Tuesday, October 22, 2013

What do you think of my cover copy?

I was just asked to provide the "back cover copy" for Summer's Winter. Here is what I've come up with. What do you think? Would this make you want to read it? Confused? Typos or mistakes? Thanks for your help!

At age ten, preacher’s daughter Jeanine fell in love with young movie star Jamie Newkirk and the character he played—Danny Summer. Jeanine believed God Himself promised Jamie would be part of her life—that he would rescue her from boring rural Georgia. A talented writer and musician herself, she was going to be powerful and accomplished like this boy. She was destined to be a part of Jamie’s world.

For the next eleven years, Jeanine was obsessed—with Jamie Newkirk; with Danny Summer, the character he played; and with the entire Summer series of books and movies that were released throughout her childhood. When the author, Hannah Raney, died in a mysterious fire without finishing the series, Jeanine was grieved like the rest of fandom. But she believed Jamie was still promised to her.

But eleven years later, she’s graduating college and about to settle into the dreary nine-to-five life with no word from Jamie or God.

And then Jamie bursts into her life in an amazing way. Incredible things start to happen. There are plans to resurrect the Summer series, and Jeanine is right in the middle of it all. Jamie seems to be falling for her, just as she’d dreamed. And yet…

She never dreamed of all the dark undercurrents. Jamie is hiding out in Georgia following the suspicious death of his former girlfriend. And isn’t it odd that he found his mother dead of a supposed suicide in that same house two years before, and that both women had the same strangely-shaped burn on their bodies? And who knew there would be so many sinister characters involved in Jamie’s life, and in the Summer series? There’s his young co-star, Charlie—the Summer author died in an unexplained fire at his house. And Jamie’s stepfather, Elliott, and uncle Richard seem to be in a vicious competition for control of the Summer series and of Jamie’s life.


Jamie is obviously guarding deep secrets—about his family, about the deaths of his mother and Paula. The media and the public have declared him guilty. Jeanine longs to prove his innocence. Unless she can, Jamie’s dark secrets may shatter her dreams, her faith—and her life.

2 comments:

  1. Overall, I like the idea. But in the first half, Jeanine sounds a bit too obsessed, in an unhealthy way. It makes her a heroine we're not sure we want to read about or spend time with. I know she is obsessed, but can it be portrayed a little less intensely here in the cover copy? More like a crush and an actor she follows rather than this lifelong obsession?

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    1. Thanks! Other folks have said I need to focus more quickly on the "suspense" stuff, so I've been cutting some of the parts you mention, up at the top. Hopefully that helps. Thanks for the input!

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