"all-out war"

[vegaslover62]

It seems, to me at least, that the majority of the blurbs on the back covers of Star Trek novels end in the words "all-out war"(as opposed to your average, garden-variety war) followed by an ellipsis or exclamation point.

I guess those three words sell novels, huh?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

How dare you disparage the noble blurb-writers and their charming tendency to excitability?! This means war - and not a standard war, no, not even an ill-conceived war of over-extension and attrition, but all-out war. I shall not rest until my treasury is empty and my last heir lies bleeding out on the cold ground, or until all trace of Las Vegas and its lovers are ground to dust and erased from history!

On a serious note, the older blurbs are quite amusing, aren't they?

 

[David Mack]

What books are you referring to? Are you talking about older titles, from the '90s? Because I haven't seen that phrase in back-cover copy on any Star Trek novel published in the last year, and maybe longer.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How dare you disparage the noble blurb-writers and their charming tendency to excitability?! This means war - and not a standard war, no, not even an ill-conceived war of over-extension and attrition, but all-out war. I shall not rest until my treasury is empty and my last heir lies bleeding out on the cold ground, or until all trace of Las Vegas and its lovers are ground to dust and erased from history!

I totally heard that in Don LaFontaine's voice.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMGS7l0wT8[/yt]

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I assumed we were talking about the older titles - back when the books used to have excited tag-lines on the cover that told us something generic and sensationalist, like "The Enterprise must stop a galactic war!" or "A diplomatic mission turns deadly!", or "An entire planet faces death!"

As though the Star Trek 'verse is largely populated by frightened rodents on the brink of heart attacks.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

How dare you disparage the noble blurb-writers and their charming tendency to excitability?! This means war - and not a standard war, no, not even an ill-conceived war of over-extension and attrition, but all-out war. I shall not rest until my treasury is empty and my last heir lies bleeding out on the cold ground, or until all trace of Las Vegas and its lovers are ground to dust and erased from history!

I totally heard that in Don LaFontaine's voice.

To my great shame, I didn't know his name, though of course I knew his voice...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

As though the Star Trek 'verse is largely populated by frightened rodents on the brink of heart attacks.

Is that why we keep getting more squeakquels?

 

[Christopher]

What books are you referring to? Are you talking about older titles, from the '90s? Because I haven't seen that phrase in back-cover copy on any Star Trek novel published in the last year, and maybe longer.

I guess you haven't read Tower of Babel yet, then, because those are the last three (two?) words of its blurb.

 

[David Mack]

^ Must have missed that one. Ah, well. It's still far from a phrase in common usage on the current line of Star Trek novels.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

I just checked the back of Plagues of Night and this is what I found. "... lead to an all-out shooting war?"

 

[vegaslover62]

I wasn't speaking of the current line, I was speaking of the 500+ titles in general, though some recent blurbs have used those words.

 

[Christopher]

I wonder about the etymology of "all out." My guess would be that it's short for "pulling out all the stops," as in a pipe organ -- i.e. bringing every rank of pipes into play, applying all available resources.

 

[Stevil2001]

Also, Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword's back cover includes the sentence, "The Enterprise would be on the front lines of an all-out interstellar war." So we're up to three?

 

[BritishSeaPower]

I don't have them handy but I'm pretty sure at least one of the first four Typhon Pact books are guilty of this, too.

 

[Christopher]

I don't have them handy but I'm pretty sure at least one of the first four Typhon Pact books are guilty of this, too.

None of the first five TP tales use it, but Plagues of Night (already mentioned) and Brinkmanship do.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Why don't publishers ask the book's author to write the "blurb"?

 

[Christopher]

Why don't publishers ask the book's author to write the "blurb"?

Specialization. Our job is to write the stories; it's the job of the editors and publicists to sell the stories, which is what a blurb is for. They take care of that stuff so we don't have to.

Sometimes editors have asked me to write my own blurbs when they were pressed for time, but usually they do it themselves, and they have a lot more practice at it than I do. Greg certainly did a better job figuring out how to summarize Only Superhuman in a cover blurb than I was ever able to manage.

 

[David Mack]

I often submit cover copy for my own books. Sometimes they use it, sometimes they don't. Fortunately, I used to work in marketing, so I'm better at it than some authors.

 

[indianatrekker26]

i remember oh so many 90s novel back cover blurbs ending with, "could lead to the destruction of the Enterprise!"

 

[Therin of Andor]

And many rips or tears "in the fabric of space", IIRC.