Don't trust the blurb

Funny how the blurb doesn't always match the book, isn't it. A couple of posts back I mentioned my recent novel Close Enemies, which is all about diplomatic action in the fictional African country of Rezengiland. Except it isn't. Well it is, but ...

Okay, when I wrote the book, the place really was called Rezengiland. But late on in the editing process it got changed to the Republic of Limpopo. Trouble is, by then the blurbs had all been written. So if you look it up on the web (yes, even on my own website) you'll find the old name stands. It's even on the back of the paperback edition, despite what's written inside. Publishing is all about dots, you see, and sometimes they don't all join up.

Something similiar happened with my earlier novel Stone and Sun. I had a character called Tom Steppe, but changed his changed at the eleventh hour to Tom Coyote. Unfortunately, all the advance blurbs had gone out to the book press and retailers, so for a while both names were flying around.

It just goes to show you can't trust anything you read in the media - or even necessarily on the back of a book. Your best bet is to buy the damn book and read it for yourself!