Book jacket copy

Sirs, Madames,

I'm going back and forth with my editor on jacket copy for my next book, Future Greats and Heartbreaks: A Year Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts ... an awful title that manages to work five publishing buzzwords into one breath. Anyone have any thoughts about improving on this? I am your pinata, swing away.

National Hockey League scouts know the
game better than anybody else. They travel
across North America and Europe but see little
of the world outside the arenas, working more
than 200 junior-hockey games every season.
They don’t watch the game, they study it.
Scouts live by their opinions. The methods
they use to reach them are closely guarded
secrets. Scouts don't welcome strangers. They
keep themselves to themselves on the stands.
They shun the press. Information is the scouts’
currency, so who can blame them for protecting
it from prying eyes?
But now the arcane world of the hockey
scouts has been infiltrated.
Friend of the Friendless, one of North America’s finest
sports writers, has always harboured an ambition
to be a hockey scout. It even struck him that a
journalist's skills would be useful tools for the
trade. Who better to do deep background checks
on promising players and spot the ones with
“issues” than someone with years of hard-talking
interview experience?
After knocking on many, many doors—“We
don’t do that crap” was a typical response—Friend
of the Friendless finally got his chance. The Columbus
Blue Jackets gave him a seat in their war room
leading up to the 2006 NHL entry draft. It was an
opportunity to see a struggling team working
under pressure to turn the corner. For the season
leading up to the 2007 draft, Friendless crossed
Canada and Europe, scouting the next class of
teenage stars. At the same time he scouted the
NHL scouts, observing their methods and witnessing
their struggles. For them it was never just
another day at the arena, not when their jobs
were on the line and their owners' millions were
riding on making the right draft pick.
Future Greats and Heartbreaks is a piece of
hockey literature like no other—combining
first-rate journalism, memoir and travelogue.
Friend of the Friendless gives the reader a unique insight into
the workings of the game. He walks the reader
down the thin line that separates a future great
hockey player and a talented also-ran. His season
undercover put him at the shoulders of the scouts
as they whittled down the best of North America’s
young players to the few who will go on to make
tomorrow’s headlines.

YHS, etc

 

Just a few ideas:

"They travel
across North America and Europe but see little
of the world outside the arenas, working more
than 200 junior-hockey games every season."
- I think you want to get a bit more out of the lifestyle here. 200 games, plus travel, I assume leaves them with about, uh, five days of vacation. I get the feeling that a lot of people think, "God, scouting's gotta' be the life." But if regular guys got the chance to do it, they'd quit six months in because the lifestyle is so shitty. Feels like you could hammer this home. (Bad hotels, pizza every night, busrides, flying coach on the red-eye to Finland, etc.)

"Scouts don't welcome strangers. They
keep themselves to themselves on the stands.
They shun the press. Information is the scouts’
currency, so who can blame them for protecting
it from prying eyes?"
- I think you should cut this down, and ditch "who can blame..." (Information is the scouts currency. They shun the press.)

"For the season
leading up to the 2007 draft, Friendless crossed
Canada and Europe, scouting the next class of
teenage stars."
- Were you scouting, or were you watching scouts? I'd suggest "For (number) months, Friendless joined scouts as they chased the next class of teenage stars from Really Cold, Canada, to Even Colder, Sweden."

"He walks the reader
down the thin line that separates a future great
hockey player and a talented also-ran."
- Seems obvious, but you could hint at the divergent fortunes of those whom scouts like, and those that are left behind. (As in a $2 million contract with half-a-mill bonus, and another year on a $12,000 allowance in Fargo.)

"His season
undercover put him at the shoulders of the scouts
as they whittled down the best of North America’s
young players to the few who will go on to make
tomorrow’s headlines."
- North America, or the world?

My overall thought was this:

With both your title and your jacket, it feels like there are details missing. I would imagine a TON of work went into this, and yet I get the feeling that you could have written the bulk of the jacket copy before you did any reporting. Seems a bit general.

I assume that somewhere in your reporting there was a moment -- either in a Bluejackets meeting, or a single phone call, or one game some unknown kid had -- where you thought, "Wow, I can't believe I was here for that. NOBODY has this story." I think you should tease that on the jacket. Hint at a moment, or a level of insight that you got, that is completely exclusive to your book. Details, details.

That being said, it's good. I can see your book captivating readers nation wide.

In Canada. (Kidding. Not really.)

Best of luck,
verbal.

 

A thought.

Is there any way to characterize the scouts a little more colorfully? "Irascible," "cigar-chewing," "desperate", etc.?

