Writing the Blurb

It’s possible some of you won’t know what the ‘blurb’ is, so let’s define it.

Technically, it’s the selection of words you use to appear on the back of the book with the intention of persuading the reading public to commit to it.

With nonfiction, this may be any one of a number of things. But I’m a fiction writer and that’s what I’m discussing here.

Ask yourself a simple question: What do I want my blurb to achieve?

The answer should be that it hooks the reader to the extent that he/she makes a decision to purchase (or borrow) the book.

How do you do that?

Consider the usual circumstances: that potential reader is in a library (which is a less challenging place for many reasons) or, hopefully, in a bookshop. What’s going on in there? Other people, possibly background music, staff hovering, ready to pounce on the promise of a sale, but, most importantly, there are books. Shelves and shelves of books. Books in competition with yours for the customer’s money and attention. Some of them have the dubious advantage of celebrity status (though why the name of a celebrity should sell a novel is a mystery to me: most of them seem vacuous and uninteresting). Some will be by authors already accepted as both entertaining and absorbing. Some will be part of a special deal, offering 3 for the price of 2 or half price deals. So, not only do you have to compete with all these external influences, but you have a limited amount of time to do so.

The purpose of the blurb is to sell your book. You don’t want a synopsis (save that for the agent and/or publisher who need to have more detail to determine the genre and potential market for your book). What you do need is a pithy, short piece of description that will intrigue, fascinate, tempt and impress the reader. Length will be determined either by the publisher (in which case, the blurb may well be written by a staff member anyway), or, more likely, by a combination of genre and design. You may, for example, have excerpts of quotes displayed on the back cover.

So, what can you say in 50 to 150 words that will clutch at the reader’s imagination and make him/her want to explore the interior, flick through the pages, and perhaps, just perhaps, part with ready cash? Use of strong verbs, avoidance of adverbs, and language that says precisely what it’s meant to convey are essential.

A question often works; citing the major dilemma in the book and suggesting some sort of possible conflict/danger/ambition achieved (depending on the genre).

‘Will Susan’s obsession with chocolate stop her turning the rivalry between her and siren sister, Ophelia, to her advantage when it comes to attracting ruggedly handsome Martin?’  (superficial romantic fiction)

A hint of the challenges facing the protagonist(s) will often act as a hook: ‘When James opens an envelope surreptitiously placed on the passenger seat of his locked Bentley, he begins a journey that will ultimately threaten not only his business but the reputations and lives of those he most loves.’ (thriller)

I was recently asked by Fantastic Books Publishing to provide a blurb for the first volume of my fantasy trilogy, which they’re publishing in spring. 50 words in 3 sentences was the brief. Here are a couple of examples:

‘Hatred between a corrupt leader and the rightful heir flares when a crucial prophesy is misread.

Regardless of cost, a fanatical disciple feels compelled to right a decisive wrong in a key ritual.

Against overwhelming odds, a young hunter sets out to rescue his adored betrothed.’

And

‘A false prophesy forces a corrupt leader to menace the rightful heir and start a dangerous mission.

Only the reckless kidnap of the leader’s daughter by a fanatical disciple might correct a vital wrong.

A charismatic young hunter braves hostile seas and unknown lands to free the gifted maiden he loves.’

I’ve no idea whether either of these will be used. But, for me, they illustrated the difficulty of encapsulating the essence of a story running at 200k+ words, with 3 intertwining stories, into so few words. Not, as I say, a synopsis, but a flavour, a taster, a teaser that will encourage readers to read on.

Do they hint enough at potential challenges and conflicts? Do they insert questions into the mind of the reader? Do they, most importantly, encourage the reader to open the book?

I’d love your observations and comments.

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What Will 2014 Bring?

Last year, around this time, I produced a blog post on my writing activity during 2012. Because I find it useful to detail my activities, and it may interest those who follow the blog, I’m repeating that exercise today for 2013.

It’s been a peculiar year in many ways. Socially and professionally there have been many events and changes. I retired from employment in April and celebrated my 65^th birthday in May. In September, my wife and I celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary and, in the same month, our daughter reached the milestone age of 21. In December, my aunt reached the great age of 100. So many reasons to celebrate, and the freedom to do so in terms of travel and time.

I changed from PC to desktop iMac, an investment I’ve really appreciated in spite of a few disappointments (Apple’s definition of ‘intuitive’ is clearly not the same as mine!). But, in many ways this has been a positive change. I’m still learning, though. And, possibly the single most irritating aspect is the lack of a # on the keyboard, an exclusion that makes hash-tagging Twitter and Facebook posts far less simple than it otherwise would be: Apple take note!

I spent a good deal of time editing the first 2 volumes of my fantasy trilogy, since Fantastic BooksPublishing have accepted the work and will be publishing volume one, A Seared Sky – Joinings, soon. I also spent a lot of hours writing book 3 of the series. This year will see the editing of that volume, of course.

