[Zetubal]

So, I finally got my copy of Deadhouse Landing today, turned it around to read the blurb and instantly noticed something odd. You know, many books have some sort of critics' praise on the front cover or back... Deadhouse Landing has that too...only that the praise quoted on the back is for Dancer's Lament instead.

I mean, sure thing, I can get behind SFX saying that "Dancer's Lament really shines [etc.]" ... but that's not really advertisement for Deadhouse Landing, hm?

Is that a mistake?

[Puck]

It's not unusual to see praise for book 1 of a series on the back for book 2, after all, often book 2 hasn't been out long enough yet to gather enough praise to put on the cover/backcover.

[Zetubal]

Hm, not that I've ever seen this on the cover, but for the sake of argument let's say you're right. Then what's that supposed to accomplish. I mean, why would you use the cover of book 2 to advertise book 1? Chances are, if I pick up the 2nd volume in the series, I have read the first one. Hence, all advertisement for the first volume is lost on me. Also, nowhere in that quote from SFX is the connection made that Dancer's Lament is the first novel in the series. I'm pretty much left to figure that out myself.

Just seems like an odd thing to put on the cover of the book. I get that in an ongoing series you sometimes see praise for previous installments collected on the pages before the maps and dramatis personae... but that's something else. I don't really consider this advertisement since it's hidden inside.

This post has been edited by Zetubal: 04 December 2017 - 01:46 PM

[Abyss]

It's a very common practice, at least in US and UK publishing.

[Nevyn]

Zetubal, on 04 December 2017 - 01:45 PM, said:

Hm, not that I've ever seen this on the cover, but for the sake of argument let's say you're right. Then what's that supposed to accomplish. I mean, why would you use the cover of book 2 to advertise book 1? Chances are, if I pick up the 2nd volume in the series, I have read the first one. Hence, all advertisement for the first volume is lost on me. Also, nowhere in that quote from SFX is the connection made that Dancer's Lament is the first novel in the series. I'm pretty much left to figure that out myself.

Just seems like an odd thing to put on the cover of the book. I get that in an ongoing series you sometimes see praise for previous installments collected on the pages before the maps and dramatis personae... but that's something else. I don't really consider this advertisement since it's hidden inside.

In order to get book blurbs, you need to get a recognized author or publication to pre-read before you publish.
With author debuts, publishers will go out of their way to do that because the author has no following.


With later works, it is pretty common to first come out with praise for an earlier book or even earlier series. As you yourself said, many readers of a book 2 will have already read book 1 and won't care about ANY blurb. For others, you just want some validation that people think this is a good author.


Later editions of the book will likely have Deadhouse Landing specific blurbs. But why push the schedule and try to incentize someone to read and get a blurb when most of your audience will be people who read book 1?

[Puck]

Nevyn, on 04 December 2017 - 04:54 PM, said:

Zetubal, on 04 December 2017 - 01:45 PM, said:

Hm, not that I've ever seen this on the cover, but for the sake of argument let's say you're right. Then what's that supposed to accomplish. I mean, why would you use the cover of book 2 to advertise book 1? Chances are, if I pick up the 2nd volume in the series, I have read the first one. Hence, all advertisement for the first volume is lost on me. Also, nowhere in that quote from SFX is the connection made that Dancer's Lament is the first novel in the series. I'm pretty much left to figure that out myself.

Just seems like an odd thing to put on the cover of the book. I get that in an ongoing series you sometimes see praise for previous installments collected on the pages before the maps and dramatis personae... but that's something else. I don't really consider this advertisement since it's hidden inside.

In order to get book blurbs, you need to get a recognized author or publication to pre-read before you publish.
With author debuts, publishers will go out of their way to do that because the author has no following.


With later works, it is pretty common to first come out with praise for an earlier book or even earlier series. As you yourself said, many readers of a book 2 will have already read book 1 and won't care about ANY blurb. For others, you just want some validation that people think this is a good author.


Later editions of the book will likely have Deadhouse Landing specific blurbs. But why push the schedule and try to incentize someone to read and get a blurb when most of your audience will be people who read book 1?

^This. It's also a practise used for books not related to each other but by the same author to create hype and an incentive to buy the book, something like 'Look, this other book by the same guy was awesome, surely you want to pick this one up and find out if it's equally great!' I's advise you to look around first before complaining, that kind of thing is everywhere, it was even on several of the first editions of MBotF books before someone put out a review that praises the entire series and the publishers started using that.

Also, the publishers have to put something there. Leaving the space empty would look suspicious to readers used to see praise in that spot and if all you've got is a quote about the previous book, well, it's betetr than nothing. Nobody reads the praise about previous books that's inside.

This post has been edited by Puck: 04 December 2017 - 08:08 PM