More than Marketing: Use Your Back Cover Copy as a Writing Tool

If you’ve hung out with enough folks who work in publishing, or if you’ve published yourself, you know the drill; the back cover copy (or the flap, depending on how your book is produced), is marketing copy. Right?

Lord knows, I beat that drum…especially when confronted with an earnest and well-meaning author who’s out picking daisies and having tea with their story on their back cover copy.

The back cover copy can be more than that, however. Instead of waiting for the end of the book editing process to write your back cover, you can use the back cover to spur on your writing.

Back cover as organizing principle/life raft

Stuck in the muddy middle of your book, and wonder how you’re going to make it out of the swamp?

Sitting in front of your first blank screen to start your book, and not sure what steps to take?

The back cover copy can be your life raft. That’s because your back cover has to drill right to the heart of what your book does.

We have very limited space on the back cover. We’ve got to interest the readers NOW. No time for daisies and tea. Whatever isn’t 100 percent essential to the book’s premise cannot be there.

If you are feeling stuck or unsure where to start, whip up a back cover for your book. How do you see it selling itself? What hooks can you build upon or create (if you’re just getting started)? What conclusions or plot lines have you left undeveloped (if you’re stuck in the middle somewhere)?

Shouldn’t my outline do that?

Does this sound suspiciously like an outline? Indeed, it should. You can create back cover text to get you started on your outline; or you can create back cover text separately and compare it to your outline to see how far apart they are. They shouldn’t be on different continents; they should be holding hands.

The difference is, in your outline, you can go into more detail. You can have several supporting points, where the back cover only accepts top-line items. Remember the essential distinction between an outline and the back cover: the back cover is for your reader—the outline is for you.

Using your back cover copy

In order for your back cover to help you with writing, it needs focus. Make sure you identify your reader, and the questions you answer or the entertainment you provide or the problems you solve for them. Include the big takeaway or the big, suspenseful “how is this story going to resolve?!?” conundrum.

If you are using the back cover to help you write, don’t agonize about making it totally perfect and bookshelf-ready right now. Believe me, you’ll have opportunity to revisit it when you’re preparing for publication and launch. Think tagline, rather than extended trailer. If you find yourself expanding beyond 200 words, switch over to your outline and complete the structure there. Back cover text is a lean, mean, attention-grabbing machine.

The bottom line

Use your back cover copy as a tool during your writing process, as well as a marketing pitch once your book is written. Use it to get unstuck in the middle of your manuscript or even to get started writing. The back cover doesn’t have room for any extra words; if you can’t sum up what your book is about here, you’ll have a hell of a time trying to do it in the full manuscript. Focus is the life raft that’ll get you to a completed book.

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Struggling with the question, “What’s my book about?” Let’s chat about a book structure intensive or a manuscript evaluation.

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CC image “blank book opene” courtesy of Jo Naylor on Flickr. Some rights reserved.