Elevator Pitches, Blogs, Blurbs and Reviews: SPOILERS from Authors’ and Readers’ Perspectives

By Catherine Kullman

“Write about the inspiration for your latest book,” Barbara Bos suggested.

“What is your [new] book about?” A seemingly innocent question that can put the heart across the most experienced author, and one that requires different answers depending on who is asking. If it is your editor or agent, they want a cogent, concise answer that captures the essence of the book, an elevator pitch they can use to promote your work.

Condense seventy thousand words into twenty-five, anyone? This is difficult enough if the book is finished, but if it is still in progress, and especially if you are a pantser rather than a plotter, you may not yet know the ending. You will do your best to come up with something that does not pin you down, but you can be frank with them. If there is a particular pivot, for example, you can say so without fear of your idea being stolen or your surprise twist being revealed. 

The day comes when you will be asked for a blurb. This is the description that will appear on the back of your book, in catalogues and online. The blurb must entice the reader without giving too much away. The secret here is to hint at plot twists without revealing them. And there you sit, staring at your screen, wondering how to reduce seventy thousand words to two hundred. 

You have a publication date and are now seriously promoting your book. You book a blog tour, perhaps, or put it on NetGalley. Now you are dependent on the kindness of strangers. You hope they will like it but will they respect your craft or give all its secrets away, the twists and turns you have designed to keep the reader interested and entertained to the end?

If you are fortunate, your books attract some attention and are being discussed in Readers’ Groups on social media. Here you must hope that the groups are well-mannered and disciplined, highlighting spoilers so those who have not yet read the book will avoid a particular discussion. And yet there is nothing more rewarding for an author to stumble upon than an intelligent, entertaining no-holds-barred discussion of your book between people who have read it and loved it, taken the time to appreciate the subtleties and twists and their own reaction to them.

All these thoughts go through my mind as I consider Barbara’s request. The first inspiration for my new book, Lord Frederick’s Return came from reading White Moghuls by William Dalrymple and William Hickey’s Memoirs of a Georgian Rake. I was fascinated by the thousands of people, mostly men, who undertook the arduous six-month sailing trip from England to India. Some went to seek their fortune, others were deployed as soldiers while yet others were black sheep whose behaviour was no longer tolerated at home. Some, like Hickey, went back and forth several times while others put down roots, creating a unique hybrid lifestyle that was neither fully English nor fully Indian. They had Anglo-Indian children; children whose father was British and whose mother was Indian. Many of these men never returned to Britain, either dying young or choosing to remain in their new home. But others did return ‘home’ to the UK, sometimes after decades of absence. What was it like for them, I wondered.

And so Lord Frederick appeared in my mind. The book is set in 1816, during the Regency, after the Napoleonic wars and still in the age of sail and horse. Here are the opening paragraphs:

His daughter in his arms, Lord Frederick Danlow stood on the deck of the East Indiaman, his gaze fixed on the receding coastline. Eighteen years away, far longer than he had expected, but the prolonged war with the French had played merry hell with the Company’s shipping between India and England, besides he had not envisaged becoming such a family man. He would have been content to grow old in India with Jiya but she had been cruelly taken from him and India had lost its savour.

With their twin sons, now young men of fifteen, suitably placed with their grandfather, they had been surprised but not displeased by the last, unexpected pregnancy and charmed by the gift of a daughter. Not long after her birth, Jiya had developed a high fever and within a day it was all over. The infant, hastily baptised Ruperta Fredericka Jiya by one of the Company’s chaplains, would have followed as quickly were it not for the quick-witted midwife who seemed to conjure from nowhere a wetnurse to complement the ayahs who had already been engaged in anticipation of the new arrival.

He had numbly played his part in the funeral rites, aware that to his British compatriots the death of an Indian bibi was scarcely worthy of notice and that the survival of a motherless girl child was equally insignificant. For the first time he thought of returning to Britain with the child. How old should she be before he braved a six-month voyage with her? Able to walk and talk, he thought, and heed instructions at least. That gave him a couple of years to plan; no harm he supposed, when he considered the preparations needed for a voyage of several months, not to mention the task of unravelling the fabric of his life here.

So there I have Frederick, setting out for England where he hopes to build a new life for himself and his daughter. The second inspiration was a ‘what if?’ What if, just as all is going smoothly in England, he is faced with an horrendous scandal in his family? How will he deal with it? 

And that’s my problem. I want this scandal to come completely out of the blue not only for the unwitting Frederick but also for the reader. I can control the blurb but I have no control over reviews and guest blogs. All I can do is appeal to reviewers and bloggers to avoid spoilers.

But am I right? My son quoted Spaceballs to me: ‘Unbeknownst to the princess but knownst to us, danger lurks in the stars above’. In the end, I settled for a hint of danger, a word to the wise.

Here is the blurb:

August 1816. Lord Frederick Danlow returns to England after spending 18 years in India. He plans to make a home for himself and his motherless, four-year-old daughter, Ruperta. Unsure where to start, he accepts an invitation to stay at Ponsonby Place, home of Colonel Jack Ponsonby who made his fortune in India, and his daughter Susannah, the mistress of the household.

Soon Frederick finds himself in need of a governess—and a wife? The more time he spends with Susannah, the more his admiration of her deepens. Is she the woman with whom he will share his life?

He is resolved to court her, but then his younger brother Henry engulfs his family in an appalling scandal that could prevent any lady from agreeing to a connection with it. Now Frederick must support his family during this ordeal.

But what of Susannah? What will she say when she hears of the scandal? Should he, dare he offer her his heart and his hand?

What would you prefer? Would you rather experience this shock together with Frederick or know what lies ahead for him, be complicit in my decision to confront him with this event over which he will have no control but will have to deal with its consequences? Please let me know in the comments below.

In the meantime, I am delighted to share with you the cover for Lord Frederick’s Return, the eBook of which is now available for pre-order at https://mybook.to/Frederick for publication on 22 July 2025.

Note: At present only the eBook is on pre-order. If you order eBooks from a different Amazon site to your home one, Lord Frederick’s Return will not show there and you will need to manually go to your eBook site to place your order

© Catherine Kullmann, June 2025

Catherine Kullmann was born and educated in Dublin. Following a three-year courtship conducted mostly by letter, she moved to Germany where she lived for twenty-five years before returning to Ireland. She has worked in the Irish and New Zealand public services and in the private sector. Widowed, she has three adult sons and two grandchildren.

She has always been interested in the extended Regency period, a time when the foundations of our modern world were laid. She loves writing and is particularly interested in what happens after the first happy end—how life goes on for the protagonists and sometimes catches up with them. Her books are set against a background of the offstage, Napoleonic wars and consider in particular the situation of women trapped in a patriarchal society.

She is the author of The Murmur of Masks, Perception & Illusion, A Suggestion of Scandal, The Duke’s Regret, The Potential for Love , A Comfortable Alliance , Lady Loring’s Dilemma and The Husband Criteria .

She also blogs about historical facts and trivia related to this era. You can find out more about Catherine’s books and read the blog (My Scrap Album) at her website where you can also subscribe to her newsletter.

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing