[Joseph Rhea]

Do you have a one- or two-sentence "Tagline" for your book (or series)? Look here if you don't know what a tagline is).

I'm thinking of adding an "Indie Promotion" page to my website (www.JosephRhea.com) and though maybe I would list all of your Taglines instead of dealing with banners. They are easier to import and are easily readable at any resolution (including mobile phones) and also in gray-scale (for kindles). I'm not doing this just yet, so don't bother adding hyperlinks right now. I will post a new thread when I'm ready to add taglines to my site. Right now I just wanted to see what others have come up with...

So, after years of trial and error (I'm either very slow or a perfectionist--maybe both) the two that I came up with for Cyberdrome are:

[short, movie-poster style]
A disturbing glimpse into a digital future, not far from now.

[more descriptive, and what I use on my banner]
When Earth is threatened by a deadly plague, one man enters a virtual world to find the key to humanity's survival. Will he find it in time?

Let see yours now. Maybe we can also comment on each others, since constructive feedback is always nice.
Joe

 

[Joseph Rhea]

The ones posted so far all sound good.

On the side-subject of listing fellow author's taglines on their websites (instead of banners) has anyone done this?
I like to support my fellow Indies but I also know I have limited time to crop a hundred banner images to fit my space, etc., so I thought this might be a nice alternative. Plus, since the page would be text-based, there is probably something java-based I could write to randomly "promote" one of the taglines (i.e make it bigger and at the top of the page for a while). I haven't worked out the details yet, but it shouldn't be hard. I'll probably have to set some sort of limit as well, such as the first 100 taglines I receive (once I start this--not now)...

Anyway, let's see some more...

 

[Joseph Rhea]

I LOVE Taglines!

Mine are:

Sex, Love, Betrayal: It all begins with An Unexpected Obsession.

In every perfect life, there comes a time for A Dose of Reality.

Hey, I love how you worked your titles right into your taglines. Very clever!

 

[Joseph Rhea]

Another place (besides banners) where you might use a short tagline is Shelfari.com where you have to write what they call a "Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis" of your book in 140 characters or less. As Shelfari material now shows up on many Amazon pages, it is another good thing to have. My 140-char synopsis is: When Earth is threatened by a deadly plague, one man enters a virtual world to find the key to humanity's survival. which is just my normal tagline minus the final question, "Will he find it in time?"

I think most people would aim for a catchy phrase that makes the casual browser want to check out the book. I, instead, really aimed for something would describe my book as quickly as possible. My story starts with a plague threatening mankind, but the "meat" of the story involves the protagonist going inside a virtual reality to find a solution to the Earth's threat (and time is running out.) So, my tagline gets all of those key points.

I could probably write something much more catchy, but after 4,000 sales (when I only expected to sell a few hundred) I now want to concentrate on attracting readers who might like the book, not everyone passing by. But that's just me...

 

[Joseph Rhea]

Any others?

 

[Joseph Rhea]

If some of you are having difficulty coming up with a good tagline for your story, remember that even film makers, who do this sort of thing for a living, sometimes have difficulties. Below are some notable "failure" taglines from an article in the Hufington Post last year.

Silent Rage - "Science Created Him. Now Chuck Norris Must Destroy Him"

Suspiria - "The Only Thing More Terrifying Than The Last 12 Minutes Of This Film Are The First 92"
(note the film only runs 98 minutes)

Clash Of The Titans - "Titans Will Clash"

Life Is Hot In Cracktown - "Be cool. You're so cool. Life is cool in Cracktown."

Malone - "EX-COP. EX-CIA. EX-PLOSIVE."

and my favorite:
Crank - "He Was Dead... But He Got Better"