The Mystery of the Book Blurb? Which Would You Choose for Me to Use, Dear Reader?
For an author, alas, it stays a mystery…
I have written over twenty books of fiction and every one of them has a book description, which is that 250-word blurb all books must have on the paperback back cover or attached to the eBook. No matter what the book is about, this blurb is considered a selling point along with front covers and genre. I think the sequence order for getting a potential buyer’s interest goes like this. There are 3 essential elements: Front Cover, Genre, Book Description.
Writers usually don’t choose their genres, but rather their genres choose them. So what’s next? It’s really front covers within that genre that stand out, depending on the creative skills and theme awareness of the chosen digital artist. Front covers are the gatekeepers to entice readers.
The 3rd element, the book description, is very different. It sends us, as writers, into the deep mystery of how do we condense an entire book of 300 pages into 250 words and still make the book appealing? How must we convey setting, characters, motivations, conflicts, and more when we have to make short shrift of months of writing and make it all into a “book blurb”? This is, for most writers, harder than writing the book in the first place! We want to…
