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Oh my gosh…

I grew up around these kinds of people and I know that they perceive everything to be an image problem. The narrative style of The Quarter Percent, is meant to illustrate that these are superficial, hypocritical, oblivious people who live from one crisis to the next.

Google is doing a terrible job stalking me on my new iPhone SE. Look at the ad they showed me (renting out your property circa death) while I was watching that Nicki Minaj video. Like, what exactly are they trying to imply? The Anaconda music video is at 943 million views, so I know you all saw it.

I don’t want none of this ad, hon

I am preparing to publish my first novel, The Quarter Percent, while working on new projects. Hurricane Nisto is still angry but her story will unfold in a different part of this solar system.

The Quarter Percent pays homage to Greek tragedies and is written in an episodic format with a ‘time-as-protagonist’ feel. I wonder if I should worry that some readers may not understand this even after I have suggested “focus on the timeline” in the two blurbs and the trailer? The story itself is based on William Shakespeare’s play Lear of Britain. We meet King Cordial on a Sunday morning and almost two weeks later, on a Friday morning, … read the novel.

Don’t judge me…

I grew up around famous people and I know that for them, every problem is an image problem. The narrative style of The Quarter Percent is meant to illustrate the superficiality of this world. Quarter percenters are obsessed with what others think, and are doomed to live from one crisis to the next.

My question for you is do I need to create a long blurb for the back cover or should I trust readers to work things out for themselves?

By ΠιCΘLΣ

Life is short, so let’s be decent.

39 replies on “Oh my gosh…”

Thank you, Kally. Both are helpful, I see. I usually read the review for some clues about what’s in the book, too. But I can read inside the book on Amazon or in Japan I can flip through the entire book so I usually do that.

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Congratulations on the publication of your book! As for how much to tell your readers in the blurb, I would just ask yourself, if you were thinking about buying your book, what would you want, or need, to know?

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Thank you for this. Writing a blurb is very difficult. So I followed a formula. There was a specific word length, and style. But I think readers really want reviews at this point. So I’m sending out advanced readers right now.

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Thank you. I’m doing the very last pass at proofreading. Almost there. It’s a lot more fleshed out than the beta version. I added the passage of time in the blurbs because I think that should be the biggest clue to how to read the story. Thanks again.

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A late comment, but I was thinking of an unconventional/arty way of going about it could be on the outside cover to place, perhaps something like philosophical or scientific information only about the constructs of time.

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Thank you. I have seen those arty book covers. For my next project, I will work out how to create one without confusing the reader. Hopefully, someone will point out the time constraints in the review. And it will solve all of my problems.

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First congrats on your upcoming book…well as a book lover myself, I always read the blurb because that will at least give me an idea if i will enjoy the book or at least worth giving it a try.

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Thanks so much. ❤️💚🧡 I hope everyone is satisfied with the results. I’m trying to take an average of everybody’s likes and dislikes and I will use it to inform the final presentation. Have a great Friday.

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I always read the back cover, and by the way, I’m very impressed with the video teaser! That’s such a cool idea to introduce a book. And I preferred blurb A. I would like to read it in time, after I get done with my current reads. I always prefer to read books in print since I spend most of the day in front of a computer, so it may take me longer to get through.

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Thanks so much for this. I’m very happy you enjoyed the video teaser and the first blurb. I selected video clips that matched the content exactly and for the blurb, actual phrases from the book.

The publisher is going to have a paperback version available. They love the Cara de la Reina art that I had commissioned. I wanted to make the book cover a work of art itself. I’ll let you know when there is a promotional campaign for discounted copies so please check my blog for updates on that.

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I’m not really the one to offer sage advice on this topic, as both of the blurbs for my two books were deemed overly-long by folks who apparently know more about such things… 😉

But I’ll offer my opinion, anyway: If you have to explain too much to entice the reader, maybe they aren’t the right reader in the first place…

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I like this opinion. It is reassuring. Thank you. Spoiling the book before the person it reads it is like explaining a really funny joke to someone who takes everything literally. I want readers to relax and be entertained by the story but they also need to be present and participate in their experience.

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I think let them find out in the book! I normally do read the back, and the foreword, and the foreword to the foreword, and the introduction and so on and forth – but not if it goes on too long! Lately, I have been skipping some of that blurb, because really, who needs it? Oh, well, I don’t know, cos I know you, I knew roughly who you were, and I read the book knowing that, so maybe if it was relevant for me, it could be for others – but I’m not sure! If I’d read the same book by some I didn’t know, I’d have not assumed she were like you, I’d just have assumed she was an author! You know, sort of person who writes! 😀 Xx

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Ha ha ha … Thanks. ❤️🧡 Some people need the blurb to know if they want to read a book that is not in the genre that they like. Usually, I read books that are recommended to me by other readers. That is why I’ve been encouraging a lot of people to read the free version of my book. My publisher likes the blurbs that I’ve already created but I wanted to make sure that they were effective.

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The video you put out was fab! Just what was needed to make it seem something big was in the offing – thats all you need really, a taste of whats to come, the book paid off in the reading 🙂

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Marcus thanks so much for this. 💚😍😘 I don’t ever read the back cover either. If the book is in my hand, I’m already reading it and I won’t stop unless characters spend way too much time describing every step they took walking from mile marker A to B. 😂

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