How to write killer book blurb

October 10, 2018

How to write killer book blurb

You've finished the book - yeah!!
Oh shit, now it's time to write the blurb😕

How come I find it more difficult to write the blurb of my novel, than it is to actually write the book. Trying to come up with attention grabbing prose - turns me into a nervous wreck.

Well at least it did - until I discovered where I was going wrong, and why.

Doing the research for this article I came to realise the blurb I had written for my books, lacked that 'killer' appeal.

Where had I gone wrong?

I hadn't followed the basic rules of what makes a reader choose to buy a particular book.

Following a few basic book blurb rules will go a long long way to you writing blurb that grabs a reader's interest.

# 1  The first sentence needs to grab the reader. Most people don't really take in much of the blurb beyond that all important first sentence. Amazon doesn't give you much text space before it cuts you off, and the reader has to click the 'read more' button. So keep your prose short. 100/150 words max.

# 2  Chances are a buyer will skim through your text. Avoid this by using short, exciting sentences. Don't be afraid to use 'white space' to emphasise your blurb.

# 3  Get your reader to empathise with your characters. Using your character's names goes a long way to doing this.

Here's a great example from Stieg Larsson's - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -

The Industrialist - Henrik Vanger, head of the dynastic Vanger Corporation, is tormented by the lose of a child.....................
The Journalist - Mikael Blonkvist delves deep into the Vangers' past to uncover the truth behind the unsolved mystery....................
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Lisbeth Salander, the enigmatic, delinquent and dangerous security specialist, assists in the investigation..................................

See how he not only uses their names straight off, he also gives an insight into their roles in the book.

# 4 Get your reader curious. Tantalise with a snippet of the plot. Simon Toyne does this perfectly with the blurb for his book - Sanctus -

Liv Adomsen is a New York crime reporter. Kathryn Mann a charity worker. The are very different people but their fate is bound together by one man's desperate act.With the world's media watching, a robe man has thrown himself from the top of the oldest inhabited place on earth, an ancient citadel in Turkey. For it is a sign of great events to come. For Liv and Kathryn it is the start of a race into danger, darkness and the most remarkable secret in the history of humanity. It is a secret that the fanatical monks in the citadel will kill, torture and break every law, human and divine, to keep hidden.

This example has got everything going for it - Empathy with the characters. A taste of the plot. And words that evoke emotion.

# 5 Obvious really - check out the blurb of best selling books. Amazon is a great place to do this. You can read the blurb without actually having to buy the book. Unless you want to. Chances are the blurb was written by a professional blurb writer. If the blurb was written by the author - well the book's a best seller - so either way, it's a win win situation.

# 6 Use words that evoke a response. Use words that exaggerate your plot's situation. Words like - impossible - unbelievable - incredible - remarkable etc.

# 7 And just like your manuscript - rewrite the blurb over and over again until you are completely satisfied with it. And then get the opinions of readers and writers. Ask other authors in groups like Writers Helping Writers on Facebook.

# 8 Lastly don't try to squeeze too much info into the blurb. Give just enough of the story-line to grab a reader's interest that they buy the book.

So now pussycats - all you have to do is sit back, chillax, follow the formula and write that killer blurb.