How to Write an Enticing Book Blurb

EVERYTHING is riding on your book blurb authors (next to your cover). They are impossibly simple and simply impossible to write!

We aren't objective about our own work. Writers can deliver complex, exciting plots in their novels, but often struggle to crystallize that plot into a few sentences--or if they're truly ambitious--into one sentence.

I am 100% speaking for myself, but I research a lot of books for this blog and I see the same mistakes over and over. I make them too. The book blurb is a sales pitch, not a review or a summary of the book. I see too many that read like this:

Big Joe is a tale of love, loss, and family set in the 1920's. It spans the life of a captured elephant who becomes the star performer in a traveling circus. In spite of his ability to draw huge crowds, he's abused by his owners. When Big Joe quits performing, a veterinarian demands improved conditions for all the animals in the show. Meanwhile, Big Joe realizes that his fears have kept him from bonding with the other captive elephants. He takes a risk, reaches out to them, and they accept him as family. To his new herd, Big Joe is not just a small, lonely elephant, he is a brother and a hero. Big Joe is an amazing story of survival in a world that is truly a three-ring circus. 

This is not a call to purchase, it's a book summary. Not much has been left to the imagination. We know what to expect, and we know how it ends. There is no pressing need to buy this book.

Here's a better blurb.

Big Joe is the runt in a herd of wild, African elephants. Unable to push down the big trees and compete against his mates, Big Joe spends a lot of time by himself. One day, gunfire, men, and massive nets change his life forever. Captured and bound for the circus, Big Joe is truly on his own. His only hope for survival now is to perform. Cruel owners and excited crowds push Big Joe into discovering his incredible talent for showbiz. But without a herd to call his own, will the little elephant be able to handle the pressure?

Okay, I struggled to write this blurb and this book is imaginary! (Though now I kind of want to write it!) 

Like I said, I'm not an expert, but the second blurb leaves me curious at least, and I might purchase a book that I'm curious about, but I certainly won't purchase a book that I'm not curious about. Whether you're self-publishing or querying agents, your job is to arouse  interest in reading more.

So here are the bones of a blurb:

Identify the character. Describe the problem. End with a hook.

To do this:

• Keep it short--one to two paragraphs, but no more than three.
• Focus on your main character only and make us care about him or her: "Unable to push down the big trees and compete against his mates, Big Joe spends a lot of time by himself"
• Skip a description of the themes: "a tale of love, loss, and family." or "a story about survival"  (aren't they all? gag!)
• Don't show off--keep the writing simple
• Don't tell your reader what to think or how the book will make them feel: "an amazing story", "you will be swept away" Says who? Let the critics review and analyze the book.
• Leave out the subplots: i.e. the veterinarian helping the animals
• Don't tell the ending: like I did in the first blurb
• Leave a hook. A question works great. 

Once you write your blurb, take on the following two challenges to further refine your pitch. Describe your book in three sentences, using the character, the problem, and the hook formula. Then go a step further and define your entire book in one sentence. I will attempt to do both challenges for Big Joe. 

Three sentences:

Big Joe is the runt in a herd of wild, African elephants. One day he is captured by men and sold to a traveling circus. Will the little elephant be able to handle the pressure?

One sentence: (Believe me, it gets harder as the sentences get shorter!)

When a lonely, wild elephant is captured and sold to a circus, he discovers his talent for showbiz. 

You know the basics from this sentence--character (lonely elephant), problem (he's captured and sold to a circus) and hook (surprise, he's good at showbiz!). The intent is always to induce curiosity, not confusion. 

I will tell you the best place to go to analyze one sentence blurbs--Direct TV. (If you don't have Direct TV, check out your TV Guide or any menus that offer super brief movie descriptions.) With Direct TV, I scroll through the menu looking at movie titles. At the top of the screen, each movie is summarized in one (maybe two sentences). (If you click on the title, a longer summary comes up--but even those are only a short paragraph).

An interesting thing to note is that I'm often sold on the movie by the single sentence, but when I click on the longer description, I'm just as easily unsold if they give away too much. Less is more! Believe it!

I suggest using author forums or writers' groups to help you fine tune your blurb. 

And lastly, when all else fails, ask someone else to write your blurb for you. It's easier for me to describe Big Joe, a book I made up today, than to describe the books I've written and lived with for months.  

To Do:  Put your book blurb up for critique on an author forum or writer's group. Make sure you have the key elements of a blurb: character, problem, and hook. Take the three sentence challenge and the one sentence challenge. 

by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, author of the Guardian Herd book series.