Cash-strapped indie authors often write their own book blurbs without understanding the point of back cover copy, or its place within the sales conversion sequence. Some people also confuse a synopsis with a blurb. So in this post I wanted to briefly outline the goal of a book blurb.
My Training Background
To be clear, I studied blurb writing at the UK’s Publishing Training Centre where I earned a distinction for publishing-related copywriting. I also studied conversion copywriting at the Copy Posse Launch Pad and Copy Hackers. So I’m taking what I’ve learned from both the original blurb training and conversion copywriting.
Blurbs within a conversion sequence
Your blurb is part of a sales conversion sequence that starts with great cover art and a great book title.
You can even have a great tag line. Think ‘In space no one can hear you scream‘ for Alien. If the cover/title/tag line catches the potential book buyer’s eye, they will pick up the book and turn it over to browse the back.
Important: they are not committed to buying your book and should not be overwhelmed with information at this point. You want to use your back copy to hook their attention further so that they turn the book over and start browsing the first page.
Now your opening lines and page(s) are the next part of your conversion sequence. So they have to be good too. Don’t be sloppy with your opening (or any other part of the book). Ideally, the sales conversion sequence should go bang, bang, bang:
Of course, most of the time the browser won’t buy, but this is still their first point of contact with your book and if it’s memorable they will remember it.
Further exposure to your book on later occasions can push them into purchase. This is because they start as a cold prospect who knows nothing about you or your book, but, with multiple encounters with your book cover/title/blurb, they can gradually warm up into becoming more informed prospects. They’re now ‘warmer’ and closer to purchasing.
But this will be more difficult to achieve if you overwhelm them with information about your plot and characters. Focus on main character(s) and plot only. Don’t give away too much. You’re aiming for a hook.
You can include glowing review quotes on the cover, or mention any relevant awards you’ve won. But don’t overdo it on the back cover.
In summary
As mentioned, I studied blurb writing at the UK’s Publishing Training Centre. It was enormously frustrating at first to have to write such short back cover copy. However, when you remember that the blurb is only part of the sales sequence, that helps a lot.
Some writers who write their own blurbs throw everything at it, drowning readers in character names and plots and subplots. It’s too much. Never overwhelm a potential reader. There are too many other books for them to choose instead. A tangled blurb with confusing plots and characters could suggest the novel itself is just as confusing to read. And that’s the last impression you want to give!
If you’re looking for a fresh pair of eyes on your book blurb or fiction manuscript, I have openings. I offer manuscript critiques, developmental edits, and shorter critiques for those on a budget. Check my services tab or email me at karen@indiecateditorial.com to discuss your project.
I post on editing and writing once a week on Substack. You can sign up for these emails below. Some of these emails are newsletters or announcements about writing competition news.
In order to make it easier for new site visitors to explore the blog posts here, I have made a master list of IndieCat Blog Posts. I’m still drawing up this list so not all posts have yet been listed here.
Wasting money on a copyedit or proofread? Please don’t hire copyeditors or proofreaders if you later intend to use a developmental editor. In this post I explain the correct order of editing.
This list looks at examples of developmental feedback which changed the outcome of a novel. There are also posts where I put on my developmental editor’s hat and explore narrative choices a writer made when writing their novel.
How developmental editing feedback changed Interview With The Vampire. This post looks at the development of Anne Rice’s first published novel, including the developmental editing advice she received from her editor. This advice caused her to radically alter parts of her novel, turning it into a classic of the vampire and gothic genres.
Narrative devices in Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life. This post digs into Chiang’s use of point of view, tense, and structure in his award-winning novella, Story of Your Life. He also wrote the novel in an interesting way, starting with the ending!
When publishers drop the ball. Even if you get a mainstream publishing deal there is no guarantee that you will get all the developmental feedback you need. This post deals with an unnamed published novel which had multiple issues.
Revisiting a rejected novel. Authors are sometimes told not to go back to a rejected novel, especially a first novel. The idea is their writing will have progressed since then and it’s best to move on. But this advice is not always best. Here I examine what happened with Hilary Mantel’s first novel, A Place of Greater Safety.
10 ways to improve your novel’s pacing. While your novel doesn’t have to gallop along at a fast pace, sometimes storytelling gets bogged down and momentum is lost. Too slow and a reader could just give up. Be vigilant of anything that pulls your pace down. This posts has some tips.
