There's more to writing a book than just writing the book, you know. Not only do you have to do countless edits and rewrites, there's also the matter of publicity press releases - and the all-important cover. Is it all worth it, I constantly ask myself. Some days the answer is no, but thankfully, more often than not, I say yes.
Below is my third try, and it still didn't make the grade.
It's the cover where you have to try to get across, in a limited number of words, what it's all about. Not as easy as you may think, and I know from raw experience. I attempted several times, and then gave up, concluding that my publisher would be far better at the exercise than me.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE STORY (147 words)
A
keen cyclist, 17 year-old Oliver Markland goes on holiday to Florida, and while
there he buys an old key from a flea market. He discovers later that it was
actually a prison cell key, and he becomes obsessed with learning about one of
the inmates, Yushi Yakamoto, an American young man of Japanese parentage, who
had always professed his innocence until his execution for the brutal 1981
killing of Sandy Beach while on his epic cycle ride across the United States
during that year.
In
his new job as investigative journalist for a local newspaper, Oliver hopes to
clear Yakamoto’s name and returns to America, determined to uncover the truth
about what really happened in 1981. But in doing so he stirs up a hornet’s nest
and finds himself in present-day danger from the man who for years had thought
he’d gotten away with Sandy’s murder.