I send regards.

 

Sirs,

Appreciated, one and all.

I almost think I'd be better off to tear it up and start over. I was sent a mishmosh from my editor and tried to write within the template ... an attempt to make a bad idea workable.

YHS, etc

 

Seems you've buried the most interesting part--that you got direct inside access into the secret world of the scouts, by becoming one yourself.

It reads more like a proposal; I would not be surprised if you said this was taken from the cover letter. Anyone who picks up the book already knows what scouts do. You need to sell them on what YOU did. You got inside.

I like to see a quick hit of narrative at the top, and this is (professional disclaimer) bad and off the top of my head: 'It was draft day at XX headquarters, thirty experts packing the chaotic and sweaty war room, amid laptops and notes and half-eaten hot dogs and stale coffee. For the next X hours, they would this and that in top secrecy, changing lives and career and dreams, forever.

But for the first time ever, there was an 'outsider' in their midst--the only journalist ever allowed direct and immediate access to the closed and secretive world of scounting. FotF, one of yadda yadda, followed the inside story the only way possible: by being inside the story.

For X months, FotF (what you did, what your discovered, etc).

Stress inside story, first time ever, get into some of the characters ('from the one-eyed goalie to Eskimo Bill....) and some of the drama.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I've tried a second take here, incorporating some of your suggestions -- a little more of the specifics. I do like the idea of a situation lead (something from the war room) but I couldn't get it by my editor. Anyway, here goes. Again, many, many thanks for your help.

National Hockey League scouts know the game
better than anyone anywhere. They travel
across North America and Europe, working more
than 200 junior-hockey games every season.
They don’t watch the game, they study it.
Scouts live by their opinions. And die by them.
Their methods are closely guarded secrets.
Next to the scouting fraternity the Masons are an
open book. Scouts keep to themselves and especially
shun the prying eyes of press. Who can blame them
for hiding out when information is their currency?
Now, at last, that arcane world of the hockey
scouts has been infiltrated.

Friend of the Friendless, one of North America’s finest
sports writers, has always long harboured the ambition
to be a hockey scout. It struck him that a
journalist's skills would be useful tools for the
trade. Who better to do deep background checks
on promising players - and spot the ones with
“issues” - than someone with years of hard-won
interview experience?

After knocking on many doors—“We
don’t do that crap” was a the typical response—FotF
finally got his chance. The Columbus
Blue Jackets gave him a seat in their war room
for the 2006 NHL entry draft. It was an
opportunity to see a struggling team working
under pressure to turn the corner. For an entire season
leading up to the 2007 draft, FotF crisscrossed
Canada with the scouts—one night it would be a humble,
history-rich community barn like Moose Jaw's “Crushed Can”
and the next it might be a plush, state-of-the-art facility
like London's John Labatt Centre, which would be the envy of some
NHL teams. FotF also joined the scouts
on their forays into Scandinavia and central Europe for
major international tournaments. Along the way FotF crossed paths
and looked into the lives of hockey's next generation, which ranged
from Howie Morenz's great grandson to a Nigerian-born teenager who
didn't try on skates until age 12. And the same time he scouted the
scouts, observing their methods and witnessing
their struggles. For them it was never just
another day at the arena, not when their jobs
were on the line and their owners' millions were
riding on finding the game's next great star.

Future Greats and Heartbreaks is a piece of
hockey literature like no other—combining
first-rate journalism, memoir and travelogue.
FotF gives the reader a unique insight into
the workings of the game. He walks the reader
down that thin line that separating the future greats from
the also-ran. His season
undercover put him at the shoulders of the scouts
as they whittled down the best of North America’s
young players to the few who will make
tomorrow’s headlines.

YHS, etc

 

Fotf - Here's what I've got: (resisting the urge to say that the FIRST thing you need to change is your editor...)

- I think there are a handful of simple writing mistakes here that you'll catch yourself when you read it. Aside from those, this version is much cleaner, much stronger.

- "Scouts live by their opinions. And die by them."
Just a personal thing here, but - and I don't think I'm alone here - I'm a bit skittish about life and death metaphors in sports, having been taken to task for trying to infuse war imagery into a hockey feature a few years ago. Stuff like this reads particularly hollow when the lead story every day out of Iraq is a death toll. I think "livelhood," "pay the bills," even "rely on" could work... I'm not really impressing myself with any of those suggestions, but still, I'd suggest you look for something else.

- "Next to the scouting fraternity the Masons are an
open book."
Some people might miss that reference. I had to read it twice myself, wondering if I had missed a first reference to someone named Mason. "The justice department"? "The Vatican"?

