Imagine you are walking the aisles of a bookstore or a library: A great cover or a book title catches your eye. What do you do next? Most likely you will turn to the books’ backside and read the blurb to learn more about the books content. Same when you are browsing online retailers, such as Amazon, B&N, Chapters – you read the books’ description.
A superb blurb, full of brilliant keywords is the second most important sales pitch for your readers. Most important are certainly the books cover design and a catching title. Blurbs are not only sales pitches, they give the reader a comprehensive summary what the book is about and wet their appetite to read or buy the book. It should animate a reader to buy your book or at least go to the “Look Inside” section of an e-book or open the paper book and browse through the chapters.
How do you write good blurb?
1. Remember the famous “elevator pitch”, the summary you create to answer agents or publisher you meet in person or on the phone. These two or maximum three sentences which describe your book. Shorten this description even more and you have a blurb.
2. Go to a library or book store and check out the blurbs on books in your genre to get lots of ideas. When you write your own, end with a statement or question to entice the reader to read/buy the book.
3. Use catchy words that brings up images and resonate with readers of the genre. Examples: “packed with information”, “providing strategies” or a “treasure chest of…” for non-fiction and how-to-books. For fiction books “Masonic secrets, hidden esoteric wisdom” (from: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown),
4. And add a hint of the plot. “Marked for death, hired killers after them” (Guardian Angle by Marilynn Byerly). Or: “Secret experiment, tiny island, big mistake.” (Ancestor by Scott Sigler)
5. Don’t forget to let the blurb edit and spell-check like your books’ content. You will never have a second chance to make a good first impression!
Important: Do add a couple of endorsements from reviewers or other authors in your genre to your blurb before publishing the book. Asking others for blurbs needs sometimes a bit of friendly convincing. Have you ever offered someone else a blurb or a review? Be kind to your fellow writers!
Read more here how to write blurbs for a variety of genres:
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