WOS: The story's better than the summary! Really! I swear!

[jane_elliot]

A summary:

[character redacted] goes to a will reading from an old girlfriend and finds out he has a child. [pairing redacted] Sorry the summary stinks I really am but the storys better hopefully I hope

Hm.  Somehow I'm not holding out much hope that the story's better than the summary.

Comments

[jenna_marianne]

It would have been better if they just left it: "[character redacted] goes to a will reading from an old girlfriend and finds out he has a child."

Why throw in the rest; fishing for sympathy/compliments/reviews?

[jane_elliot]

I know! It's especially weird because the first sentence is grammatically correct and the child bit should be more than enough to draw in the story's intended audience. *sigh*

[terrie01]

These sorts of summaries baffle me. If your summary makes your story sound lame, why not just rewrite the summary? These aren't back of the book blubs that need to pull people in cold. If it's a pairing or genre that I like, I mainly check the summary for decent grammar and spelling, and for any hint of something I won't like, such as Mary Sues or bashing. But telling me the story is better than the summary makes a writer seem lazy or insecure.

[jane_elliot]

It was mentioned in another comment that possibly these authors are aiming for pity readers, which I can buy. Of course, that implies that the author is *very* young, but I figure that was equally implied by the actual summary:)