How to write a book blurb

The blurb found on the back of a paperback was originally found on the inside flyleaf of a hardback book. My first two novels have these. But since the majority of books these days are released in paperback, the blurb takes prominence on the back cover. It also appears alongside the book as an introduction on Amazon’s website. So it’s quite important!

A few of us are faced with the challenge of writing a new blurb for their forthcoming book at the moment, so we’ve decided to talk about blurbs. How effective are they? How can you avoid giving too much of the story away? Will your blurb attract a reader? The back of the book is almost as important as the front.The first chance of catching the eye of a potential buyer among the sea of new books coming out every day is the cover design.

But then comes the blurb. How can you describe all the excitement you personally feel about the book, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, in a couple of brief paragraphs? The ideal length of a blurb is between 50 -80 words only. The font needs to be largish, easy to read, and gripping from the start. No wonder plenty of us lose sleep over writing this handful of words when the previous 90,000 words flowed so easily from our fingertips!

So I’m hoping you will have a rummage around and find some excellent examples of blurbs which you think ‘work’ and then we can discuss why you think they work and how to tackle it. See you on Zoom on Friday (June 19th)! Theresa Le Flem