- It struck him that a
journalist's skills would be useful tools for the
trade.
Ditch "It struck him."

"... - and spot the ones with
“issues” - ..."
I know what you're going for here, but on the first read it sounds a bit goulish, a bit predatory. (Particularly because I assume you are an adult, and you're looking into the lives of teenagers.) Maybe find some wording that assures the reader that you're not actively looking for "issues," but that sometimes the evidence can't be ignored. (Again, not perfect, but an example: "Who better to know where the secrets are buried than someone who'd spent his adult life digging?")

- "It was an
opportunity to see a struggling team working
under pressure to turn the corner."
Seems a bit bland, and like another chance for you to hammer home your great access. A lot of people got an opportunity to see them working to turrn the corner -- NO ONE got to see it from the inside-out. Also, I'd ditch "under pressure." Every team is under pressure. Though, if you wanted to do it, this would be the point to throw in the NHL's woes on the whole. "A struggling team trying to turn the corner in a struggling league," that kind of thing. I'm under the assumption most NHL teams are losing money, and have been for years. Is it the same for the BJs?

- "from Howie Morenz's great grandson..."
I know sportswriters aren't supposed to admit this, but this reference is lost on me. I'm not very old, and I'm not a hockey nut, but I follow the sport and have some knowledge of its history. I've just looked him up, and I know now that I probably should have known him, but I think you could throw in an exposition phrase there to help readers like myself.

- Other than that, it's good. I'd say you're close to finished. Just look for anywhere you can squeeze in teases for your very unique level of access.

Good luck,
verbal

 

Whoa. When someone gets a free minute, can they edit my edits? Christ. I need to start getting more sleep.

 

Mr Kint,

Thanks for your help on this. This is a Canadian book and as such a lot of folks here are well-acquainted with Howie Morenz and know that a lot/most NHL teams are profitable (extremely so in some cases) or at worst live gate to gate. I think it probably wpould be clearer as Freemasons. Justice Department is probably good given the present Admnistration but not really applicable in Canada where we give public guided tours through archives that Congressmen can't subpoena in Washington. And I'm not of a mind that i fire my editor because he made the case for my book, saw that I had my second payment put through (without my asking) and wants my next book sans proposal. But I get your pt.

YHS, etc

 

FOTF,

I think you need to treat this like a feature story; ask yourself what your lead - your book's selling proposition - is. Seems, in this copy, as if you might've forgotten the thing that'll make people buy a copy...it's that you've given readers a rare inside look at the lives of people who do what 87% of Canadian males probably think is their dream job: watching hockey for a living. The first question people will have when they read the title is either "So just what is a scout's life actually like?" or "Damn, how much fun would it be to watch hockey for a living?"

So...go from there. Give them a colourful, brief glimpse into just what this life is like...as verbalkint said, describe plane rides to finland, etc...and/or make it personal. I'm exhausted, and this is probably bad, but you could start by challenging the reader's primary question with something as simple as a direct-address question like

So you think it would be fun to watch hockey for a living?

And go from there.

Or...repeated contrasts?

They know more about hockey than anyone on the planet - and they'll never tell you anything they know about hockey. They _____ - and they ____.

Or...maybe the best damn scene you've got.
-
The man sitting by himself in the corner - the only man in the arena who doesn't cheer when the Icecats score, the only man in the stands who holds a notebook instead of a beer - knows more about hockey than almost everyone on the planet.

Just don't try to ask him what he knows about hockey.

The man sitting by himself in the corner is a professional hockey scout. The first rule of professional hockey scouting: don't talk about professional hockey scouting. But for Future Greats and Heartbreaks, Smith - and 15 of the other hilarious, cynical men who belong to one of the most exclusive secret societies on the continent - broke their code of silence to give award-winning sportswriter Friend of the Friendless an unprecedented look into their fascinating world.

2 AM plane trips to Finland. 15 hour drives to Sudbury. (Something.) Think it would be fun to watch hockey for a living? For these men, it is. But it's also (something.)
--
I'll stop making up stuff. Gooood luck, sir.

 

Just came across this.

I'm on the Swenk team here.

Remember that you're writing so when Gord from Scarborough picks up the book at his local Chapters, you'll engage him in the first two sentences. Right now your first paragraph does not do it.

The selling point is that YOU, FoF have been granted inside status to an exclusive world. Bang the potential customer (they haven't bought the book yet) over the head with it.

That said, can I get a copy of the galleys?

 

For the Gords From Scarborough on the board, would you kindly explain what "Swenk" means?