First, a few notes from yesterday’s podcast episode.

1. The author of Power and Petroleum died shortly after I reviewed her back cover copy. Apparently her book was never published.

2. I write promo copy for all authors, no matter where they are on the political spectrum. My job is to write great copy for any author who hires me to copywrite for them.

Here’s my copywriting on environmental policy and promotion:

If you want people to be worried about global warming, don't talk about global warming.

Too big. Too hard to grasp. Too hard to figure out how to help.

Tell the story of one lone polar bear cub who is losing its home as it melts around him.

We will respond to that.

3. I have no problem with people speaking Spanish. For the past 18 years, I’ve lived in two bilingual states: New Mexico and now Arizona. I interact with Spanish speakers all the time. I studied Spanish in college. It’s a beautiful language. But in the context of the sales copy for the book, I did essentially denigrate Spanish. I apologize for that.

A Novel of Ancient Rome

This novel had a front cover that looked much more like a nonfiction academic title than a novel. It needed fixing.

The back cover read: “A thought-provoking story that is truly original — Copernican in nature. The premise meshes well with historical evidence, which lends startling merit to a sequence of events exquisitely revealed in this gripping novel. The theory proposed will inspire intriguing debate among readers, historical scholars, and theologians for decades to come.” That’s it.

There's nothing in the back cover copy to draw the reader into the drama of the novel. Is the novel truly gripping just because the back cover says so? The cover also says other things — none of which indicates the novel is gripping. The rest of the copy says that the book is a theory, an academic think piece. Nothing wrong with an academic think piece, but think pieces are not novels. Not ever.

My guess — and it is only a guess based on the jacket — is that this book has a great story to tell, but where is it? Stories involve people, not ideas. Focus first on people. Then focus on the plot. Only then can you move on to tell stories about those people struggling with ideas or conflicts.

Besides better descriptive copy, the back cover needed a few testimonials or reviews. The copy was too sparse to sell the book to most readers.

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