Newsletter #11 — Back Cover
June 4, 2021
Newsletter #11 — Back Cover
Back Cover — The entire time I've been working to promote The F Words, I've been asking myself the question: What goes best on the back cover of a YA novel? Testimonials? Or a brief suggestion of what the book is about? Or, looking at it another way, I wonder what sways teens most: testimonials, or a suggestion about the book's contents?
I lean strongly toward the suggestion about the book's contents. My editor at first leaned toward the testimonials. But then, the more we talked about it, the more we influenced each other's outlook. And then we reached a solution: One testimonial, plus a suggestion about the book's contents. That decided, my editor turned the book over to the designer. We saw the first draft of the design yesterday and decided it needed a few minor changes affecting the readability of the font. I hope to be able to show the back cover in my next newsletter.
VP Statement — In Newsletter #6 I reported that I had been elected Vice President of the PWA: Private Eye Writers of America. My statement of acceptance was printed in the recent PWA newsletter (below the statement of the President, of course!) Here's what I wrote:
Greetings from Vice-President, Barbara Gregorich
I feel honored to have been elected Vice-President of the PWA. Honored to be a member of this organization, which recognizes the key role that professional PI skills play in solving a mystery. And I am always so happy to read books written by PWA members. But I feel guilty, too. Guilty because I haven't been concentrating on writing mysteries lately.
But I have been concentrating on writing about the fight for justice. Which means, in my opinion, that I'm still attuned to the heart of a private eye novel: the quest for truth and justice.
So, even though my YA novel, The F Words (City of Light Publishing, September 1, 2021) isn't a mystery, it is about teens who are expected to accept injustice, but who rebel against that expectation.
I like to think that at least one of my teen characters will go on to become a private eye.
Meanwhile, I will be here, happily serving as Vice-President.
From the Middle — In my June 1 blog I talk about the book Write Your Novel from the Middle, and how it influenced my writing of The F Words.