For some reason I thought the publishers wrote the blurb that goes on the back of the book (you know the kind of thing: "Jack Devlin is a maverick cop who treats his suspects tough and his women tougher. Yet he finds himself thrown off-kilter by the edgy beauty of Rachel Gold, the only surviving victim of serial killer The Slice'n'Dicer. As he tries to keep her safe on the mean streets of San Francisco, he finds his life in danger from the psycho and his heart in danger from her.") Turns out it's the author's responsibility. Cue panic!
My reaction to this was to email lots of lovely friends with a choice of four blurbs that mention Cambridge, blood'n'guts and psychopaths to varying degrees. I've already got some very useful feedback, which just leaves me with the author bio. This may be even more difficult. My publisher, Susan, sent me an amusing example of what not to write - "Ruth Newman was born. She's pretty happy about that. She has a Mum and Dad who were too. Nowadays she lives in Cambridge NOT in Ariel College, with her cat Olivia and her boyfriend Zane, who is pretty cool about her being a published author. She likes swordfish, tuna melt and takes her coffee neat. Her website is under construction by Polish Builders." Ignoring how Susan knows I take my coffee neat and have a boyfriend called Zane, I think this is a good example of my natural instinct to take the piss, but I've managed to limit myself to one silly line in an otherwise sensible bio...
In other news, around 150 students arrived at the department last week and the mad rush of work began. Luckily they seem like a really lovely bunch - I've been reading their profiles as I've been shifting them from one online community to another, and they come across as funny, talented and sweet. Maybe I should get them to write my author bio for me!
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