Copy Rules

It's Launch Season again, which means that I'm alternately irritated, amused, and enlightened by the wide range of titles that we have to learn and plan for in just over two weeks. We actually have a good copywriter, so these "rules" are not aimed at him, but were a way to blow off steam after reading frequently optimistic descriptions of many of our titles.

Denise (the Cynic)’s Academic Press Marketing Copy Rules (That Everyone Breaks)

1. Be realistic. Every academic title “examines,” “illuminates,” or otherwise “reveals” something, but they are rarely “riveting,” “exciting” or “groundbreaking,” let alone an “instant classic.” Only use the word “stunning” if a stun-gun is involved because chances are, at best, the “revelations” are plodding and coherent.

2. Don’t use words that hurt. “Extensive” and “exhaustive” exhaust extensively. And “painstaking” says the author was in pain as she wrote it, and intends to pass it on.

3. Every frontlist book in the catalog should be “new,” but then so should every piece of copy.

4. Use the news writer’s rule: Don’t “bury the lead.” The main point of the book should appear in the first two sentences of copy. If you’re unsure what the point of the book is--it should be the part of the book that is not already known by everyone in the discipline. If you’re still unsure, ask the author or acquiring editor “What prompted you to write/acquire this title?” (That always goes over better than “Why the hell are we publishing this crap?”)

5. Another gem from news writing: “Who, what, where, when, why and how.” If you can’t identify these, refer to rule #4.

6. Repeat the title, author, and other bibliographic information only if space is unlimited, because chances are the people who came up with the title think that it is.

7. If you have a say, do campaign for a title and/or subtitle that has some relation to the content of the book. Otherwise be prepared for the reader to be completely lost before the first sentence of copy.

8. Don’t use “the human condition,” or any variation thereof. It usually means someone else’s life sucks, but probably not in the same way that yours does, no matter what you think, and that you’re secretly glad that you’re better than they are.

9. Don’t ask the reader to make leaps of logic, even if the book does.

10. If a word that must be in the copy is not in the dictionary, first italicize, then delete.

If brevity is the soul of wit, I’m at wit’s end.

For more pointers, see:

http://alt-usage-english.org/humorousrules.html
http://www.ameinfo.com/34480.html
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/133379/2067029

Others?