And just like Stephanie, I get so tired of the “rotating logo now with fire” conversations about design.

On a related note, I recently read the ebook of John Green’s Looking for Alaska and had to plough through pages and pages of ads for his next book and an interview with the author … after the prologue and before the book had even started. Huh?

Pixelfish, I agree. It’s also tough because sometimes editor have their pet words that you see cropping up over and over again on cover copy. I’ve definitely had to ask for changes that described consecutive (and really different) romantic relationships in my series as “imploding.” And don’t get me started on spoilers! I have a standing rule that copywriters are not allowed to include in a blurb anything that happens after the midpoint in my book (and/or synopsis). But it’s not a rule that’s been followed with any regularity.

I sometimes really think marketers needs to stop trying to play with their crystal ball and just tell the meat of the premise, instead of trying to play adjective soup and convince a particular demographic. (For every demographic you try to blatantly hit with your marketing rhetoric, there’s half a dozen more going, “Oh, I guess this isn’t for me,” and putting the book back down.)

But sometimes I wish they’d leave major plot points out of the cover copy. I spent the first few chapters of a book recently wondering when a certain character was going to die, because it said so right on the jacket copy. I think it would have been better and more impactful if they’d left that major plot curve out.

Also, it’s not a bad idea to let the author look over the cover copy before it’s designed. We’ve avoided some real problems that way.

As for your question some houses have a set style for where the acks go. Some will consult authors. Some won’t.

are there fixed rules in the matter? a dedication is often set out at the begining, but acknowledgements can surely be at the front or back, as the author thinks best.

advertising, yuk. no thanks.

but then again, what is the real difference between an ad and a couple of blank pages and then a list of other books by the same author? or other books in the same collection? [personally I discovered many an author through the back pages of Puffin books...]. it probably all comes down to a matter of respect: if the layout and whitespace at the end of the book respect the reader, then this is seen as information, even a continuing of the conversation, rather than advertising. however when it arrives as an intrusion, then, yes, it can break the tone, the silence that extends beyond the book and into the moment, and intrude, even ruin the experience.

That said, it’s just as bad to have the acks in the back if they don’t have a proper heading. I hate turning my attention to the next the page, thinking there’s more story, only to be confronted with something else entirely.

Design matters. The story needs to be clearly separated from the not-story bits.

Writers frequently thank people who helped with their research or list books they used in the acks. So if they’re at the front and they’ve thanked an explosives expert I spend the whole book waiting for the explosion. Not good.

The only exception I make to point number one (that I can remember, anyway), is Suite Scarlett. Because I am a weird person who reads the acknowledgments, and Suite Scarlett’s was actually funny, but it really doesn’t make as much sense at the end of the book (which they moved it to for the paperback). I was sad. I have to say I’ve never had a book spoiled by the acknowledgments, though. I always get spoiled by the prologues, and I skip them half the time because of that. Sometimes I feel like certain prologues weren’t the author’s idea at all. But putting spoilers in the acknowledgments makes noooo sense. Maybe the author didn’t know the publisher was going to stick them at the front?

Why do want to be spoiled before you begin a book?

Madness!