Guest Post – How to Write a Successful Book Blurb

How to Write a Successful Book Blurb – Rose Atkinson Carter

Around 4 million books are published each year, so how can you make yours stand out? In addition to composing a stellar manuscript and coming up with an exciting cover and title, another important element to consider is your book’s blurb. Often up to 200 words long, blurbs — which are typically found on a book’s back cover — present what happens in a story in an engaging and captivating way.

In this post, I’m going to share some tips on how to write an effective book blurb that’ll help you hook readers in seconds.

1. Pay attention to the first lines

Imagine this: you’re at a bookstore with just enough money to purchase one book. You see a table of recently released titles in your favorite genre and read their blurbs to help you determine your top choice. Would you be more likely to choose a book with a simple blurb and typical story structure, or a carefully crafted blurb that piques your interest with a bold first statement or question?

If you want to quickly hook your readers, you’ll have to intrigue them from the very start. While blurbs are usually short, most people don’t end up reading every single word, so don’t save your most interesting sentences for the end!

Let’s pretend you’re writing a genre-bending mystery series that combines elements of fantasy, romance, and cozy mysteries. Which first lines do you think a potential reader would find more riveting?

“Jenny Cutts’ The Invisible Body is the first book of The Falling Awake Mysteries” or “A strange ability. A discovered corpse. But will his supernatural sleuthing skills lead him into a killer’s trap?”

            The Falling Awake Mysteries by Jenny Cutts. Cover design by Mark Swan

The former would help the reader understand that this title is part of a multi-book series, but the latter would more likely compel them to keep on reading and find out more. What exactly is this aforementioned strange ability? Who was murdered, and who found the body? Who is the killer, and what trap have they laid out? Consider writing something just as compelling at the start of your own book’s blurb!

2. Less is more

Even if your book has 10 plot twists, a cast of 12 complex characters, and multiple POVs, your book’s blurb needs to be around 150 to 200 words long. It’s easy to get carried away while writing a description — especially if it’s for a book you care deeply about — but if your blurb is too wordy, that could turn potential readers away.

After your blurb’s compelling first lines, include a synopsis of your book with the most important details about its setting, protagonists, primary conflict, and stakes. Make sure you avoid including anything a reader might consider a spoiler, such as a shocking revelation or character death.

If you want to make your blurb easier to read, try breaking it up into more than one paragraph. Instead of composing a huge chunk of words, structure your blurb so that each paragraph has a different purpose. For example, the first paragraph can hook your reader, while the second paragraph and third paragraphs can focus on conflict and major stakes.

The blurb of Heather Fawcett’s bestselling novel Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, for example, uses a three-paragraph structure:

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party — or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones — the most elusive of all faeries — lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all — her own heart.

3. Make your blurb’s tone match your book

To help potential readers get a better sense of what to expect from your book, don’t forget to get your blurb’s tone right! If you write fantasy with prose that’s dark and gritty, having a comedic, pun-filled blurb probably isn’t the best idea.

While writing, also make sure to avoid using a neutral voice. A simple, straightforward book description is useful when you’re writing a cover letter for a literary agent, but for potential readers, having exciting language and word choice is the way to go.

Let’s take a quick look at the first paragraph of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novel The Hobbit: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

The book’s blurb reflects this fairytale-like quality and tone, while also hinting at the protagonist’s unwillingness to step outside of his comfort zone: “Whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in his hobbit-hole in Bag End by Gandalf the wizard and a company of dwarves, Bilbo Baggins finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon…”

Writing an engaging blurb will take lots of time and practice, but it’s definitely worth all the effort, especially if you want your work to reach a wider audience! Remember, it could just be the very thing that convinces a potential reader to choose your book over similar titles.

Best of luck, and happy writing!

Rose Atkinson-Carter is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace and blog that helps authors with everything from learning about the best writing apps to finding helpful creative writing classes and more.