Your book blurb aka online description, like your dating profile. Books also have a blurb about the author to help others learn. Basically, the name of the game with a blurb is to entice readers to buy your book. As the author of the work you will be very close to your manuscript and getting feedback on your blurb will be helpful. Jeff has also served on the nominating committee of the rock and roll hall of fame and as a consultant to the grammys. Perhaps, sometimes, they should be more selective about what they actually write, too. Nowadays, every writer needs to have some involvement in the promotion of their work. Make sure you supply me with a general synopsis as well. Readers nowadays have a bewilderingly large selection of books in various formats to choose from. A simple outline for writing a killer book blurb ink and. Your book blurb must be wellwritten to get a readers attention. Writing a short book blurb is not only fun, but great practice for writing promotional copy of any kind. Welcome to our fall 2019 series, promoting your book.
Easy to share, ebooks can be viewed on the apple ipad and kindle. To write a good blurb, you have to make it short and exciting, yet relevant. Say, students, read the blurb on the back of your book and be ready to talk about what is happening or what you expect is going to happen in your book based on what the blurb says. Your blurb will be an important part of your marketing. Get a professionally written book blurb that will sell. Professionalquality photo books for creative expressions of all kinds. Popular great blurbs books meet your next favorite book. A useful worksheet to help your children understand book blurbs and help them write their own. How to write a book blurb in 4 steps the opening of your blurb has to be incredibly precise and dynamic, says editor rebecca heyman for a lot of firsttime authors, i think theres an instinct to make sure readers understand everything that happened in the books universe before the beginning of the actual story. The potential problem there, though, is that certain words become popular on book blurbs, and by the time your own book comes out that word has become a cliche. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Youve snagged a prospective date by your alluring cover, so now youve got to show theres more than just surface appeal.
Great ideas to write a blurb that works for your book. This article gives you simple steps to follow to write a book blurb, and gives examples of both fiction and nonfiction back cover blurbs. I started by thinking about what types of people would convey credibility and help convince potential readers my. The magazine format offers a sleek solution to serial content. In this series, the sites regular columnists will discuss an element of marketing thats worked for them. This means if you know what genre your book is, you can follow a pretty standard template for writing your book blurb and yes i know this is easier said than done, but if everything was as easy as it should be, brexit would be last week, climate change deniers would. Print as you go sell one copy at a time and let blurb fulfill the orders or place a large order and sell inperson.
Over the past few weeks ive been revisiting a series on book blurbs, and specifically, how they generally follow genre rules. The curious history of book blurbs and why theyre still. Powered by create your own unique website with customizable templates. Book blurbs is designed to help you navigate the sea of literature available to your children. Fifth grade lesson the blurb on the back betterlesson. Blurbs are short synopses with cliffhanger endings. The badly done blurbs have risen once again to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting synopses of innocent books. For shorter fiction the word count can run from 100 to 250 words. How to write a book blurb part 3 tara sparling writes. Many people read book blurbs to see if its something they will enjoy, so its important to write one that grabs peoples attention and hooks them. Reviews to help you choose picture books, childrens literature, young adult fiction, fiction and nonfiction. Its briefno more than 100150 wordsand creates interest in the story without giving away major spoilers or the ending. Ideally, this series will give marketing novices a starting. How to write a book blurb in 4 steps the opening of your blurb has to be incredibly precise and dynamic, says editor rebecca heyman.
This is a nonfiction book, so i decided to look for experts or industry professionals to blurb my book. All you have to do is provide me with some information and i will write one undeniably catchy blurb. How to get incredible blurbs for your book scribe writing. For a 70,000100,000 word story, word count of the blurb can be up to 300 words again, check out blurbs of actual books within your subgenre. Writing a book blurb is a little like online dating, i suppose. Give them a few minutes to figure out tricky words and to synthesize the information.
The iconic lyrics to the song, in the year 2525, by zager and evans. You cant expect to write a fabulous blurb in an hour, it may take many rewrites before you feel the blurb hooks your reader in. Write an intriguing blurb for your book by catwriter. Putting blurbs in the book description or the about the book section can add a lot of social proof to the book. This short video is brought to you by publishnation. How to write a book blurb by far, the weakest part of many selfpublished books is the synopsis found on amazon and elsewhere. It uses twilight as an example, but dont hold that against me. Blurb is here to help you turn your ideas into professionalquality books, magazines, or ebooks.