Your novel’s opening lines, and why they matter. The opening lines of your novel or memoir are prime real estate. Don’t screw up your chance to grab an agent or reader by making these mistakes in your opening.
The Ingredients of Gothic Fiction. An exploration of the history of Gothic literature, where it comes from, the developments in the genre over the centuries, and a list of key characteristics or ingredients of Gothic stories.
Laurie McBain and the Avon Ladies. Exploring the career of historical romance author Laurie McBain, her part in the rebooting of historical romance at Avon in the 1970s. Plus the woman who inspired her – Kathleen Woodiwiss.
So indie authors aren’t real authors? This blog post was written after I read a very annoying and ignorant post from someone who completely underestimated the commitment and talent of indie authors.
The Extraordinary Imagination of Tanith Lee. An exploration of the writing of the prolific and award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer. Including an examination of how she actually wrote her books and short stories.
This post is my deep dive into the life and work of Irish-American writer Maeve Brennan. The Irish author was the daughter of Irish republican parents who later moved their family to the US for work reasons. Maeve would remain there until her death. Glamorous in her youth, she worked for the New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar. She also wrote short stories and a novella, The Visitor.
Laurie McBain was one of the stars of the historical romance genre in the 1970s and 1980s. Here I look at her career and the mystery of why she disappeared after ten years of success. I also look at the writer who inspired her, Kathleen Woodiwiss.
Beautiful Shadow is a great biography of author Patricia Highsmith. Highsmith wrote Strangers on A Train, The Talented Mr Ripley, and the lesbian romance novel, Carol. All three of these books were adapted for the screen. Here I review the biography and explore Highsmith’s life and career.
Weird Inspirations: Wisconsin Death Trip. Exploring the origins of Michael Lesy’s cult book and the subsequent film, and the impact both have had on other artists.
General tips
How copywork can improve your writing – here’s a tried and tested technique used by writers from Robert Louis Stevenson to Hunter S. Thompson that teaches you how to be a better writer.
Fear of marketing yourself on social media. Fear of being a nuisance on social media through promoting yourself is a problem not just for writers, but for other artists as well as freelancers.
Why your book cover design matters. Your book cover needs to stand out in an oversaturated book market, and it also needs to give clues to potential book buyers about things like quality, professionalism, genre and more.
Terrified of reading your work in public? You should be. You’re a writer, not an actor!
Unless of course you’re both. In which case you can stop reading now and do something else.
There are many intimidating moments in a writer’s life. Getting the first feedback on your novel, hearing back from agents or editors. Reading reviews. The horror!
Or having to stand up in public and read out your work. More horror!
While author events are more associated with the mainstream publishing industry, indie authors too can read their work to a live audience.
Some authors thrive in the spotlight, enjoying the opportunity to interact with readers or potential readers.
But for other authors, standing in front of an audience represents death by a thousand cuts.
It’s true that actors and musicians can be introverted in their private lives, then miraculously switch on for an audience. Prince would be an example of this – extroverted on stage, introverted and quiet-spoken in private.
It’s easier of course when you’ve had a lot of experience performing, or even some training.
Writers tend not to have any training in acting or performing.
Is it worth taking acting classes ahead of a reading? Possibly.
However, there are other ways to approach a reading. The obvious one would be to avoid reading in public altogether! But not so fast… You might want to scurry back into your author’s burrow, but that doesn’t get your work out to the public.
Plus, if you attend an author’s event as a writer, the audience has made the effort to turn up. So you might as well make the effort to entertain them – and no, I don’t mean by falling off the stage or giving the worst reading in the history of worst readings!
If you’ve been avoiding reading events, it’s time to develop some decent reading chops. No more sorry excuses. No more turning up to read, and quietly droning into the microphone until you finally get the damn thing over and sit down… hoping you didn’t humiliate yourself too much.
There is an answer to this problem and it comes in two words:
Anthony Hopkins
Yes, you’re going to get some important tips from a master of acting. And you don’t need to become a master of acting yourself to benefit from this advice.
In interviews, Anthony Hopkins has revealed he memorises his lines 250 times. He’s absorbing the text, ensuring that he really really knows it well. He describes 250 as a magical silly number. Yet something happens when he goes over the text so many times. By knowing the text so well, he has all the information he needs and his brain can relax.
He goes on to say in one interview that once you’re relaxed, you can go on the stage and improvise within that text. He describes ‘becoming so free you get into the zone‘. Once he’s memorised the script, he puts it aside. He also advises putting ego aside if possible, and managing emotions and remembering that less is more in a performance.
