; I will update it as soon as it's done being revised. Aiming for more specifics...wheeee!

EDIT 2: After even more revisions, I've got the next draft. (Subject to change upon further nitpickiness and tweaking. ;))  I'll get this eventually...

EDIT 3: Updated again. I think this might be it... (Watch me come back in a few hours with more tweaking...)

EDIT 4: HA! Yeah, I was wrong.  More revisions, and more to come as I play with it. I feel like it's a game of tug of war or something. ;) Go this way! No, go the other way!

******


When Alphonse's quiet summer is interrupted by the arrival of a half-dead stranger on his doorstep, he's given an urgent errand. He's sure he's the worst person for the job. He prefers reading over socializing, gets faint at the sight of blood, and the most adventurous thing he ever did was go on archaeological field trip.

Alphonse is tasked with delivering a message to the leader of his home country. He has no idea how he will accomplish this, but he gets on a train to try anyway. Only a few hours into his journey, he's attacked by knights, elite soldiers of a neighboring king. He's rescued by Mairwyn, a talented mechanic with a no-nonsense attitude and a troubled past. Alphonse and Mairwyn attempt to deliver the message, only to discover if they fail, countless people could die.

And even if they do succeed, there may be no stopping a war that's lurking on the horizon.


******

Also, last night my cover artist sent me the first draft of her concept for the cover art, and I LOVE IT. I am so beyond thrilled with it. So here's the first draft of what will become the book cover:


 Art Copyright © Holly Robbins



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Tell me, dear readers, do you find writing the summary very difficult, or does it depend on the story? What is the hardest part of writing a book for you?

10 comments:

  1. Here to check out the art (I posted the comment in lj...), and WOW! awesome.

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  2. The back cover synopsis is the most difficult! I changed my second book's synopsis a dozen times, sent it to my critique partners, changed it again, sent it to my publisher, they had me change it some more... Never ending process.
    You've got a good start! My only suggestion is keep sentences short for dramatic effect. (Or something like that.)

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  3. Kate-Thank you, and thanks for your suggestions!

    Alex-Thanks so much! One of my other friends suggested shorter sentences, too. Revisions are oh-so-much fun. ;)

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  4. Blurbs are so hard because there's so much riding on them--they're your number way to sell you book. (Oops, I hope that didn't stress you more.) I hope the blurb revisions go well. I'm working on one too--it needs lots of work. sigh.

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  5. Connie, good luck on your revisions, too! You're right: So much is riding on the blurbs. It was so much easier to come up with a blurb for my contemporary book than it is for this one!

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  6. Hi, new follower here! I love the sound of your book, and the cover art is gorgeous! I do find blurbs (and queries) to be harder to write than the actual novel, for some reason.

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  7. Yes! I hate writing them. Actually, I'm in the process right now (query letter) and was about to pull out my hair two days ago. Good luck on yours! Oh - and I love the cover art. It's really nice!

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  8. Welcome, Shelly! Thank you very much!

    T. Drecker-Oh, good luck! They are so rough. And query letters have the added pressure of getting everything right for whatever agent/publisher you're querying. You can do it!

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  9. Yes, I found it HORRID, HORRID, HORRID to have to write the blurb!
    The cover is looking great so far, really beautiful - go Holly!
    In the blurb, is there supposed to be an "an" between "on" and "archaeological"?

    I just "revealed" the cover of my first book on my blog :-)

    xx Rachel

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  10. Rachel-Haha, my husband just noticed the missing "an" in there, too. ;) I'm about to start another round of edits and revision on this thing. It IS horrid!!! It's amazing I haven't pulled out all my hair. ;) And thank you!! I'm so proud of Holly for all of her amazing work. :D

    Oooh, I will come check out your cover! How exciting!!

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts!