Writing a Fiction Blurb

You’re on the hunt for a good story. A cover catches your eye and you pick up the book and turn it over, or click the link. You read the back cover blurb or the book’s description. Nah, not for me. You put the book down or hit the back button.

Whoa! Why?
The blurb.

Even if you’ve written an amazing story and have a fabulous cover, a dull blurb can keep your book out of a reader’s shopping basket.

What is a Blurb?

Readers want a reason to buy your book, but to convince them, you need to give them a taste of what to expect from your story. Enough to whet the appetite, but not so much you give away spoilers. Remember, your blurb is not a synopsis.

The blurb is the primary advertisement for your book. If the blurb doesn’t sell your story, you may have trouble convincing your friends and family to buy your book. The readers who have never heard of you? They’ll continue to hunt for the next great story.

What’s in a Blurb?

In your blurb, you need to convey to your potential reader who your character is, what they want, and what happens if they don’t get what they want. In other words, the character, the conflict, and the stakes. Additionally, you’ll want to convey why your book is unique or interesting, and use genre-appropriate keywords as a call to action.

How do I craft a Blurb?

First, look at the blurbs of other books in your genre. What do they all have in common? When you read the blurbs, why are you attracted to some and not others? Take notes of what you find appealing.

Next, think about why a reader would enjoy your book. Because your blurb is a teaser, you’ll need to figure out your hook. Your hook is what makes your book different and more interesting from other, similar books.

To write your blurb, introduce your character, what they want, and what happens if they don’t get it. Next, tell your reader what experience they can expect if they choose your book. This is the call to action for the reader and where you use those genre-appropriate keywords. Keep your blurb between 100-200 words.

My Blurb Writing Experience

I found writing the blurb for Oil and Dust difficult. Listing my character, his goals, the stakes, and teasing the choice he must make was straightforward. However, crafting the language so it fit the tone of my book and didn’t sound like a dry summary of the story was challenging.

What made my book different? Which aspect of my protagonist should I focus on? How could I ensure my blurb was effective? After all, blurb writing is marketing, not storytelling.

I decided to test what I’d written by comparing my blurb to others. However, because my book is a genre mashup, I didn’t have other back cover copy to compare my book to. Instead, I turned to two professional blurb writers.

Get Help from Professionals

The first professional I chose to work with was a seller on Fiverr.com who primarily writes non-fiction book blurbs. The seller has a lot of positive reviews and I was interested in how they would market my book. The second professional was Ryan Lanz from A Writer’s Path. Ryan runs a one-stop-shop for writers and offers services including Blurb Writing, Copyediting, Proofreading, and Formatting, among others. His blog is terrific- full of information for writers.

I sent the same synopsis to both professionals, and from each, received a word document as a deliverable. Both delivered within the timeframe they’d promised (Ryan actually delivered ahead of schedule), and both offered revisions if needed.

From the Fiverr seller, I received a blurb, a call-to-action in a bullet point list, and the HTML code of the blurb to upload to Amazon. From Ryan, I received three blurbs. The first had more detail and a tag line, the second had medium detail and a finisher line, and the third had sparse detail and a tag line but no finisher line. Ryan also provided five book marketing lines.

Ryan’s blurbs demonstrated a better understanding of the story, and his blurbs demonstrated how plot and pacing can be condensed. His blurbs were better written and “felt” right. What I liked about the Fiverr deliverable was how it focused on the reader experience. Though the Fiverr deliverable was short on the story it sold, it was big on the value the story provided to a potential reader.

Was it Worth It?

For me, the exercise was valuable. When I compared my blurb to the other two, I could see how mine better captured the tone and feel of the book. However, I was telling a condensed version of my story and not writing a good advertisement for my book. I hadn’t considered marketing lines, or how I’d enervate a potential reader into purchasing my book. Additionally, both of the professionals emphasized aspects of the story my blurb hadn’t covered.

Most significantly, because both of the professional blurbs focused on the post-apocalyptic aspect of my story, I learned I shouldn’t market my book to fans of post-apocalyptic novels.

Wait, what?

Yep. Even though my novel’s setting is a far-future post-apocalyptic landscape, the future is (seemingly) utopian and survival is not the focus. Because my book doesn’t follow post-apocalyptic genre conventions, I’d likely alienate readers who read post-apocalyptic fiction because they like the genre conventions.

This was huge. Without seeing how these professionals marketed my book, I would have put it into the fantasy and post-apocalyptic categories, and had some very upset readers.  I now know I have to downplay the post-apocalyptic setting and emphasize the protagonist’s personality, magic, and lifestyle.

To write my next (hopefully final) blurb, I plan to take what I liked the best from each of these three blurbs. I’ve learned I need to keep it short, keep it sweet, ensure the tone of my blurb matches the tone of my book, and make sure the blurb sells my story.

Have you written blurbs for your books? What’s your experience been?

Header Photo by Streetwindy on Unsplash