Friday, March 29, 2013

Writing the Book Back Blurb

Writing that little catch that lets people know what your book is about? Either on the back of the book or Amazon. Writing the blurb to lure people into buying your book takes real talent. It's one of the hardest things to do. Take the story you've spend months, hours, weeks, years working on, a story with many bends, twists and turns, and shove it into a few lines. Lines that have to be good enough to make the reader want to see more. Are you exciting enough? Daring enough? Do you need to tug heart strings? Use keywords so they can find you in that big old web?

I rewrite my blurbs over and over. I put the book, Soul Mates up on Amazon and sold a few, nothing amazing. So now my next book, Betrayed by an Angel will be going up soon and I started rethinking my other blurb. So I changed it from;

After dying on mean city streets a woman goes to heaven and begs God to reincarnate to bring the message of unconditional love back to earth. Follow the adventure when a deal with God goes terribly wrong she's tossed back to earth as one of the smallest dogs on the planet.

to;

     She was dying. Her life draining away on a hot city sidewalk and she gave it up willingly. Life had been hard and she was ready. With a jolt and a prayer she awakens in Heaven.
     Through her flows all the joy and wonder of existence and she comes face to face with God. Overwhelmed, she begs to reincarnate to share this wonderful message of God’s unconditional love with those on earth. Will God give her this chance?
     One thing before she goes, “Please,” she begs. “I want to be blond and petite and find my soul mate in this new life.”
     Poof! She wakes up on earth as one of the smallest dogs on the planet!
                                                  Does God have a sense of humor or what?

Is it any better? Some of my sources says it still needs work. I just don't know what. 
Now I'm writing the blurb to book 2 and still struggling. Like that 2 minute agent elevator pitch, that little eye catching book blurb mystifies me. I think its a special talent to think in words so brief. My mind tends to ramble. 
So? How's your blurb talent? 

3 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

It's definitely a challenge writing back cover blurbs. I rather enjoy it but it's tough. The second one you have here is better than the first. I don't see anything wrong with it. It's hard to know whether it is a good representation without having read the book.

Unknown said...

I tried to send you a version of this but don't know if it made it through. Here is a suggestion for your blurb.
When Julie begged God to give her a second chance on earth, and asked if while he was at it he could make her a petite blond and help her meet her soulmate, she never dreamed he'd fulfill all her requests by bringing her back as a yappy Yorkshire Terrier. Now Julie has to earn her wings the hard way, from the floor up.

Anonymous said...

How much money do you make a month from your ads?

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