I recently attended a romance writers conference and had a fantastic time. Oct 01, 2015 writing the book blurb first is such a good idea it helps you nail the main point of the story so you can stay on track as youre writing it. A blurb not only briefly explains to the reader what the book is going to be about, but it also helps them decide if it will be worth their time to give the book a chance. Its a story of love, loss and demons, in the crusade to free jerusalem from the saracens.
With practical guidance on how to introduce your book to the reading public, this course is in two modules. Extras is a young adult science fiction novel written by scott westerfeld. For even more creative ideas and fun activities for kids to do at home, keep exploring the blog. A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work. Create, print, and sell professionalquality photo books, magazines, trade books, and ebooks with blurb. Whether its your first or twentieth book, enticing a reader to buy your book relies on an eyecatching cover image as well as an intriguing blurb. There are certain things you can do when writing a blurb that will encourage readers to buy your book. Create extras for friends and family, so you can slip one inside a gift book.
How to write a romance blurb blog author rosalind james. In the case of this particular service the time it will take to write the synopsis required may be greater than the reading time, which is why the fee is relatively high. Their technical staff is obtuse and they use a biased color profile. I have been a long time user but they are unable to print photo books true to the original images. Whether self or traditionally published, you hold the key to getting the word out about your book or presentation or exhibit. In all likelihood, the author who gives you the blurb is one that your readers also read or at least are familiar with.
I if valley of the dolls 1966 is the glamorous and excessive cousin of peyton place 1956, the best of everything is the seconalsedated twin of valley of the dolls. May 27, 2015 book promotion expert ben cameron always says writing the blurb is the hardest 100 words youll ever write, and many authors are also stumped when it comes to writing the front and back matter another task that usually falls just when youre feeling least like writing another word, after completing your books final edit. The problem is who to ask and how long to wait for a response. Nebraska marketing and promotion for authors and illustrators. Front covers are carefully designed by publishers to attract our attention see my previous post here, but the back cover can be a quick way of telling whether a book will interest us or not. Making sense of the altright understands altright thinking from the inside. Unfortunately, while most authors will hire a professional to create their cover, very few hire a professional to write their book description. The howto of writing the perfect blurb for your book or novel is a cocktail of creating suspense while revealing the main characters or conflict. How to tweet, follow, make lists, find useful contacts, manage your timeline, deal with spam and unwanted retweets.
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 practical guide is crammed with insider tips, tools, advice and stories from successful entrepreneurial leaders, showing you how to nail life and work. Whether youre trying to sell your book to readers, agents, or publishers, a perfect pitch is a necessity. The editorcopywriter producing the blurb will be an experienced professional with many years of experience in editing and the writing skill to put together good copy for your work or an experienced copy writer. Jul 12, 2018 if you have a new book coming out, change the cover photo with the release date. Radio online radio by drx kent x sally blogtalkradio.
You have one shot at introducing your story to your reader make it count. Divide the list into reach blurbers who are probably hard to get, like celebrities, match those for whom you have a good shot a landing a blurb, and safety people very likely to provide you with a blurb. Most authors see the blurb on a back of their books as an afterthought, just a quick summary of their story to fill some space on an otherwise blank back cover. I just read a rather poorly written thriller blurbed with fulsome praise from a couple of authors who are excellent writers. Jun 17, 2018 getting a blurb from another author is a great way to show your readers that by choosing your book, they are in good company. When you read a good book and i mean a really good book sometimes you are a little sad at the end. Some writers find it really difficult to present their own work effectively, concisely and in a saleable manner. The fee for the blurbwriting service is calculated in relation to the length of the manuscript. The film was released theatrically that october, by lionsgate. When writing a novel, there are few selling tools as important as a solidly written book blurb.
