Nefarious Advice

Blurbs

Ahh, the last three of the basics but also probably the hardest. Blurbs are the key. The stepping stone to drawing in a reader. You could have the most beautiful cover but if your blurb is something along the lines of this:

"Mary was the qood girl, irl. She liekd to walk down the hall ways with hre bookss cluthced to her chest and a lil smile on her average face."

You're in trouble.

First of all, the grammar. If someone sees that your blurb has a lot of mistakes, then they will reckon your story does as well.

Now, there's nothing wrong with some mistakes. Everyone is bound to make them. Even professionally published stories sometimes have them whether it's from a fluke or whatnot and no one here is claiming to be a professional (unless you are, of course). But it's important to make sure you use the right "their" and "there." (We'll go over some grammar in an upcoming chapter.)

Something that will help is to read it out loud. This counts for anything, really. It'll help with just writing your story as well.

When reading, our brains tend to automatically skip over repeated words and minor mistakes. But when read aloud, your ears can hear the difference and your eyes track what your mouth is saying. It's makes it a lot easier to spot mistakes and bad flow.

"It's about the details. What do I get from this blurb? [W]hat are the stakes with this story? ... Is he/she losing their very self in a wash of memories that they just can't let go of? Most blurbs set up a problem. ... [W]hat's vicious about this rabbit hole? What's going to draw me in?"
—sscott8, Open Shop: Reviews, Editing, Research

Like sscott said, what are the stakes? If you open a published novel and look at the blurb, what are the questions asked at the end? What is the tension that's going to pull your readers in—hook, line, and sink?