I once had a writing professor tell me that the worst thing you can ever ask a writer is actually the most obvious question: What’s your book about?
When she told me this I hadn’t started my novel yet. Now that I have, I totally understand what she was talking about. Whenever I tell someone, or someone hears, that I wrote a book, the first thing they want to know is “What is it about?” Every time they ask me I give them a prepared answer that I mastered two years ago when I first started working on the project, but this little speech doesn’t describe what I feel the book is really about, and what’s more, I don’t think people really want to know.
I could talk for hours about what my book is about – and I have, over the course of writing workshops and discussing with first readers. I’m sure that all of you could talk about your books for just as long. Why, then, do I (and maybe you, as well) fear this question so much?
I think the source of the issue is the fact that I don’t feel like anyone other than a writer (or my dad. Hi dad!) would actually want me to launch into the discussion about the themes and the nuances I’m hoping are present in my book (or that should be there when I’m done with the revision process). Most people are asking what the book is about as a courtesy. While they ask “Oh! What is it about?” they’re really rolling their eyes internally and thinking “Yeah, right, she wrote a book.” For some reason people think that writing a book is an easy thing that bored people do to pass the time because they have no job or life or interests or something. I invite these people to spend a day in my life and then reassess.
I used to think that only people who are young like me get this eye rolling type of response, but through the conversations I’ve had with many of you I’ve realized that this is a universal issue. I don’t know why writing a book is associated by so many people with frivolity – I’ve never seen it that way, but I’m biased. I wish these people would look at series like Harry Potter or A Song of Ice and Fire (the Game of Thrones series). Do they think George R.R. Martin was just twiddling his thumbs sipping a hot chocolate, wondering to himself, Hmmm, what can I do with all of this time? I know! I’ll create an entire fictional universe with such a rich and detailed culture that it has its own complicated religious, political, and cultural issues, as well as complicated family rivalries dating back hundreds of years! Oh yeah, also zombies. Just, you know. Because.
Come on you guys. That stuff doesn’t happen on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
I would love to rewind like twenty years to the younger George who is just starting to draft out the first book in the series. Maybe he encounters someone at a party. While he’s sipping his cider (in my head it is Fall and there is hot mulled cider), someone comes up to him and says “Hey! My girlfriend mentioned you’re writing a book. What’s it about?” I think we could all learn something from George’s response in that situation.
So my question to you all this week is this: How do you handle this question when it's asked of you? Do you find yourself just regurgitating a pre-made response that sort of skims the surface of your plot? Or do you take a chance and try to really get into the meat of your story? Let me know in the comments below!
Cait Levin is the Community Manager at She Writes. You can read more of her blog (when she stops watching so much Dawson’s Creek and actually writes more of a blog) here.
Thanks for the sweet comments! Honestly, the only thing I like more than talking about my book is pre-selling it! It's like any other business where you want to network and make a potential sale.
Tyrean, how about this description for your book: "It's a young adult novel about how people draw their power from either faith or from despair -- kind of like what's going on the real world today. I'm hoping teens will start to think about where they draw their power from." That gives people a choice of follow-up responses. Good luck!
Kelly Hayes-Raitt
www.LivingLargeInLimbo.com
In my experience, there is nothing like the query phase of book publishing to grant you expertise with this question. I wrote and work shopped A LOT of query variations, all naturally aimed at answering this question. As such, I now consider myself a bona fide expert on what my novel's about - and absolutely I wasn't until I went through that long and brutal query writing process.
I also agree with Kelly's idea. I find that once I've unspooled my three sentence summation, the real conversation begins. I'll say too that I like Caitlyn's mention about people judging the risk of having you for a friend when you mention you're writing a novel. Even at my advanced age, I know my friends considered it something akin to early onset of...well, you know. One of the dissociative effects of living in such populous times is that we authors and would-be authors are be both legion and rare as unicorns.
Therefore, thank fortune for glens like this one...
