Summery of The Thief

[rose-amidlilies.livejournal.com]

 So, I recently got a job at Chapters (part of Indigo, the largest book chain in Canada) and as an employee I can recommend a book. Of course, I want to recommend The Thief, it will get more copies in the store (there were only two, but I recommended it to someone and now there is only one left) and because I recommend it I am expected to try and sell it. 

Here is where I need help: I need to submit a summery of the book to be put on display, but I need to think of one that conveys the awesomeness of the book without giving anything away, and for some reason I think that "this book is soooooo awesome and you need to read it but I can't tell you anything about it!!!!!!!!" just isn't  what they're looking for. Any ideas? 

Comments

Chapters? Really?

[chubbyleng.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised that Chapters has a copy of the book!!! A few months ago, I was hunting down the series in all the Chapters nearby, and only the one in Eaton's Center had it (I didn't even know it was there; when I spotted them I basically shoved all the little kids aside and snatched them away). One copy for each, and when I bought them, there was basically none left. -__-

Yeah, I agree about the difficulty of giving a summary. I had a hard time pitching it to my friends and my sister because I didn't want to spoil anything. One thing that made me pick up the book though when I found it last year was that many of the amazon . com reviewers commented on Gen's personality, and I was SOLD. So maybe you can focus on his awesome cunningness? Also the adventure was quite ambiguous in the beginning, right? We don't know what they were searching for and why, and what were Gen's real motives and stuff. Maybe having an air of mystery will also intrigue other readers?

Re: Chapters? Really?

[rose-amidlilies.livejournal.com]

I was surprised to, but when CoK came out they got more copies of the other books too, now the one I work at has only one copy of The Thief and two of CoK

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Look for reviews on the Web and go from there.

(A tall, lean, pedantic chap -- with unruly light-colored hair, a great many pockets overflowing with markers, pens, and slips of paper, and a striped scarf that brushes the floor at both ends -- approaches thnidu and asks to take over the keyboard for a few moments.)

The word is "summary", with an "a". "Summery" is the opposite of "wintry".

He bows and departs, leaving a card:
Dr. Whom
Consulting Linguist, Grammarian
Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

*thinks you are charming*

[rose-amidlilies.livejournal.com]

lol, thanks, I can't spell to save my life and I knew that word was spelt wrong, but spellcheck wasn't helping. It was really bugging me.

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, but--while we're on the subject of proper English--I might as well add that commas and periods go inside the quotation marks. ;)

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I think there's a difference between American/Canadian and British/other English usage in that respect.

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...according to google results you are correct. Forgive me.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I can steal anything.

So brags expert street thief, Gen, till he is arrested and locked in the king's dungeons for swiping the royal seal ring; but as it turns out, the king isn't done with him just yet. Offered a chance at freedom from the Magus, the king's scholar and second-in-command, Gen must meet only one condition: steal something that isn't suppose to exist. But why is the king of Sounis after this famous relic to begin with, and why is a certain thief so anxious to steal it? Danger is everywhere and nothing is as it seems in Megan Whalen Turner's award winning novel, The Thief.

Something like that?

[rose-amidlilies.livejournal.com]

ooooooo, that does sound good! thanks! :)

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

Or you could just quote the first page or so--I've always found that an awesome hook without giving away too much.

[elle-winters.livejournal.com]

Awesome hook


xD

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

Wait...wow. I didn't even think of that. Now I'm cracking myself up.

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Gen's hook IS kind of awesome, with its funerary arrangementness and all.

[crazededdisian.livejournal.com]

Good idea! I think maybe now I shall get around to memorizing the first chapter. As a start! :)

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

You could try something about how Gen is a thief released from prison to steal something for the king, although what he has to steal is initially a secret, but that's okay because he has plenty of secrets of his own. And the say something about his super-snarky voice.

Or, this is kinda crazy, but I wonder if you could introduce people to the series through KoA? Draw in more "sophisticated" readers who might look past The Thief because it is more a middle-grades novel. Also because I think Costis might actually draw some people in faster than Gen did. I did not like Gen at first, and I get bored during traveling-somewhere stories if I don't love the characters, and very well might not have finished the book if I wasn't reading it as a favor to a friend. Just an idea.

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

More thoughts: You probably don't want an actual summary. One, summaries tell what happens too much. Two, they are too long. You want to grab the browsing reader's attention. Make sure your first sentence includes some of the best parts - and not just the parts that we all love later, but the parts that would suck someone who is going to like the book in. What is going to make someone pick up the book? I don't know if it's just me, but the chronological setting, the pantheon, and the fact that there's a guy named Magus are not things that make me go, "Ooh, gotta read that!" Those are icing on the cake of awesome character and complexity and twistiness. Basically no one on that little journey is exactly who they initially seem. That is cool. All the olives and stuff? Become cool by proxy.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I reviewed The Thief for my writing club, and while it's nothing that hasn't been said before (and better) by others, you're welcome to glean some ideas from these snippets:

Gen’s world is best described as Ancient Greece-going-on-Renaissance, with guns and pocket watches being everyday items and a religion celebrating a myriad of gods and goddesses. In Gen’s universe, these deities are living, breathing personages with an active interest in the affairs of humans, and the patron god of thieves is no exception when it comes to meddling.

