Writing a book is the fun part of the process and the cover art is part of the fun as well. However, besides editing your book coming up with a catchy book blurb can be frustrating. In fact, it can be the hardest part of the process, after all, this is the first thing a potential reader will see besides your cover and preview. If your blurb sucks the person will probably ignore your preview altogether. According to my experiences, people don't necessarily read the preview. That's not to say no one does, but most casual readers ignore the preview and read the blurb. Think of your book blurb as your biggest marketing tool once you get your potential reader to your book page whether it be Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play or Kobo. If you take a look at the picture above it gives you a pretty good idea of what to do to make a good book blurb. However, there are some finer details that I would like to discuss that can enhance your blurb. Here are the 5 steps in my opinion that you should follow and what not to do, which even I'm guilty of doing as well. It's part of the learning process, so let's get started shall we?

 

  1. Introduce the main character(s): This is where you want to have one to two sentences         about the protagonist (Hero in fiction) and the antagonist (Villian in Fiction). Give the         reader some background about the main character(s) such as their role and profession.       However, keep it short and sweet or you'll risk rambling on the story without getting to     the meat of the story. The trick here is to keep the facts interesting and tell the reader           what makes the character(s) stand out from other stories. You can talk about any         supporting characters, but only if they play a major role. No need to waste valuable           words on characters that no one will really care about even as they read the story             although they may play a role in the story.

 

  2. Set the scene: This can be tricky especially if your book has many settings. In this part, you     want to give the reader a sense of what the world is like and what role will it play               towards the story. Answer this question is the setting just a world or is it an integral part     of the story. If the latter fits your book, include it. Make each character count! Remember the golden rule, only put in the major parts leaving the finer details out of the way.

 

  3. Discuss the plot: In a short and simple manner discuss the problem and the actual plot of     the story. Here is where many writers mess up at, even I'm guilty of this. Some authors               misunderstand what a book blurb is. These same people believe that a blurb is a summary of the book. This information is false, that would be a synopsis and nobody want to read that. The blurb is meant to make the reader use their imagination to build a prediction on what is going to happen based on what's written on it. Instead give a quick summary of the main parts of the story and the most interesting parts of the story. Keep finer details to the reader to find out as he/she reads.

 

  4. Your final part of the blurb should be your "punch line" or what do you want your readers to take out of your blurb. This should be the big question that will be answered in the book. In otherwords, this is where you need to put your pitch line and hit your audience with what separates your story from the others in your genre. This is especially important for those authors that are writing fiction since it is a very competitive market. Think of this like the last quarter of a football or basketball game.

 

   5. Don't write your blurb after you write your story: Contrary to popular belief you want to have your blurb written way before your book is done. There are two reasons for this. One is because you're simply exhausted from writing and editing your story that your blurb may not come out right because you're in a rush to get the book out. The second reason is because is much more practical to have your blurb done already that way you can make sure that your story is matching up to your blurb and your desires. Also, it's one less thing to worry about when writing, you can just write on without worry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is my book page for my best-selling book "The Thousand Years War" and to be fair the book is really that good. However, I want you to read the blurb and see why people tell me is a good read without even reading the book yet. Now I will say this isn't the best blurb, but it gets the job done. It tackles the main characters, the storyline and it has the punchline towards the end. Is it a little long? Yes, it is a bit long, but that's ok. It's better to have it a little longer than too short and miss out on vital details. As a bonus in my case, my idea of the story is just really good.

If you have a groundbreaking story idea you might get away with a sub-par blurb as the story idea itself may be enough to gain interest. I still recommend a good blurb. If you're like everyone else and your idea may sound a little too generic then your blurb will be more crucial to nail. At the end of the day if your book really is that good then that will help you more along with great reviews for your book to succeed. I hope you enjoyed this article and you'll find the advice here useful for writing your next book blurb. As always if you have any questions, comments or anything you like to add to this post drop us an email under the contact us tab on the main menu. So get busy writing the next great book blurb!

 

The example that was used in the post comes from the amazon book page for "The Thousand Years War". If you want more information or if the blurb caught your attention, you can check it out under "Angel Ramon Medina's books" under the books tab.

You can also click on the respective store that you wish to check the book out or purchase it!