How to write a book blurb that sells not just another. The key with fiction is to excite and engage your reader. Youll also find some useful links to websites with further information. For obvious reasons, established writers are usually very selective about which novels theyll blurb.
If you have a lot of blurbs, you can put them on their own pages, usually right at the beginning of the book. Its safe to say that a wellwritten blurb is absolutely essential to your poetry books overall success and reputation. Affordable paperbacks and hardcoverspriced to sell. How to write an irresistible book synopsis duration. You have one shot at introducing your story to your reader make it count. Learn what you should and shouldnt do to promote your book. Unfortunately, while most authors will hire a professional to create their cover, very few hire a professional to write their book description. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dustjacket of a book, and are now found on web portals and news websites. View it here as youll recall from our previous blog post, the second thing that sells a reader on your book is the cover copyyour book description you may have the best hook on the first page of your book, the first sentence evenbut what if no one. Your book description on amazon has to hook your readers immediately and get them to buy the book before they click away and read something else. Another favorite song from my youth see this article for the other song was in the year 2525 by zager and evans, which was a great hit in 1969. Two book blurbs same book, two blurbs to choose from, up to 200 words each. Get a 1year pass to, a 1year subscription to writers digest magazine and 10% off all orders.
The blurb of your book is the second thing a potential reader will look at after the coverso take the time to get it right. How to create a back book cover blurb that sells i just published a guest post which goes into this with some examples. This is a threepart series on getting a reader to buy your book. Bear in mind that such blurbs are often read in crowded places particularly beloved of pickpockets, with shoppers jostling round you whilst your other purchases dangle from your other hand, and that books are often heavy and thus difficult to hold for a. In the year 2525 is a 1968 hit song by the american poprock duo of zager and evans. As before, well be putting the actual synopses in spoiler tags below our synopses.
For a lot of firsttime authors, i think theres an instinct to make sure readers understand everything that happened in the book s universe before the beginning of the actual story. The curious history of book blurbs and why theyre still around those snippets of praise on book covers have been around for over 150 years at least. Such a pill may not dictate the contents of the book to be written, but it. How to write a book blurb trish nicholsons words in the.
Thanks also to rod horton for reading robert frosts poem birches at our bible study that morning. Once your title and cover have drawn the reader in, the blurb is what is going to make the difference between a missed opportunity and a sale. A blurb is the description of the story found on the back cover of a book. A keepsake photo book that gets photos off a screen and onto pages by pulling from a personal instagram account. On back covers of books there is usually a summary which attempts to get the reader interested. Word count on blurbsnot etched in stone, just a suggestion. If youd like for me to read the entire book instead of just.
Book blurbs is where i give you an insight into the crazy world of the book nerds and everything booky, and yes the occasional made up words always are fun. A book blurb is there to entice a purchase, not to justify a lifelong career or calling. Its been a whole year since weve done a badly blurbs and weve gotten a few new crew members on board the floating asylum we call the spaceship kali. When a reader first comes across your book online, two factors will determine if they pay any attention to it the cover and the book description. Many authors write the book blurb as an afterthought. By friday i was like, eeekkk i can do so many cool things in 5th grade. Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep. Chuck arand from concordia seminary for making time to talk about my book. The authors that do are usually the successful ones. While readers benefit from the multitude of choices, authors have the tough task of drawing readers to their books among the thousands of other books on the shelves or in the e. When you need to write a blurb for a book, be sure to summarize the main story so a reader can get an idea of what its about. How to write a killer blurb that convinces readers to buy your book the book blurb is your sales pitch. How to title your book and its description are two we have covered, but possibly the very best way to do this other than a good book cover is through the use of blurbs.
The 5 core elements of a book blurb and why you should. In this post, we tell you how to write a book blurb in five easy steps. Worse than the cover, worse than the writing in the book itself, there are a lot of blurbs on amazon that are pretty near atrocious. How to get incredible blurbs for your book the writing. Thanks to dale ward and the rest of the tech guys at the seminary for making the video. It made the book listing 52 most depressing songs, for those of you who love trivia. Book blurbs are one of those things that many selfpublishers dont even realize are a thing because they are so fully integrated into the book reading process that we dont notice them until they arent there blurbs short testimonials of the book and they are featured on the front and back covers of books. Many blurbs are also preceded by the books tagline, or what i call the killer line. The first day i was like, well, this was good, but im not in love.
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