I have been looking at taglines in the fantasy genres that are closest to my book, particularly at indy authors, to find the common themes.
The first thing I notes was that fantasy novels do not put the tagline on the cover, like other genres seem to do (and like what showed up in the How to Write a Bestseller course). The closest thing to a tagline that I see is the 1-2 line bold description at the top of the Amazon sales page.
A few of them have gone the way of editorial reviews, but that’s obviously something that I can throw out. I am looking for the descriptions.
So far, I have identified that the common theme is hinting at pending change on an epic scale. “Brink of rebellion” (rebellion, itself, shows up often), and “prophecy” both appear multiple times. There’s a common theme that the leader of the hero’s own country is corrupt or evil. I guess we like overthrowing our own kings (which is good, because my book falls into that category). Hints of war or rising evil are common, too.
The hero rarely seems to be described beyond a “character class”, so to speak. “Misfit” or “ranger” or “assassin” seem to be about the extent of the depth. Maybe a hint of what makes them special, but often that is covered simply by the contrast with the setting, above.
So, that’s the idea I have for what I need to generate for a tagline. I need something that describes my hero in contrast with her setting to establish the potential conflict. Hopefully in a way that also sets up an intriguing mystery about how my character might solve that conflict.
This does not sound easy.