The Fine Art of Dust Jacket Copy

Care of Quill & Quire. Quill & Quire, quite possibly the best title ever for a magazine. Quill, ampersand, Quire. Nice.

From the story...

In general, the responsibility for writing jacket copy falls to the acquiring editor, although each house has its own rules. Compared with cover design, which generally involves a wide variety of voices and a considerable amount of office debate, the writing of flap copy is usually a fairly straightforward matter. At HarperCollins Canada, editorial director Jennifer Lambert says that the acquiring editor writes the text in consultation with the author and the agent, and another editor at the house does the copy editing. At Penguin Canada, executive editor Nicole Winstanley tries to channel the shared vision of the marketing, sales, and editorial departments when composing jacket copy, and then invites input from the author and the agent. And at House of Anansi Press, publisher Lynn Henry says she takes input from sales and marketing and consults with authors, but agents are generally not involved in the back and forth.

When asked why jacket copy isn’t approached in a more broadly collaborative manner, like cover design, Henry observes that the visual nature of cover design invites many more voices. Besides, she adds, cover copy is a delicate art. “It is a very charged kind of writing, where words are like signifiers to the reader that this is a book that’s going to appeal to a grandmother, say, or to a twentysomething man,” says Henry. “It’s very nuanced, almost a code.”

Lambert admits that it can be very hard not to get carried away and cross into cliché territory. “There are so many overused catch words – ‘compelling,’ ‘riveting,’ ‘a brand new voice in Canadian literature,’” she explains. “In every cliché there’s a grain of truth, but you have to catch yourself and make sure you’re not using these tired ways of describing a book.” Henry, too, finds that she has to be vigilant. “I tend to pay attention to the copy that other people put on their books: what makes me cringe and what’s fresh and new,” she says.