Author Tip No. Five

The Back Story

As an author interested in getting your thoughts and ideas out there to the public (selling your book), an important portion of the process is devoted to the back cover copy and sales handle. In terms of elements influential to your readers, next to the cover design (or rather, behind), the back cover copy and sales handle are key. These three components are most often the items found in reviews, online retailer pages, and bookstore databases.

For the back cover, you don't want copy that dryly recreates the content of your book. For fiction, a succinct description of the characters, setting, and plot, leading up to the point of resolution is typical. There should be a tone of suspense that engages the reader enough to make a commitment to find out what happens to the characters, and what kind of life lesson (if any) can be learned. Often a comparison can be made to a similar author (e.g., "If you like Graham Greene, you´ll not be disappointed with this book").

For non fiction, the description needs to prove why this particular book on this subject (which, no doubt, has been written about numerous times over and over) is different or outstanding in some way. What makes yet another book on Italian cooking interesting? Perhaps the recipes include only fresh ingredients, traditions from one region, etc. These are the selling points that need to pop out in the copy.

The sales handle is your chance in one sentence to grab the reader's attention, a very brief description that covers what your book is, and why it´s important to your audience. The handle is usually found near the top of the back cover or directly above the main description.

See how the examples below spark your imagination and compel you to find out the rest of the story:

A tightly woven tale of psychological suspense and a literary tour de force from Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively.

Two mathematicians join forces to stop a serial killer in this spellbinding international bestseller.

Profound lessons for spiritual growth aren´t found exclusively in Tibet and India; they´re found within you in everyday events. This book will show you how to tap into them.

For information on how to get an effective back cover copy and sales handle from the professionals at Mill City Press, follow the link above or go to http://www.millcitypress.net.

The Gambit

Terrorism for profit.

In The Gambit,terrorist events are "engineered" to spike global oil markets for personal profit and political and strategic goals.
The audacious manipulation of events soon spirals oil prices out of control, undermining economies and the reelection prospects of a U.S. president, co-opted by the actions of the conspiracy underway. A conspiracy led by a wealthy Saudi prince who has the goods on the occupant of the White House; a conspiracy operating under the cover of shadowy militant groups, seducing a Houston oilman to subjecting his own company to terrorist assault.
Tipped off by a mysterious Lebanese banker, the U.S. mounts a furious effort to thwart the operation. But, it becomes eerily apparent that the President's first priority is to terminate the banker at all costs. Hastings, the top American intelligence official, acting against orders, desperately attempts to keep the banker alive long enough to understand the full dimensions of the treachery underway, culminating in the truth about the Prince and President dumped upon an unsuspecting electorate in the closing days of the election.
The Gambit's wild ride through scheming oil traders, unstable markets, political blackmail, desperation and greed produces an uncomfortable premise: to what extent has the conspiracy already occurred?

Book Themes

• American Presidential Election Campaign
• Corruption in the White House
• Director, National Intelligence and the CIA
• Enron Debacle/Syriana
• Hezbollah
• Houston and Oil
• Iran and Oil
• Lebanon
• Media Manipulations
• Middle Eastern Terrorism
• Oil Markets and Terrorism
• Oil Price Conspiracy and Manipulation
• Oil Trading
• Saudi Arabia and Oil
• Saudi Royal Family
• U.S. Energy Policy

About Gary Nunnally
Gary Nunnally spent nearly thirty years in the global petroleum business, including many years as an oil trader. Experiences and encounters in the oil trading wars inspired The Gambit. He and his family presently live in Houston.

To visit the website, click on the link above to be redirected.
Gary's website was made by the designers at the Mill City Press. To find out more about how to get your own author website, view our publishing package at http://www.millcitypress.net/Book-Publishing-Services.cfm.

The Fourteenth Year

The Fourteenth Year is a memoir narrated by a young girl whose unrelenting strength somehow carries her through the throes of an extinguished childhood. Her story begins as she attempts to reclaim control of her life from the steamy grip of her biological father. As she describes the exhausting legal process, the
details of the past fourteen years unfold into the culminating showdown between a dad and a daughter.

For Kelly, life is dictated by a sexually and emotionally abusive father whose selfproclaimed deification demands subservience by all. No protection is offered by the emotionally detached mother, who does nothing to stop him. Their daughter must find a way to remain psychologically intact as the abuse worsens, to where
eventually leaving the house or even watching television had a sexual price tag. While looking for safety, she discovers the plague of immorality and mental illness that motivates the behavior of the people in her environment .

She survives the moments that need surviving, with glimmering pieces of hope, humor and memories that bring joy and a sense of direction to her troubled soul.
She must now take that control and make the life for herself she knows is possible.

About Kelly
Kelly Watt lives in the upper peninsula of Michigan with her husband and children. She works as a Registered Nurse and speaks at conferences and fund raising events on the topic of child abuse whenever possible. She is actively engaged in
raising awareness of the sensitive issue of child abuse.

To find out more about Kelly Watt, read some chapters online, or to buy her book, click on the link above. For more information about joining the ranks of authors published by Mill City Press, visit http://www.millcitypress.net/.

Wake of the Raven

Wake of the Raven is a story of the world's corruption, of forbidden desire and its awful consequences.

In 1951, Stuart seeks to repair his broken marriage, and heads back to England in pursuit of his faithless wife. He must first cross the South China Sea to Singapore, a minor step in the voyage. But when an accident burdens him with the care of a precocious girl, the journey becomes a nightmarish odyssey through storm, desire and death.

The mere hundred miles or so of sea is now an impassable barrier, confining him and his bitter thoughts to a narrow strip of sand and jungle, and he is reduced to an animal struggle for survival, with nothing but the girl and thoughts of the dead to help him.

Like all people, evil wars in him with good, fear with ambition, desire with conscience. But when the girl's greater problems arouse his sympathy, it seems that good will triumph, for he unselfishly promises his help.
The result is a disaster that strides towards him fully armed, with disgrace, murder and suicide clenched in its fists.

About Graham Worthington, the author of Wake of the Raven
Worthington wrote his first story when he was eleven in England. Then real life intervened, and for years he travelled the world, collecting true stories that were stranger than fiction. He now lives in London and Toronto.


Published by Mill City Press, Inc. January 10, 2007.
To buy this book, click on "Wake of the Raven" above to be redirected or visit http://www.amazon.com/.

The Saturn Return

This book, The Saturn Return was published by Mill City Press and is featured on the video sharing site www.youtube.com.



Mark Levine has also written The Fine Print of Self-Publishing: The Contracts & Services of 48 Major Self-Publishing Companies – Analyzed, Ranked & Exposed (http://www.book-publishers-compared.com/) and I Will Faithfully Execute, a political thriller (listen to podcast at http://writingshow.com/?p=231), also published by Mill City Press.

To find out more about getting your book published, please visit www.millcitypress.net.

Five Chapters: Home of the Most Exciting Original Fiction on the Web

If you've published a new fiction novel, or have even the first five chapters ready to go, you may want to hop on over to Five Chapters. Run by David Daley, and advertised on some of the Internet's largest publishing sites, such as Media Bistro, it is good exposure for your work. If you're interested in submitting a story, contact David at editor@fivechapters.com.