I wrote a few short stories and entered a couple of contests, though fewer than I intended. I made a start at writing poetry, and this is an activity I intend to increase over the coming years: it’s a different skill from prose writing and has a beneficial effect on that, developing the understanding of metaphor and simile as well as encouraging brevity.

On the admin side, I’ve continued with research and compilation of details of writing contests and you can find this regularly up-dated information under the Writing Contests tab above. Hope it’s useful.

Much of December I spent in experimentation on social networking. (The chart illustrates the portion of time spent on this) Really, I did this to confirm suspicions I acquired last year about the effectiveness of such activity for an author. It seemed to me that the apparently ubiquitous ‘author platform’ may be less than effective in actually garnering readers and selling books. This year’s activity has confirmed those suspicions and I shall be curbing my social networking activity this year to concentrate on writing, submitting and publishing stories, since it’s apparent that those writers who achieve wide readerships are the ones who publish more work. As I enjoy the actual writing more than any other of the activities that surround authorship, it will be a pleasure for me to take this turn.

I’m also intending to read more. I read 53 books in 2013 (most of them I reviewed as well) and I’ve set myself a target of 52 books over the year, using the Goodreads Reading Challenge as incentive for this.

I do, however, expect to exceed this target.

The chart at the top of this post shows the proportion of time I’ve spent on the various activities during the year. It’s noticeable that the activity on which I’ve spent most time is networking. Whilst there’s some satisfaction and much pleasure to be gained from interacting (not to mention the way it can help others), I have my doubts about its real value in relation to the activities of an author. The coming year will see a great deal more actual writing, editing, submission and publishing. I’m a writer, and writers write, after all.

So, to the comparison figures, where I list ‘achievements’ for the year. I gave a list for 2012, which I’ve repeated here, so we can see the comparison with 2013. Please note, it’s the left hand column that shows this year’s activities.

2013                                                                            2012

Published work:

None!                                                                          Sensuous Touches, an erotic anthology.

Heir to Death’s Folly, a gothic horror short story.

Rebirth, my contribution to the sci-fi anthology, Fusion,  published by Fantastic Books Publishing.

Writing Contests:

2 entered. No success                                                 4 entered, 1 short-listed.

Social Networking as at the end of each year:

2013                                                                            2012

Blog:

1181 posts                                                                  1062 posts

491 followers                                                              447 followers

181,769 page views                                                    85,511 page views

29,250 visitors identifying location                           18,882 visitors identifying location

Facebook:

Author Page: 569 ‘Likes’                                            379 ‘Likes’

Personal Profile: 1,795 Friends                                  1,599 Friends

Goodreads:

1,001 books listed as ‘Read’                                       882 books listed as ‘Read’

177 Reviews written                                                   130 Reviews written

125 titles in ‘to read’ list                                             136 titles in ‘to read’ list

3,231 Friends                                                              2,118 Friends

LinkedIn:

2,958 Contacts                                                           2,274 Contacts

Pinterest:

1,123 Followers                                                          662 Followers

7,305 Pins on 33 boards                                            4,774 on 32 boards

Google+:

559 in my circles                                                         336 in my circles

413 circles including me                                              183 circles including me

Twitter:

8,759 Following me                                                    5,110 Following me

8,758 I Follow                                                            5,012 I Follow

22,033 Tweets                                                            11,823 Tweets

As you can see, my social networks have all expanded quite significantly. However, this increase has had little impact on the number of books I’ve sold, which is you can expect less social activity this year and more in the way of writing. I’ll continue to record that here on the blog.

By all means add me on your social networks: I’m cutting down on the activity, not stopping it completely! Let’s see what 2014 has to offer, shall we?

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My Writing Process - Blog Tour

Today is Blog Tour Day where authors answer questions about their writing process. Linda Acaster, novelist, writing tutor, and professional editor, posted last week, and I thank her for my invite. Check out her writing process here: 

As for my post: welcome. Can’t get many of you in here; the box room of a small bungalow isn’t big enough to house all my books, desk and equipment, never mind a group of interested visitors. One day I’ll get that house with a view over the sea, a large study and the antique desk I deserve. Until then, perhaps best if we continue to meet in the virtual world, or I might be accused of emulating the Black Hole of Calcutta!

1) What am I working on?

