Backmatter

For those of you out there who do not think that is a word, it is! Backmatter: The words on the back of a book. For some reason I find them extremely important and entertaining. I am a self-confessed backmatter lover. Yes, I will buy books solely on the basis of the backmatter. There are times when I go into the bookstore without any idea of what I’m going to buy. I just want to walk around and read backmatters. (We all have our own ways of being adventurous.)
But the love of backmatters does not merely center on buying books. I just like reading them for the fun of it. Even if it’s a book I know I’m never going to read, I like to see what’s out there, what authors are coming up with, what sells and doesn’t sell. Ask any member of my family and they’ll tell you that if we walk by a shelf of books in any store they are probably going to lose me.
I don’t know why, but it’s sort of recreational for me. I don’t care if that sounds weird. ;)
But having said that, I’m sure you’ll at least understand what I mean when I said I agonized over what went on the back of my book. It took me weeks of writing and then going back and forth with my editor before I had one that I was satisfied with. At one point she sent me her ideas to which I had to reply, “Um, you just gave the whole mystery away…” lol
Ah, well. You’ll just have read my backmatter and decide for yourself whether it sounds interesting.
http://www.emilyannbenedict.com/books.html
As for me, I know I’m going to Sam’s Club later this week and I know there’s a large shelf of books waiting for me to turn them over and read. :D