A riveting look at the orphan train from historical novelist jody hedlund. Create a list of potential book blurbers maybe 7 or 8 kind of like a list you would make when applying to college. An examination of the wily book blurb chuck wendig. The book of whispers is kimberley starrs winner of the text prize for 2015. Here are some of the reasons you might need to write a book blurb. Writing a book blurb is harder than you think, and is an excellent way of getting yourself noticed. We recommend the series starting with everlost by neal shusterman for further mindboggling and energetic teen writing. Stephen king, novelist the idea that a writer can bring his core audience into the tent with a blurb. These can be selfcontained in the book or you can include links back to your website for multimedia. Because i write the kinds of books that i like to read. Unfortunately, most of those of us who write have no idea how to word the blurb.
Getting a blurb from another author is a great way to show your readers that by choosing your book, they are in good company. However it tends to leave some of the newer people floundering. Their pitch was ultimately successful, and in 2004, the first installment debuted at the sundance film festival. Forget the book, have you read this irresistible story on.
But fear not, because theres a secret science to writing the perfect book blurb. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dustjacket of a book, and are now found on web portals and news websites. A good blurb is an essential part of selling your book, both in a bookshop and online, and will make all the difference to its success. I created the friday book share game to help search for that ideal novelauthor. Many writers find writing book blurbs really difficult.
The fee for the synopsiswriting service is calculated in relation to the length of the manuscript. Sometimes it can feel like writing the book is the easy part. Blurb, back cover copy, jacket copy, or promotional copy whatever you call it, a great book description is your second best marketing tool your cover is number one. Structure and organize your nonfiction book the creative penn. Tired of tedious hours spent researching places to send your writing. How to write an effective blurb for a selfpublished book. Here are the top ten tips we believe to be the most essential to crafting a book description that sells. Unfortunately, while most authors will hire a professional to create their cover, very few hire a. Have your book description rewritten to include keywords that will help your book pop and gain new interest from readers to get more sales and appear more often in search results. No matter if you love it or hate it, the blurb is one of the key elements which helps sell your book to new readers.
The book blurb s main purpose is to lure readers in and captivate them enough to buy the book. The book in question couldnt eat their lunch in a million years and the blurbers must have noticed the inferior writing but still tossed off overthetop encomiums as. This novel will stay with me for a long, long time. Embossing, foil stamping, and other customizations. How is it that a writer can write a story spanning tens of thousands of words but stumble at a 250300 word book blurb describing it. I ntroduce the main character using only three words. Blurbs are adverts, meant to get people buying your work. If there is no blurb, most people wont even give it a second glance. Every author and illustrator needs to know how to market their books. George hawleys erudition on the subject is evident. The importance of a good blurb is literally the difference between a reader putting the book back on the shelf, or buying it. An easytofollow, practical guide to writing the best blurb to sell your selfpublished book, provided by ya author sarah juckes of completelynovel.
Consider including where or how you grew up, professional experience, writing awards or training, acclaims, past books or information explaining how you came to write your book. This is because writers dont really understand what a blurb is meant to do. I also noticed something interesting that just like in any other profession, experienced writers use a kind of shorthand about their work that speeds up communication. A udience appeal who would enjoy reading this book. Chose from several free tools or use adobe indesign or adobe lightroom. Chick lit is still a problematic genre for me, but instead of having another bridget joness diary 2001 experience, the best of everything was pretty entertaining. Marketing and promotion dont come naturally to a lot of people, but childrens book publicist linda. Some writers love to write the blurb, and some cant stand this step in the publishing process. Fiction or nonfiction basic blurb cover copyproduct description for fiction or nonfiction extended product description. Saw is an american horror franchise created by james wan and leigh whannell.
Consider the blurb, one of the most pervasive, longestrunning and, at. If i stay is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the accidents of fate, just one day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. Gladwells blurb from michael lewiss 2014 best seller, flash boys, saying he almost picked up the book after seeing mr. When murph cooper rocks up to his new school several weeks into the beginning of term, he cant help but feel a bit out of his depth.