Last month, I took part in the NaNoWri Mo challenge (if you’re not familiar with it, have a look at the November posts for info). My project was the completion of the 1^st draft of book 3 of the fantasy trilogy I’ve been writing for a while. Now I’m about to start the lengthy and involved process of editing that raw draft to make it into a piece of writing that people will want to read. It currently stands at around 195,000words. Whether it will grow or shrink depends on what I decide to exclude and how much further description I include. Whilst I’m doing a first draft, I tend to concentrate on story and leave the details of setting and atmosphere until I start the editing stage. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy editing almost as much as the initial creation. I am also working on other writing projects: a novel in embryonic form, still growing in the subconscious; short stories, and I’m exploring poetry as a way of expressing some of my emotional responses to injustice, beauty, environment and other issues that arouse my passions.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Genre? Did someone say ‘genre’? I’m all for rules, when essential, but the idea that a book can be somehow labelled in any sort of precise way is anathema to me. Yes. Works of art can be pigeon-holed as ‘portrait’, ‘landscape’, ‘abstract’, ‘figurative’, etc. But I don’t think anyone would then subdivide these identifying labels into ‘male portrait with feather in hat’, or ‘landscape painting including characters from a mythical scene taken from Greek legend’. Okay, I know I’m exaggerating a tiny weeny bit, but it seems to me that the simple labels, ‘Romance’, ‘Mystery’, ‘Thriller’, ‘Crime’, ‘Historical’, ‘Sci-fi’ and ‘Fantasy’ ought to be enough for most purposes. The rest is just an effort to encourage readers to restrict themselves to very narrow forms of storytelling. And that is hardly healthy for readers, is it?

So, my work differs inasmuch as I stray outside the normal boundaries set by those who wish to attempt to restrict me to a specific genre. Breaking Faith is a romance featuring an element of the thriller and the mystery novel. My current fantasy trilogy, A Seared Sky, is an epic fantasy tale involving a quest within an invented world and all that implies, but including elements of the thriller, romance, crime and philosophy. Does that answer the question?  

3) Why do I write what I do?

My inspirations are multitude. My interests are wide. I’m a storyteller at heart, so I want to spread my imagination’s offspring to as wide an audience as possible. I write because I’m compelled by some weird internal guiding entity to express myself in the written word. My mind is full of ideas, characters, thoughts and questions and, since they excite, delight and intrigue me, I hope I can share those emotions with readers as I marshal them onto the page in the form of stories.

4) How does your writing process work?

I’m one of those writers for whom plot is a cage, so I write by the seat of my pants. For short works, I sit down at the keyboard and write. Usually, a story emerges. Sometimes, that story is usable, after a bit of editorial work to smooth the raw edges. If it isn’t, I discard or completely re-write it. With longer works, I am visited by an idea that demands attention. This can be something as simple as a question that floats out of the ether at a particular time. For example, Breaking Faitharose from a simple question that entered my mind as I stared into the depths of a slightly sinister natural hole in the ground: ‘What if there was a woman’s body down there?’ I’ve no idea where this came from, or why. But it was the trigger for the story. I generally start with interesting characters I’ve devised in advance. Then I work out a very, very loose framework on which I can hang challenges for my characters to face. I generally know the end, but I never know the journey I will take to reach that destination. I think it’s this lack of pre-ordained form and structure that prevents me entering the lucrative world of crime writing. That requires an approach that involves the solving of puzzles and the laying of false and true evidence along a trail. And that is too much planning for the way I work.

The current trilogy came out my questioning why it is that religion, as a general rule, is so fixated on sex and nudity and why, since most worshippers seem to be generally good people, those in charge are so often very far from good. But, avoiding the urge to preach my own version of what should be believed, I’ve turned the themes into a story that moves through landscapes and entangles many disparate characters into its multiple threads to take the reader on a ride that I hope will make them gasp, sigh, laugh and cry. Emotion, after all, is what reading is all about, so it is also what writing must be all about, too.

Monday 9th December: a very different author explains her writing process: Lynne Constantine is co-author of Circle Dance, a novel about two Greek-American sisters thrust into life-changing circumstances. There should have been two more authors to continue this tour from here, but, well, authors can be dreadfully unreliable you know!

Lynne Constantine’slove of the written word began early. An avid Nancy Drew reader in elementary school – the highlight of her week was going to the store with her father and buying the next book in the series. When the day arrived that she was able to solve the mystery half way through – she reluctantly set them aside and moved on to other books. For as long as she can remember, she has been prodded to “get her nose out of the book” when vacationing with friends. Her love of mystery and suspense is as strong today as it was back then and she is a voracious reader of thrillers and suspense.

She wrote her first book, Circle Dance, with her sister Valerie. Circle Dance was a legacy of love fueled by the desire to pass on to their children the traditions and experiences unique to them as second generation Greek Americans. Lynne was raised in a close-knit family surrounded by extended family and “adopted” family through the Greek community. Both she and her sister wanted to leave a legacy for their children and future generations of a bygone era.

Lynne attended Hellenic College where she earned her undergraduate degree in Human Development. She went on to earn her masters degree in Business Administration at Johns Hopkins University. She has an extensive marketing background and over eighteen years of business experience. She left the corporate world in 2000 to pursue her writing full time. She has written for magazines and journals but her true passion is fiction.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Lynne relocated to the New York area with her husband and children. In addition to her writing, she is active in her church and local community. She serves on the board of her town’s Women’s League – a philanthropic organization dedicated to helping women and children. She is passionate about education, reading, health, and wellness. She enjoys traveling, spending time on the beach and talking walks with her family and their adorable golden retriever.

Lynne is currently finishing up her next novel – a thriller.

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