An Experiment in Writing – Part 71: Previously on…(more on backcover copy)
Joseph Carrabis -
February 18, 2026
Experiments in WritingFor AuthorsMarketing

I talked about blurbs and pitches in An Experiment in Writing – Part 40: Blurbs, Pitches, and But-Then-Except and An Experiment in Writing – Part 55: Backcover Copy and Blurbs (again) and (wait for it) I’m about to do it again.

Remember wa-a-ay back in the beginning of these experiments I mentioned they’re really for me and I hope you get something from them, but they’re really for me to keep track of what I’ve learned and am learning.

Obviously, I’m still learning about backcover copy.

I consider this a good thing because, to me, one can never learn enough or study enough. There’s always one more thing, one more piece of information, possibly old to everyone else but brand new to you, so get it, take it, and hold it tight.

This time I talk about two aspects of backcover copy. The first borrows from the old Saturday matinee serial movies and episodic TV where each season is a story arc and each episode is (essentially) a chapter in that story.

The second requires you to imagine yourself as someone who knows nothing about your book. What has someone told you that makes you want to read the book? That’s what your backcover copy needs to be.

Enjoy!

 
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me, schedule a critique of your work, or buy me a coffee.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money. My latest is my fiction anthology Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires Volume 2

FWIW, I hold a Creators RoundTable the last Thursday of every month from 7:30-8:30pmET. Watch past RoundTables. Register to participate.

Wilderness House Literary Review EIC Steve Glines and I (Senior Fiction Editor) hold monthly open chats with authors interested in a) writing for us, b) improving their craft in general, and/or c) increasing their chances of being accepted by other markets.
Meetings are held via Zoom on the last Friday of each month from 9-10amET.
So, want to know how to write for us? Want to know what gets our attention? Want to know how to write better for whatever market you’re interested in? Join us for our next “Meet the Editors” Zoom session. Seats limited! Sign up and talk with us. We’re relatively easy going and fun to be with.

Last item, finding these experiments useful? Strengthen my ego and link/friend/follow me.

All Experiments

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Experiments in Writing
1 – This is How It Begins
2 – Openings
3 – More on Openings, Closings
4 – More on Closings
5 – More on Openings – Establishing Voice, Atmosphere, Setting, and Narrator
6 – Authenticity
7 – Inciting Incidents
8 – Worthy Antagonists
9 – Final Conflicts Worth Reading
10 – Action Scenes (finally)
11 – Language and Word Choice
12 – Overwriting, Toing and Froing
13 – Exposition via Dialogue
14 – Exposition via Character Revelation via Deep POV
15 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 1 – Character Voice
16 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 2 – Author as Character
17 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 3 – Author IS Character
18 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 4 – Author Voice
19 – Plotlines, Timeslines, Throughlines
20 – Plotting, Pantzing, and Procrastinating – The 3Ps Every Author Should Know and Love
21 – More on Exposition via Dialogue – Holmeses&Watsons
22 – More on Plotlines, Timelines, and Throughlines
23 – Into the Mythic
24 – A Little More Into The Mythic, and The Rule of Three
25 – Accidental POV Shifts
26 – World-Building via 1stPPOV
27 – How to read as an author
28 – Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone Teaches Writing
29 – Character via Exposition
30 – What Happens Next?
31 – Who Haven’t I Written About Lately?
32 – Let the Characters Do the Work
33 – Writer’s Block versus Writer Stuck
34 – Editing
35 – Write Moments and Feelings
36 – Timeline and Plotline Convergence (an Example)
37 – Time Manglement
38 – Subjectively Objective and Objectively Subjective
39 – The First Word
40 – Blurbs, Pitches, and But-Then-Except
41 – An Example of “The First Word”
42 – Technique versus Craft
43 – A Humbling Experience – Robin Wilkey Gregory’s Killing Time
44 – What’s a ‘Flaknoc’? (revealing anything through character interactions)
45 – Drinking the Sand
46 – Atrribution via Action (and a little bit more)
47 – Overwhelmedness
48 – An Experiment in Writing – Part 48: Eating My Own Dogfood (more on reading like an editor, critiquing your own work)
49 – An Experiment in Writing – Part 49: Write/Be/Do What Interests You
50 – Match Narrative Voice to Character Voice
51 – Marketing is a Four-Letter Word
52 – Subtlety
53 – An Example of Poor Story Crafting
54 – You’re not Stephen King, Nora Roberts, JK Rowling, Dan Brown, … so get over it
55 – Backcover copy and Blurbs (again)
56 – Creating Tension, Building Tension
57 – More on Character Voice (Showing Change through Tone, Language, Behavior)
58 – Interesting to Whom? (keeping it interesting for author and reader)
59 – Unreliable Witnesses
60 – HELP! (I need somebody)
61 – Pitching Events (or Marketing, again)
62 – Man From Earth, MindWalk (Conflict Without Conflict)
63 – Eating My Own Dogfood (more on reading like an editor, critiquing your own work)
64 – Recognizing My Worth
65 – Genre Schmenre
66 – Surprise!
67 – Creativity Exercises (Building those Muse Muscles)
68 – Finding the Path
69 – Sensitivity Readers…NOT!
70 – Edit Someone Else’s Work to Improve Your Own
71 – Previously on…(more on backcover copy)
72 – Relatability = Believability = Engagement = Sales
73 – Call Response
74 – The Radical Rewrite