The dreaded book blurb:
After slaving over a hot manuscript for months (or years), the work is still not done. Every book should have a blurb. Preferably, a blurb that sells your book. It should make your reader want to know more. In this post, I will walk you through the basics of what a blurb needs in order to give your book the best chance of surviving the wild. If you want to see an example of a blurb that I helped critique, scroll to the bottom of this post!
What a blurb should have:
The main character.
A goal.
The obstacles.
The stakes.
Brevity.
Voice.
External Feedback.
The Main Character:
Every book has (or should have) a main character, even if it is multi-pov or an ensemble cast. Consider the TV show Friends. Everyone is a main character, right? Yes, but there is one person who is slightly more so. If you've watched all the episodes, you'll know that the first episode begins with Rachel, who just left her fiancé at the altar. And (spoiler alert) the last episode ends with Rachel, who chooses to give up her dream career to stay with her friends. Even though Friends is an ensemble cast, it still has one character that is slightly more of a main character. If you want to read more about choosing your main character, I highly recommend STORY GENIUS by Lisa Cron.
Things you should consider about your main character for your blurb:
Who is your main character?
What makes them unique?
What is their attitude about their current situation?
What setting are they in?
These are not points for which you have to write full sentences. They are details that should be woven throughout your rhetoric.
A Goal:
Your blurb should say who your character is and what they want. What is it that they are trying to achieve throughout your story? This goal can be big or small. Your main character might want to save the world or simply want to save a spot at a concert.
Things to consider about your main character's goal:
It should be clear.
It should pass the yes/no test.
A reader should be able to identify what your main character's goal is after reading your blurb. The goal should also pass the yes/no test, meaning in the story, you should be able to give a black and white, yes/no answer as to whether or not the MC reaches their goal. For instance:
DOES NOT PASS: The MC wants to become more popular at school.
DOES PASS: The MC wants to get an invitation to the football team after party.
Becoming more popular at school is subjective. There are different opinions of what it means to be more popular, but getting an invitation to the cool kids' party? That either happens or it doesn't. It passes the yes/no test!
The Obstacles:
What stands in the way of your main character getting what they want? Why can't they simply waltz up to their goal and achieve it?
What to consider:
What internal conflicts are they facing that keeps your MC from reaching their goal?
What external forces are keeping them from reaching their goal?
Make it clear in your blurb why their goal isn't easy peasy.
The Stakes:
Mwah hahah!! (Sorry, I couldn't help the evil laugh.) The stakes are what will happen if the main character DOES NOT reach their goal. Stakes are the bad things that your MC desperately wants to avoid.
Examples of Stakes:
The whole world will die.
A single person will die.
The whole world will think the main character is an idiot.
The girl the MC has been pining over for years will think he's an idiot.
The MC will disappoint a loved one.
Brevity:
Your blurb should be 400 words or less! In today's world of technology, you are competing for your reader's attention in a serious way. You have to gain their interest in as short of time as possible and keep it for as long as possible. No pressure. Let's see an example of why brevity matters, shall we?
NOPE: Joey is looking at a girl with black hair that is so pretty, and he thinks that he should probably talk to her and ask her on a date.
YEP: Joey takes one look at the dark-haired beauty and says, "How you doin'?"
Voice:
The voice is the attitude hidden in your rhetoric. It's stylistic. If your blurb reads like a text-book summary, you might need to inject some voice into it. If you are struggling with voice, ask yourself these questions:
How is the character feeling?
What emotions should the reader be feeling from my story?
Am I including the character's view of their world?
External Feedback:
This one is arguably the most important one, because we as authors struggle to see our writing from an outside/fresh perspective. It's hard to know if we nailed all the points of a blurb in a consise and clear way if we don't have external feedback. I highly recommend finding a friend (who has experience with writing blurbs) or a professional critique service who can help you fine tune your blurb.
My advice for feedback:
Never post your first draft of a blurb.
Your mom does not count as external feedback unless she has experience writing blurbs.
Your writing group DOES count as external feedback, but keep this in mind: not everyone is skilled with blurbs.
Go through at least two rounds of external feedback with your blurb.
The Blurb: Before and After
I recently helped an author with his blurb for his fantasy novel, THE FOURTH PORTAL, and he graciously allowed me to share it to help demonstrate the points of writing an effective blurb!
BEFORE:
“We strive to open all seven portals residing within the human body, save one. The forbidden fourth portal—the gateway to love—sits equidistant from portal one and portal seven, and must always remain closed. Opening it would bring about the end of life as we know it.”
Love is a destructive force. Love drives you to madness. Love pushes you to the brink of desperation. That is why the fourth portal—the gateway to love—must remain closed. Positioned between portals one and seven within the human body, opening it would lead to the end of our world as we know it.
For centuries, the people of QhaHadur have survived by eradicating the love virus, keeping their fourth portals closed at all costs. On their harsh desert planet where food and resources are scarce and desire for another leads to execution, maintaining the status quo is their most ancient law.
When the Masters send a specialized team of five strangers on a dangerous mission to recover a rare base metal that could change their tribe’s future, the team’s compatibilities and loyalties, especially those of their Knowledger, Fenri, and their Healer, Craeya, are tested.
As virus-sensing beasts begin tracking their group, fear and paranoia set in, alerting the team that one of them is infected. Fenri knows she must uphold their tribe’s laws and eliminate any threat of the virus before it spreads and they’re all lost.
But when Craeya uncovers a harrowing secret about Fenri’s life-altering condition, and Luzon the Maker agrees to build her a ship to explore the ocean’s depths, a mission the Masters would never sanction, Fenri begins to imagine another life—one where her insatiable thirst for knowledge leads to progress and exploration.
As more of the team’s secrets emerge, and emotion-suppressing drugs wears off, forbidden feelings begin to surface. Love, a force they’ve only read about in books, becomes dangerously real. If they don’t eliminate the love virus and close the fourth portal in time, the beasts—or the tribe itself—will end them all. That is, if they don’t kill each other first.
THE FOURTH PORTAL is the first book in a multiple POV epic fantasy series filled with elemental magic that is rooted in the seven chakras residing within all of us, exploring the sacrifices we’re willing to make for love when it's forbidden.
AFTER 5 ROUNDS OF EDITS:
Upholding her tribe's highest law, Fenri must keep her heart—the body's fourth portal—closed at all times, or face execution.
Fenri is a Knowledger, a brilliant collector of information who dreams of discovering the ocean’s secrets. The tribe’s Masters grant her permission to explore the ocean, but only if she first traverses the perilous desert with four strangers to retrieve a precious base metal. Despite having a condition that makes her slower and weaker than her counterparts, Fenri, eager to prove her worth, accepts the mission. She will succeed or die trying.
When hormone-sniffing beasts begin stalking their group, it’s clear that someone has opened their fourth portal. Determined to protect her chances of exploring the ocean, Fenri vows to find and eliminate the traitor before the love virus spreads. As forbidden feelings surface, the group begins to unravel, turning their mission into a race to close the fourth portal before the beasts, or their fellow tribesmen, eliminate them. That is, if they don’t kill each other first.
THE FOURTH PORTAL is the first book in a multiple POV epic fantasy series filled with elemental magic that is rooted in the seven chakras residing within all of us, exploring the sacrifices we’re willing to make for love when it's forbidden.
You can find this author, @jamerkel_author and his novel, THE FOURTH PORTAL, on Instagram!
I hope this post helps you on your author journey! For more tips, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of this page! For the full beginners guide for starting an author Instagram page and marketing your books, check out my Marketing Class for Authors!
Thank you to this amazing community for all your support!
XOXO,
Cort
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