I love Kelly's comment! I'm going to have to go with that approach next time. I tried memorizing little catchy phrases that would help me when someone asks me this question, because inevitably I go blank. I could talk for hours about my book, but when put on the spot to sum up my book in small talk, I just stand there and say, "um." After a moment or two, I mumble something about swords, faith, and a strong heroine, which is actually an ok starter. However, in my worst moments, I start with, "well, actually, it's a Christian fantasy, young adult novel set in this world where there are two kinds of power, either power from faith, or power from despair and darkness." Usually if I go down that latter path, people's eyes start to glaze over at "fantasy," and they don't hear anything after that. Either way, I often have someone say something like, "oh, fantasy," as f fantasy is easy to write. It's hard for me to move on from there. I've actually discovered that the less I say, the better, like the "swords, faith, and strong heroine," line.
That's a great idea, Kelly. I should think about it as opening up a conversation, not just requesting info. And that's a great way to do it -- I'll try it next time!
I LOVE when people ask me what my book is about. First thing I do is say, "Thanks for asking" in a tone of voice that sounds like I've never been asked that before.
Then I give my "elevator speech": "It's about my work in the Middle East with Iraqi and Palestinian refugees."
Of course my book is about more than that, but, at this point in the conversation, I'm developing a relationship, not selling a book. If they show interest, I ask them if they'd like to be added to my special list of "friends and family" who will receive a pre-publication discount. (Any of you can, too, by the way! Just mosey on over to www.LivingLargeInLimbo.com and sign up -- it's free.)
So what I just did was take a polite, innocuous question and use it to "suss" out potential readers of my book, start a relationship and "close" them by getting an email address. For non-readers I move onto a different topic since they aren't really interested.
But, I assume anyone who asks me about my book is a potential buyer until it's proven otherwise. I rue the day when no one cares enough to ask me what my book is about!
Kelly Hayes-Raitt
P.S. Pamela, may I suggest something easier and shorter for your compelling book (which I read and loved!) -- and more personal? "It's about my political awakening while I lived in Palestine. All I ever had to go on was from the evening news. What I learned living there was really different!" ...This opens up a question: "Really, Pamela, what did you learn?" That gives you a chance to pitch your book....and in those 3 sentences it shows a narrative arc.
Ah, see, the trick is to create the conversation you want to have. "What's your book about?" is going to get asked. You can try all sorts of different answers and then see which one(s) lead to fun conversations.
How other people will respond depends on what information you give them. You can talk about the plot, you can talk about why you wanted to write it, you can even say, "Can't tell you! It's bad luck to talk about a novel before it's finished," and then ask them what they do all day. It all depends on what conversation you want to have.
For instance, my novel is an historical mystery set in Victorian London. So I could answer, "It's about a serial killer, four years before Jack the Ripper." Or I could say, "It's about a man who wants nothing to do with solving a gruesome murder - until he's arrested for the crime." Or: "Well, I've always loved London, so when I wanted to write a murder mystery, I decided to set it during the glittering London Season of 1884 - and kill off a few debutantes while I was at it."
Now *that* could lead to a fun little chat...
It's also the wrong question to ask an artist. I was a music student at Yale and knew a group of art students there. One day I went by to see my friend, Bob, and he was working on a figure for his Sculpture class. He was so engrossed in what he was doing, he barely knew I was there. When he stepped back to examine it, I said, "What is it going to be, Bob?" He looked at me incredulously and said, "Going to be? It's not 'going to be.' IT IS!!!"
I don't know how to apply something like this to writing, but there must be a way.
What is To Kill a Mockingbird about? "Uh... racism is wrong, and these kids, like... Just read it!"
What is Les Miserables about? "This guy steals some candlesticks because... and then like, adopts a little girl after her mother dies after he accidentally... Oh, just read the book!"
What is Lolita about? "I mean, it's about this creepy old guy who's trying to justify why he... Listen, you just have to read it."
What I've learned after being asked this question several million times is that "What is your book about?" isn't a very interesting question. The question really is: Is this book well-written, does it transport you beyond yourself and make you just a little more glad to be human?
But that's not the question people tend to ask. And it's not easy to answer about your own book anyway. Sigh...
So I've just defaulted to telling people the book jacket answer: "It's a coming-of-age political memoir set in occupied Palestine during and after the second Intifada. Heartbreaking and hopeful, hilarious and horrifying, it's a primer on a little-understood part of the world disguised as an award-winning travelogue. The first chapter's online if you want to get a taste."
http:/
More or less works for me!