What's your book's tagline?

[Emurelda]

This is how I'll be revealing the tagline on social media. Call me dramatic...but I prefer Relda...Emu-relda

 

[Paul Whybrow]

That title Paul, seems a little transparent to me......

With nothing to go on but the bare facts laid before them, the police didn't shrink from doing their duty, though they weren't feeling quite so cocky about things...

 

[Jay Aitch]

My WIP is called Who Kills A Nudist?, which is really its own tagline, though this thread has got me thinking. The ghost of Humphrey Bogart is whispering wisecracks in my ear, some of which would do credit to 40s and 50s pulp fiction: 'He came to tan. He stayed to die' & 'His all-over tan became all-over dead'

The second offering works for me: "His all over tan ...

Mine I've struggled with for a while, until this attempt hit me in the face (as these things invariably do) ... A world without fear meets its first true coward.

Still not 100% sure about it though as it focuses on the world I've created first rather than the main character. But then again, the title is Theall Tales: Where Fooles Flush In, so perhaps it does work?

 

[Jennifer Stone]

My WIP is called Who Kills A Nudist?, which is really its own tagline, though this thread has got me thinking. The ghost of Humphrey Bogart is whispering wisecracks in my ear, some of which would do credit to 40s and 50s pulp fiction: 'He came to tan. He stayed to die' & 'His all-over tan became all-over dead'

How about 'Sunburn can be murder!'

 

[Jason Byrne]

This is how I'll be revealing the tagline on social media. Call me dramatic...but I prefer Relda...Emu-relda

Haha, awesome! You need the big drums though, something grandiose to go with the swoosh, like the Universal Pictures logo.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I just saw one of the greatest tag lines I've ever seen. I normally *hate* Amazon ads on the side of Goodreads, but dangit if this one didn't catch me right off and I had to click on the book. I have yet to read the Amazon page, so I don't know if it's any good, but dang, that tagline got me.

"Heaven went to war, and we lost." for the book They Who Fell.

 

[Bernard Stacey]

"Heaven went to war, and we lost." for the book They Who Fell.

Stand by for John Milton to rise from his grave and sue.

 

[Emurelda]

Haha, awesome! You need the big drums though, something grandiose to go with the swoosh, like the Universal Pictures logo.

Yeah, cos it's not original enough

 

[Cosmo Anayiotos]

Do you need one?

I'm working on Noble Beginnings and want to be able to give it a suitable tagline.

#

A few years ago, the director of Hot House Fiction kindly invited me for an informal chat. I took with me some useful research including the creation of tagline to instantly grasp the series description for the reader.

Question is what is suitable.

For example I was thinking:

Noble Beginnings
"Because parkour was made for space"

How does that grab you? Or not...do you guys have one created for you. It sounds like a tagline for a film too ..doesn't it?

sorry but I don't know what "parkour " means so I can't quantify good or bad in this case. did try to look it up in OED but found nothing. am I missing something ?

 

[Cosmo Anayiotos]

GOT IT. AND YES it makes sense.

 

[Jay Aitch]

A tagline is not the same as a one sentence pitch, or is it? Can it be both?

 

[Emurelda]

GOT IT. AND YES it makes sense.

Great thanks.

 

[Emurelda]

A tagline is not the same as a one sentence pitch, or is it? Can it be both?

I'm not entirely certain how to describe a tagline except it's like a hook - job is to intrigue you. A pitch is a little longer summarising for the objective to sell - except that's also what a tagline is..so what is the distinction between the two?

A browse through Hot House Fiction site shows some interesting taglines:

Darkside by Tom Becker "Don't turn out the light"
Darke Academy Secret Lives by Gabriella Poole "You'll be dying to join the chosen few"
The Hidden Enemy by Zack Satrianna "It's right behind you"

And lots more...

None of these I would classify as pitches.
Is a pitch more like a blurb?

 

[Jay Aitch]

I'm not entirely certain how to describe a tagline except it's like a hook - job is to intrigue you. A pitch is a little longer summarising for the objective to sell - except that's also what a tagline is..so what is the distinction between the two?

A browse through Hot House Fiction site shows some interesting taglines:

Darkside by Tom Becker "Don't turn out the light"
Darke Academy Secret Lives by Gabriella Poole "You'll be dying to join the chosen few"
The Hidden Enemy by Zack Satrianna "It's right behind you"

And lots more...

None of these I would classify as pitches.
Is a pitch more like a blurb?

Ah the joys of the nuanced idiosyncrasies of publishing.

 

[Emurelda]

Ah the joys of the nuanced idiosyncrasies of publishing.

Well I can understand what it means to prepare a pitch and I can understand what it means to prepare a tagline. They are different. Defining the distinction between the two is more than semantics for the fact that the two must be different. I've been up since 4am so brain is still not in gear after how many mugs of coffee? I've lost count.

 

[Cosmo Anayiotos]

Never thought of a tagline for my book.
such a complicated story...what on earth can a tagline be to describe a 72 year old retired assassin that never used guns or knives. Just engineered accidents.
Might just explain a few various deaths that have actually happened. Or situations nobody has even heard of yet they did happen. To open up a line of doubt about something the reader has heard of. Conspiracy or .........just an unfortunate incident ?

 

[Emurelda]

Never thought of a tagline for my book.
such a complicated story...what on earth can a tagline be to describe a 72 year old retired assassin that never used guns or knives. Just engineered accidents.
Might just explain a few various deaths that have actually happened. Or situations nobody has even heard of yet they did happen. To open up a line of doubt about something the reader has heard of. Conspiracy or .........just an unfortunate incident ?

"He was an accident waiting to happen"

I always find brainstorming through helps. If that doesn't so much as impress ya - have you seen my ones that didn't make the cut?

 

[Carol Rose]

A tagline is something used in promo. It's a catchy, clever one liner. This is done with movies all the time. "Don't go in the water." for Jaws.

A pitch is generally shorter than a blurb. Think of it as you in an elevator with your dream agent, and you get one or two sentences to interest her in asking to see more of your book. "A weather control program gone rogue has forced everyone to live in massive underground cities. Twelve men have vowed to stop the program, and along the way they each fall in love." That would be my pitch for The Weathermen series.

A blurb is generally a bit longer than a pitch. It's the kind of thing you see on the back of a book in print, or see on the IMDB site summarizing a movie. A frontiersman named Hugh Glass on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s is on a quest for survival after being brutally mauled by a bear. That's the blurb for The Revenant.

 

[Cosmo Anayiotos]

thing is it was more than one. this gal worked for over 30 years as an assassin. not only to take a persons life but to ruin their credibility.
actually I just may have come up with the answer by accident; Conspiracy or .........just an unfortunate incident ?

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Capitals! Every sentence starts with one. Yikes!!

 

[Chase Gamwell]

I guess one for An Unassuming Fall could be "Beware of heights."

 

[Jason Byrne]

Stand by for John Milton to rise from his grave and sue.

But for me to rule is worth discretion,
Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.

Now there's a platform we can all stand behind. Lucifer for president in 2020!
By the great Cthulhu will be running for a second term. I would love to see that race.