Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Rollback featured at NEW BOOKS blog



Rollback is featured today at NEW BOOKS, a blog by Marshal Zeringue that spotlights new titles in all genres. And, unlike just about everybody else, he's actually got the correct version of the Rollback cover (note the typeface for the book's title).

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site


5 Comments:

At March 13, 2007 10:29 PM , Blogger Jacob said...

I just read Mindscan and it was kinda annoying that the dustjacket says that bioJake takes hostages, an event that takes place 75% into the book. Hope this new one doesn't have those kind of spoilers.

 
At March 13, 2007 10:34 PM , Blogger RobertJSawyer said...

Hi, Jacob. A valid criticism, and I take the full blame, since Tor has been letting me write my own dustjacket copy for the last few books; I apologize.

Personally, I almost never read jacket copy -- I hate to have anything given away. (Or, if I do read the dustjacket in the store, I set the book aside when I get home, and wait a bit before reading the book, so that I don't remember it.)

I just checked, and the synopsis of ROLLBACK on the dustjacket only goes 20 percent of the way into the book (by word count).

Thanks for the comment! :)

 
At March 14, 2007 12:36 AM , Anonymous Jim Shannon said...

Hi Rob,
You bring up a good point about dust jacket blurbs. This is not a selling point for me. I go by the cover art and the title and let my imagination roll with that. (Pun intended) But when I picked up Charles’s Stross’s book Accelerado, I had/have no idea what the book is about except it’s science fiction and the title grabbed my attention right off. Sometimes it’s just enough to know that if it’s an RJS book, you know your going to get quality. I can’t wait until my vision clears up so I can read “Calculating God.” I think like wine a writer gets better with time.

On another point, I noticed Mindscan had the title first and your name underneath that. In “Rollback” it’s your name and the title down there in smaller print. Is there any reasoning for that?

Thanks.

 
At March 14, 2007 8:21 AM , Blogger RobertJSawyer said...

My name is more important than the title in selling the book. MINDSCAN was an aberration; my name was above the title on the HOMINIDS, HUMANS, and HYBRIDS covers, too.

 
At March 15, 2007 3:54 PM , Blogger Jacob said...

I probably also should have mentioned that I liked the book rather than just criticizing the peripherals. And it certainly wasn't like the trailer for Chinatown which literally goes through the entire film right to the last scene and line.

 

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