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 first explains how to put together your press release and resource pack to share with media sources, shops, etc,complete with a template to follow in your own promo material. How to write a blurb definition, examples, and more. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. 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. You have become close to the characters and you feel like you are losing a friend. I have over half a dozen goodies already scattered around the internet. Childrens book blurbs geo ashton a blog for aspiring. May 14, 2011 when you read a good book and i mean a really good book sometimes you are a little sad at the end. Author brenda drake will teach you how to craft both an attentiongrabbing elevator pitch and a compelling book blurb.
Childrens book blurbs a blog for aspiring childrens writers. You have walked many miles in their shoes, faced their challenges with them, until they triumphed against the odds, got the girl, or died a noble death. Keep a list as you go so its not a nightmare to collect at the end. I have seen nonfiction blurbs that are more about the author than the content of the book and i have seen fiction blurbs that are a synopsis of the story and even tell the reader the ending. If you have a new book coming out, change the cover photo with the release date. Be sure to like, comment, and share other participants posts.
Malcolm gladwell hands out book blurbs like santa does. Writing a short book blurb is not only fun, but great practice for writing promotional copy of any kind. Your blurb the short description of the book seen on amazon and other venues is second only to your book cover as your most important marketing tool. The authors that do are usually the successful ones. D elightful design add the cover image of the book. The blurb is often referred to as a synopsis or simply book description. Oh, and by the way, many publishing houses have the author write the blurb. To help prevent you from falling into this unfortunate group, weve put together a few tips that should help you write a winning book blurb, whether its for the latest fantasy novel or for a nonfiction selfhelp guide. Many authors write the book blurb as an afterthought. Blurb writer creates book descriptions, author bios, and other short promo for indie authors, selfpublished authors, small press publishers, or anyone else who needs. 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.
Writing a book blurb for your back cover, and other promotional uses, is one of the hardest steps for many authors. Blurb is a basic service useable for basic book printing. It consists of nine feature films and additional media in 2003, wan and whannell made a short film to help pitch a potential feature film concept. A book blurb should be a fair representation of the style of the book. How to write the perfect blurb examples, formula, opening. But, if you have caught a potential readers attention, the blurb is what will sell your book and convert readers. Put simply, being concise is hard, and being concise about something you know insideandout can seem downright impossible. After seeing firsthand the hopelessness of the poor women and orphans, christine pendelton believes more can be done to help the flood of. Whatever the old adage might warn, there is a bit of merit to judging a book by its cover if only in one respect. Theres a lot of room in a book to tell a story, to build characters and sneak in plot twists. The book blurb is an essential part of the entire selling process for your book.
Therefore you want to create the best blurb you can. Most run several paragraphs, but some publishers want them shorter or in a special format so be sure to check with your publishers guidelines before you begin work. Blurbs own book creation tool, bookwright, is obviously capable, and its free to use, and relatively easy to learn. Before jumping into the blurb, a lot of authors count on the sentence trio to create impact and generate interest for their target readers. For fiction writers, your biography is usually best inside the book, but you will need a brief biography in any case for online listings and information databases. Microsoft surface go is an insanely portable laptop that is a delight to type on. Experiment by adding colored paper shapes or collage magazine cutouts. Jun 12, 2015 the back cover book blurb can be the hardest part as an author condensing your book into a few, short paragraphs in a way that makes your. Its a testimony to the beauty of family and friendship that moved me as a mother, as a daughter, and as friend.
Whatever the authors intent, which is usually gloomily political, the storys psychological underpinning is the adolescents shock at learning that. If you cant wait to start a new book project, download bookwright today. The work is supple in tracing out the lineage and development of the movement against the conservative establishment and in explaining its present incarnation in the form of the altright. Id like extras better if i didnt expect another book with my favorite uglies. As for covers, you can definitely make your own, but you have to make sure you only use pictures that you have a right to use. A blurb is the book description you find on the back of a book or online to describe a books contents. For a large landscape format book with 240 pages with 880. Get a professionally written book blurb that will sell.