Sum it up and make it sing!
What is a Book Blurb?
A book blurb is a short description of your book meant to entice readers into buying it. Much like the product description for things like lawn mowers or pens, the description should give a decent idea of what kind of experience a reader is going to have if they decide to read this book.
Who Needs a Book Blurb?
If you’re writing a book, it helps to consider writing your blurb (or hiring a copywriter to do it for you) as just another part of the book development and promotion processes.
When Should I Write My Blurb?
Many people choose to write their book blurb after they have completed their manuscript and had their book developmentally edited by a professional. If this is what you choose to do, go for it!
However, keep in mind that it can be helpful to write the blurb before you start writing your manuscript. This is because having the blurb already created as you’re writing (along with a fleshed out premise and a solid outline) can help you write a book that reflects that blurb. You can actually write with the blurb in mind so that you inject the selling points highlighted in the blurb into your content or punch them up, as needed. Think of your manuscript as a business or nonprofit and your blurb as the mission statement. While you can certainly write your mission statement after you’ve started operations and have a few clients under your belt, how much more helpful might it be to have the mission statement written first and then operate the enterprise in a way that reflects those values?
How Do I Write a Blurb?
One of the easiest ways to write a good blurb is to mimic the format from books that you’ve recently purchased or that have a blurb that you particularly like.
For example, you may be writing a new version of Snow White that is a comedy. But the last romantic comedy you read was Breaking the Billionaire’s Rules by Annika Martin. Take that blurb and use it as a model for your own. So it might end up looking something like this:
Go to the woods. Reject the huntsman’s advances. Get to an outhouse.
I love being a princess, but dealing with everybody from my handmaiden to the stable boy wanting to have sex with me is getting tiresome.
I’m like Aphrodite but I wish I were more like Medusa.
And no one seems to recognize that being allergic to dairy, when all our kingdom produces is cheese, milk, and cream makes me a disaster to live with.
Now the huntsman has “something to discuss” in the middle of the forest on a day when I just finished a royal ice cream tasting at the kingdom fair.
But he’s nice, and I’m a princess so I have to be nice, and I know if I don’t stop whatever he has fantasized about our relationship it will just make things worse in the long run.
But when he tries to slit my throat when we’re alone, a slippery bit of foul flatulence startles both of us and gives me a chance to escape with my life.
What would possess him to do such a thing—or who would order it done—and who do I have to screw to find some blackberry leaves around here?!
Remember that you’ll adjust the blurb as you develop your manuscript, but this gives you an idea of the tone you’re looking to strike as you write.
What’s Included in a Blurb?
Some authors opt for longer blurbs that look more like synopses. But, generally, a blurb is meant to describe the setup of the story in a nutshell. In the previous example, we know that we’re dealing with a smoking hot princess who is lactose intolerant and now has people among her own staff trying to murder her. But that doesn’t tell us why the huntsman tried to kill her, what she’s going to do now, or if she’s going to find a bathroom in time to avoid an unfortunate toilet problem. All those other details remain tucked inside the book itself.
If you were using the three-act structure, a blurb probably wouldn’t go past Act I. Maybe the first half of the first act. That first moment when the plot becomes clear so that we know who our MC is (a sexy, lactose-intolerance princess), the inciting incident (a servant trying to murder her), and what their goal is (to find a toilet / find out why he tried to murder her).
Another way to look at it is like a trailer for your book. You want people to get a sense of the story without giving it all away. The blurb (like a movie trailer) is not supposed to be the entire movie, it’s just supposed to give you some glimpses into what’s included to help persuade someone to make the purchase (of tickets / of the book).
Once you’ve found a few books in your genre, studied their blurbs (what’s included AND what isn’t!), and crafted your own, it’s time to move on to creating a strong outline. Or, if you’re reading this after finishing your manuscript, you may want to skip to the Publication lesson.