Laura Duffy sent the final cover pdf files for Under Shōko’s Bed today. They were waiting for the ultimate page counts after my book designer finished.
This last step was mostly waiting on my end, but it also included what has been the most troublesome part of preparing the book for publication, writing the cover blurbs. I fear that if the book has a weak link, it is the blurbs, the brief paragraphs about the book and me that are supposed to pique the reader’s curiosity and get them to start reading or, ideally, to buy.
The very short bio includes no writing credentials. What credentials I have are all related to my academic career, not my literary side hustle. But even that bio was easier than describing the novel. The key problem is that the first chapter contains a mystery I cannot divulge in the blurb. That mystery, revealed at the end of the first chapter, drives the rest of the story and its characters. How do I introduce the book without giving all that away?
Of course, there had been a blurb for Under Shōko’s Bed here on the website for three years. Somehow, though, in my mind, what was on the website was only temporary. I could change it at any moment, and indeed I have a few times. Putting it onto the cover of the book, in print, seems so much more permanent, even though with print on demand I can change the electronic file the book is being printed from. It’s funny how the mind works. Anyway, the book cover now has the necessary introductions. I only wish I had a subject pool I could draw on for experiments to tell me which concepts would have been best. My academic training pushes my mind in that direction. The literary part of me is simply supposed to feel what works. And I suppose it does, to some extent. It just doesn’t always lend as much confidence as I would like.