Publishing Update: Cover copy polish

It’s been very interesting to learn about the various steps in the publishing process.  I’ve just reviewed and tweaked the copy the team at iUniverse proposes to put on the front and back covers of the novel.  When it comes to the description of the book on the back, it’s a balancing act.  We need to provide enough description to entice the reader, without telling the whole story and spoiling the few surprises along the way.  Here’s the result after my very minor tweaking:

Thirty-something Daniel Addison is jaded and burned out from his Parliament Hill job as a speechwriter for the Liberal Leader of the Opposition. After a bad breakup with his girlfriend, Daniel is eager to escape the duplicitous world of Canadian politics, so he accepts a faculty position with the University of Ottawa’s English Department. He soon moves into a boathouse apartment in nearby Cumberland owned by Angus McLintock, a cranky engineering professor in his sixties who is mourning the recent loss of his wife.

Both Angus and Daniel intend to retreat from the world for a while, but fate won’t have it. Angus is desperate to avoid teaching English to first-year engineering students yet again.  Daniel, as penance for abandoning his party on the eve of an election, must find a local Liberal candidate to run against the incumbent Conservative MP, who just happens to be the most popular Finance Minister in Canadian history. In an unlikely alliance, Angus consents to stand as the in-name-only, certain-to-lose Liberal candidate, and in return, Daniel agrees to take Angus’s English class.

Everything is going according to plan until the voters are suddenly forced to take a closer look at Angus. The once guaranteed Liberal loss is now thrown into doubt. Scrambling to deal with this unexpected development, Angus and Daniel land in the middle of a hilarious political maelstrom that tests not only their friendship but their beliefs in government and democracy.

It seems a tad long to me, particularly if there’s to be space left for the complimentary quotations provided by Allan Rock, Paddy Torsney, and Mike Tanner.  We’ll see what unfolds.

While we’re polishing up the cover copy, the designers at iUniverse are considering whether they’re happy with the cover design I submitted or will propose a different approach.  Stay tuned…