Somehow, I think the marketing in quotes below, found on the back cover of a novel published in 1974, would not work as well in 2013. This was the bottom half of a back cover blurb separated by a thin black line. The top was a two sentence description about the setting and characters.
Modern readers might scoff. Maybe I’m wrong. What do you think?
“It is a novel so original, so full of imagination and subtle pleasure, that to describe it further would only dilute the pure joy of reading. Turn to the first page. Begin. You will never have read anything like— Title of Novel— before. Nothing quite like it has ever been written before.”
What was the novel and who was the author?
Chose from this list of 1974 novels.
a. My Life As a Man by Philip Roth
b. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
by Robert M. Pirsig
c. Carrie by Stephen King
d. Ragtime by EL Doctorow
e. The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western by Richard Brautigan
f. Marathon Man by William Goldman
g. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
h. Celestial Navigation by Anne Tyler
While you’re at it, choose one of my novels, or one of my nonfiction books, the most recent of which is Eight Billion Steps: My Impossible Quest For Cancer Comedy. I didn’t write Eight Billion Steps as a “How to beat cancer” book; however, it does contain some practical information that may help. I sincerely hope it does. Depending on sales, I intend to contribute approximately 10-20% to various cancer centers and organizations.
(I suppose this marketing is more subtle?)