Gen, in his own words, can steal anything. To prove it, he has snatched the king of Sounis’ seal ring out from under the nose of the king’s most trusted servant, the magus—only to be caught when he brags about it afterward. While Gen contemplates ways to steal himself out of prison, his enemy has plans to put the thief’s light-fingered skills to use. Gen finds himself in the custody of the magus and on his way to another land to steal a legendary treasure…never failing to carry out his own objectives along the way.

Go forth and create new fans! =)

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I presented these books to one of my classes two semesters ago (it was in French, so I got to pick the subject as long as I talked in French, thus explaining how I managed to sneak the QT series into a university class! mwahaha). I said something basically along the lines of,

In the kingdom of Sounis, an imprisoned thief makes a deal to win his freedom: the king wants an artifact from a neighboring kingdom ruled by a ruthless queen, and Gen agrees to steal it for him. Under the watchful eye of one of the king's advisor, Gen travels to Attolia in search of the artifact, but what he hasn't realized is that the gods who created it have taken an interest in his quest... and what no one realizes is that Gen is no ordinary criminal.

It gets dangerously close to giving away the Secret, but I figured it was worth it if it piqued a few more people's interest. Yours to use if you want it. Also, I have to agree with what stubefied_by_gd said, that the setting which somehow appears in every summary's first sentence isn't really what drew me to the book. But how to fit character description into a blurb...? Hmm. I can't see it going over well to describe Gen as "charismatic, but sarcastic and rude, but also really sweet and brave! But cowardly in a good way. But daring! But superstitious. But that's because the gods are real in his world so it's not technically superstition anyway. And besides, he's charming! Even though he's stubborn to a fault. And constantly has to push people's buttons. And sulks when he doesn't get his way. Plus he's vain, petty, and maddening. But that's part of the charm!" etc.

I sort of think that might confuse them.

[rose-amidlilies.livejournal.com]

lol, it probably would but I love the character description...

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

Yay! More Canadians! If you don't mind my asking, which chapters do you work at? I have friends who work at the Montreal St Catherine one. :)

Also, kudos for selling the book. When CoK came out, there was only ONE COPY in all of Montreal (which I got, of course), so I don't think Chapters is exactly kind to our favourite series.

[rose-amidlilies.livejournal.com]

I work at the Chapters in Sherwood Park Alberta.
And I sold the last copy today, so now I really need to make it a staff pick to it's in stock for me to sell...

[amolegere.livejournal.com]

Yay Chapters! Yeah, the ones in Vancouver get the series... on the bottom shelf in a hidden away corner... They were very patient with the insane girl who came running into their store the minute they opened on the day CoK was released. They kindly explained that the book was nowhere in Vancouver, so I had to go to Richmond, where they HAD it, but in the back room. But the super nice lady went and found it for me.

[ballerina-222.livejournal.com]

That's funny, because I got CoK in Vancouver as well, but I got it from the Chapters on Granville. They had all the books and I got them all that day :) But they were in the kids section and I had to have a person help me find them!

[kaeyko.livejournal.com]

Ah... so you're the mystery person who emptied the shelves of those wonderful books...

(Nah, I'm just joking. I'm just remembering how I went to the one on Granville to find a paperback copy of KoA for the Eddis short story and there wasn't one. I had to go down to the one on Robson...)


Yay Vancouver readers!

[ballerina-222.livejournal.com]

Another Vancouver person! yay! Well I bought the books in April, or late March last year, so if you were at the store around the same time then yes it was me who bought the copies! I think they only had one? Which is fairly stupid, in my opinion. My copy totally has the short story! I was excited to get the paperbacks because they all have something like that. But I love my hardcover CoK.

[ballerina-222.livejournal.com]

Yeah I wanted to have my own copies of the books, since I know I'll be re-reading them lots in the future.

[kaeyko.livejournal.com]

I really need to be careful about deleting and reposting. (now people need to read down, then up. XP That should be interesting...)

Ooh, I've been picky about books for my own collection, particularly since the majority of them are books I've accumulated from my university courses. But after reading the series, these are books I definitely want to include.

[kaeyko.livejournal.com]

I actually went in January (I think...) this year. And it all started because I was at the Central library and (after many years of avoiding them for some reason) had the inexplicable compulsion to borrow QoA and KoA to read for the first time.

Which led to obsessive compulsion to get CoA and The Thief to read (since I hadn't read those either), which then leads to the story regarding finding the Eddis short story. XD

[amolegere.livejournal.com]

They have them now, it's just that I foolishly went on the release day so their copies of CoK hadn't gotten there yet. Richmond was the only one to get them on the release day. Sadness Vancouver.

[ballerina-222.livejournal.com]

that is kind of sad. I've found Chapters to be a little slow with newly released books as well, if they aren't as popular as some. I went for one book a while ago that had come out 5 days before I went to the store and it wasn't on the shelf yet, although they did have it. At least now I'll know not to go to Chapters on the day the next book comes out... whenever that is.