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"Many authors write the book blurb as an afterthought. But it is the single most important piece of writing you will do on your book"
"Many self-published authors try to squeeze too much into their blurbs. This can actually deter potential buyers from reading the blurb."
- Both quotes from the Author Society.
Apart from it giving us writers more headaches than the top ten causes of headaches in the google search engine, seriously go and see for yourself, LOL
Some say a Book Blurb is now expected in our query letters to Agents and for published authors it's just as important as the story and the book cover itself.
Truth be told a Book Blurb is the second thing readers look at when they consider buying your book. Plain and simple. They look at the cover first, then turn it over and look at the back. Lo and behold the Blurb they will glance at it and give it a quick skim. Then, they will read a few lines of your first page and decide to buy it or not. Or is that just me?
That's quite a lot to take in, hang on a minute I feel a Headache coming on. OUCH!!!
Let's simplify it...
A. Situation = Brief circumstance of your story.
B. Problem = What raises the stakes.
C. Hopeful possibility = How your Main Character will overcome the crisis.
D. Mood = How your readers will feel after they have read your story.
E. Everything else can wait.
F. Remember to make it short, use words suited for your desired readers and yes, open your blurb with a striking one liner.
G. And, Don't give too much away.
(I have untangled it the best I can from what I've found on the web, read in many books and remembering what I learnt studying)
Next, let's start with some examples, shall we?
Here are three examples, take your pick or feel free to use your own.
The Overlook Hotel claimed the most beautiful physical setting of any resort in the world; but Jack Torrance, the new winter caretaker, with his wife, Wendy and their five-year-old son Danny, saw much more than its splendor.
Jack saw the Overlook as an opportunity, a desperate way back from failure and despair; Wendy saw this lonely sanctuary as a frail chance to preserve their family; and Danny?....Danny, who was blessed or cursed with a shining, precognitive gift, saw visions hideously beyond the comprehension of a small boy. He sensed the evil coiled within the Overlook's one hundred and ten empty rooms; an evil that was waiting just for them.
The Shining, by Stephen King
Set amid the austere beauty of the North Carolina coast, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner recently returned form the Second World War. Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories...until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.
The Notebook, by Nicholas sparks
About three things I was absolutely positive.
First, Edward was a vampire.
Second, there was a part of him—and I didn't know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood.
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer
I want to know what stuck out at you? That made you want to read it? What persuaded you to buy it in the end? Put yourself in the readers shoes.
And if any of you want to add anything else, please do, we shall solve a Book Blurb the best we can between us, fingers crossed.
"Many self-published authors try to squeeze too much into their blurbs. This can actually deter potential buyers from reading the blurb."
- Both quotes from the Author Society.
What is a Book Blurb?
Apart from it giving us writers more headaches than the top ten causes of headaches in the google search engine, seriously go and see for yourself, LOL

Some say a Book Blurb is now expected in our query letters to Agents and for published authors it's just as important as the story and the book cover itself.
Truth be told a Book Blurb is the second thing readers look at when they consider buying your book. Plain and simple. They look at the cover first, then turn it over and look at the back. Lo and behold the Blurb they will glance at it and give it a quick skim. Then, they will read a few lines of your first page and decide to buy it or not. Or is that just me?
How to write a blurb that sells?
- Look at samples = Ones similar to your story/genre or the current bestseller, perhaps?
- Figure out your target audience = To help cater your words to suit your specific readers.
- Introduce your main characters = In the most interesting way possible.
- Use a formula = (a) Situation (b) Introduce a problem (c) Promise a twist (d) end with a sentence that highlights the mood of the story as a whole.
- Treat your first sentence like a pick-up line = It that case, it needs to be a good one then.
- Apparently using 'Hyperbole' can be a good thing = To spark curiosity and whatever else.
- Keep it short = 100 - 150 words is the norm and is actually correct.
- Stay true to your voice = We have to find that one ourselves, unfortunately.
- Use fresh eyes - So don't read it yourself or ask your family or friends, seriously don't do it.
- Rewrite it many times = So, don't blah and wing it, don't be hasty and don't treat it as an afterthought, take your time with it.
That's quite a lot to take in, hang on a minute I feel a Headache coming on. OUCH!!!
Let's simplify it...
A. Situation = Brief circumstance of your story.
B. Problem = What raises the stakes.
C. Hopeful possibility = How your Main Character will overcome the crisis.
D. Mood = How your readers will feel after they have read your story.
E. Everything else can wait.
F. Remember to make it short, use words suited for your desired readers and yes, open your blurb with a striking one liner.
G. And, Don't give too much away.
(I have untangled it the best I can from what I've found on the web, read in many books and remembering what I learnt studying)
Next, let's start with some examples, shall we?
Here are three examples, take your pick or feel free to use your own.
The Overlook Hotel claimed the most beautiful physical setting of any resort in the world; but Jack Torrance, the new winter caretaker, with his wife, Wendy and their five-year-old son Danny, saw much more than its splendor.
Jack saw the Overlook as an opportunity, a desperate way back from failure and despair; Wendy saw this lonely sanctuary as a frail chance to preserve their family; and Danny?....Danny, who was blessed or cursed with a shining, precognitive gift, saw visions hideously beyond the comprehension of a small boy. He sensed the evil coiled within the Overlook's one hundred and ten empty rooms; an evil that was waiting just for them.
The Shining, by Stephen King
Set amid the austere beauty of the North Carolina coast, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner recently returned form the Second World War. Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories...until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.
The Notebook, by Nicholas sparks
About three things I was absolutely positive.
First, Edward was a vampire.
Second, there was a part of him—and I didn't know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood.
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer
I want to know what stuck out at you? That made you want to read it? What persuaded you to buy it in the end? Put yourself in the readers shoes.
And if any of you want to add anything else, please do, we shall solve a Book Blurb the best we can between us, fingers crossed.
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