No blurb, no book sales.
A book's blurb is one of the most important parts of the entire exercise. It's traditionally the chunk of text you'd find on the back cover, but in the e-book world it's used as a product description. It's there to sell your book to potential readers, who may not be willing to sit and read the first few pages yet.
The keyword here is sell. It's a feat of salesmanship. Don't look at it as a way to summarise your plot. It's not a synopsis, it's a blurb.
Everything about a blurb is precise, strategic, intentional. It gives the reader just enough of the plot to hook them into the story and tell them they'll enjoy it, but not so much that you spoil anything. It's gripping, snappy, clear. Who will the book be about, why is the book about them, what is the central conflict of the premise?
What goes into a blurb?
Typically a blurb is 100-200 words spread across a few paragraphs. Like a logline, it uses snappy writing and impactful, active voice in order to grab attention and keep it.
From a content perspective, a good blurb generally contains these elements:
1) Character: Who is the book about?
2) Stakes: What's at stake in their world?
3) Conflict: What are the obstacles in their way?
You could also add a line at the end which explains what the book is compared to others in its genre. That, or if you have accolades to show off you may consider including them here. Simple accolades can also sometimes come before the blurb, as in "From three-time Hugo Award winner Bob Ducksby" or "From the best-selling writer of Two Girls, One 7-Up". Something simple like that.
What ISN'T a blurb?
It's not a tagline.
It's not a synopsis.
It's not (just) your accolades.
It's not a writer bio.
It's not your logline.
Blurbs are their own thing, and blurb writing is its own skill that you will have to practice.
Read lots of blurbs. Go online, find the books which are topping the sales charts, walk into book stores and flip over the paperbacks. Read blurbs. A lot of blurbs. You need to have a feel about how they're structured, how they're worded. The reality is a lot of them are very similar, which means the more you read, the more you can figure out not only what common conventions are, but how to break them successfully.
Note about Wattpad blurbs: While the blurb isn't a logline, it is a good idea to put your logline at the top of your blurb here on Wattpad (separated from the blurb itself by a line separator, i.e. "* * *"). For more information on loglines, and why this is important, check out the loglines chapter of this e-book.
How to write a blurb [TEMPLATE]
What I'm about to show is not the way to write a blurb. It's just a way. But if you're struggling, it may help to follow a template. Additionally, the grammatical advice contained in the loglines chapter of this book will also help you.
Blurb Template:
Paragraph 1: Introduce your character and the story's hook. Your hook is the book's premise, it's unique selling point. What makes your book your book?
Paragraph 2: Introduce the conflict of the story. How will your character be challenged? What stands in their way? Dramatic irony is great here. Don't make this an internal journey, though - it should be physical. This isn't what the character learns in their head, but about what they do.
Paragraph 3: Raise the stakes. Talk about what hangs in the balance. Most fiction has some kind of timer attached to it, it's what drives the plot forwards. So what are your stakes? Not sure? You need to read the stakes chapter of this book.
Paragraph 4: Optional. This is where you might talk about the book as either a comfortable member of its genre, or a brand new take. Accolades can also go here, or relevant notes about the author (remember it's not a bio - author info is only relevant to a blurb if it helps sell the book, like how movies always say "From the director of...").
EXAMPLE BLURB
Here I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Normally I'm far too cowardly to do this, but I think it's important you see the above template put into use by someone who was, at the time, publishing fiction for the first time.
Below I've included the blurb I wrote for my first novel, "Smack-dab, in the Middle of Nowhere". It is by no means a work of blurb art, but it follows a template and shows how one might be utilised. I have included in-line commentary in the Wattpad comments section on what I was trying to achieve, and where I might have improved it.
* * *
"Bert'd be damned if this bar did anything other than thrive. Smack-dab would prosper, or she'd shoot folk until it did."
Bert is the takes-no-crap bar owner of Smack-dab, a struggling tavern halfway from nowhere to nowhere else. All around her is the barren, post-apocalyptic Waste, a terrifying place plagued by villainous bandits, ravenous monsters, and Things that go bump in the night (and also eat you).
The Waste is in turmoil. Lord Ash has been overthrown, replaced by a terrifyingly powerful giant hell-bent on taxing anyone and everyone that can help fund his devious master plan. Smack-dab is threatened with total destruction, but Bert has a plan of her own. Can she rally enough help to fend off the bandits?
Strange and hilarious, "Smack-dab, in the Middle of Nowhere" is the fresh new face of the post-apocalypse, even if that face has more creepy mutant eyes than you expected.
* * *
Found this chapter useful? Please Vote and leave a comment with any Qs you may have!
For weekly tips and tricks, make sure to follow me. I also offer direct feedback and editing for writers when I'm not judging in competitions, so check out my profile bio for more.
YOU ARE READING
The Book on FICTION WRITING | Advice for New Writers
Non-FictionThe #1 Wattpad book on fictionwriting. So you want to be a fiction writer? Here's what you should know. * * * Everyone likes to say that in fiction writing, there are no rules. But, well, they're wrong. There's a LOT of rules, and you can't start t...