I’ve added some links below to interviews he’s given if you want to explore this some more. But the bottom line is that his advice can also apply to reading your own novel to an audience.
How to prepare for your readings in advance
This is very important. You should not start preparing just before a reading. Instead, you should start before your novel is even published. Going through the final draft, begin selecting passages you’d want to read to an audience. Most likely your opening pages, but you might have one or two other passages you also want to read.
It’s worth remembering that these passages should act as a hook to reel in potential readers in the audience.
Your reading is partly a marketing effort and it’s always worth remembering that.
Begin memorising the final draft of these passages. Follow Hopkins’ example and do it over and over it again, many times.
In the case of Hopkins, he’s absorbing the words to the point where the words are second nature, and this likely helps bring his facial expressions, body language and internal emotion into line with what he’s saying.
An author doesn’t need to memorise to the point where they go on a stage and recite without the novel in front of them. In the case of a reading, it’s about absorbing the language until the words become second nature.
You will be less likely to trip over words, lose your place on the page, and you will also likely become more immersed in the story. This in turn can help with feeling self-conscious.
It can also ward off the kind of physical tension that can kick in and restrict your voice. Nerves and reading in a formal setting can lead to tension in the throat. This in turn can lead to a tendency to drone.
But if you really know your material and can relax, you should find it easier to modulate tone and emotion in your voice.
There’s a difference between reading text that you’re just scanning from a page, and reciting something you know so well that you get swept up in it and your voice can better modulate emotion.
Rhythm, pauses, emphasis
Once you’ve really memorised the passages you’ve chosen, to the point where you could recite them in your sleep, play with pauses, word emphasis, speeding up and slowing down speech.
In a video essay on Anthony Hopkins, relating to a particular scene from Westworld, there’s an analysis of speed and pauses in his speech. I’ve linked to this video essay at the end of this blog post, so you can check it out for yourself.
You too can experiment with how to break down your text and where to emphasise a word, include a pause or even a gesture, etc. And you can use highlighters or underlines to help you remember, if necessary. Look also for rhythm. Try tapping it out where it’s important in a text, then use it as a guide to how you might read that line.
Costume
Of course the reading itself is only part of the deal. What do you look like? Are you like most writers – ie, do you look like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards?
You might be tempted to buy new clothes for your reading. (Let’s face it, any excuse to buy new clothes is an opportunity not to be passed up.)
And there’s nothing wrong with splashing out on that eighteenth century dress in red silk brocade for your historical bodice ripper reading. In fact, the audience will never forget the effort you made.
Never.
They will remember it for years to come.
But remember that if you’re wearing uncomfortable new clothes or clothes that leave you feeling self-conscious, you are making things harder for yourself.
You can wear something different, including period costume, but make sure you walk around in those clothes (and shoes) a bit before you do your reading.
Wear them to the point where you hardly notice the way they fit on your body. Make sure they’re also comfortable enough for the reading.
It’s like costume rehearsals. The more comfortable you feel in your clothes, the less awkward you’ll feel on the stage. Own your costume, even if it’s just your usual jeans and sweater.
And another thing…
Own the stage
When you arrive at the venue, see if you can visit the stage and walk around it a bit. Get a feel for the space. Don’t be afraid of it.
Also, don’t huddle tightly into a small space behind the microphone or lectern when you’re performing. And stand up straight – body posture impacts emotions and your ability to project your voice.
Video and audio readings
Of course, you don’t have to turn up in person to do a reading. You could make a video – again, make sure you really know your text beforehand. If you’re camera shy, you could go straight to audio or use images that match your story to accompany your voice. This allows you to get more creative.
You can also post readings to social media – be aware that if you have Twitter verification, you can post much longer videos. The algorithms like video content.
Still terrified of reading your work in public?
While reading in public for the first time can be a frightening experience, it’s not unusual to get a post-reading thrill. You might even wish you could go up and do it again. It all depends on how it went.
And how your reading pans out will depend on the amount of preparation you put in.
Don’t leave things to the last minute and wing it.
Don’t see it as a painful rite of passage you have to go through for each book.
Learn your text, prepare, and give it your best shot. This is your chance to win over the audience – especially if you’re appearing alongside other writers.
Some of the audience will be there to see and hear someone else.
Make sure that when they leave, it’s YOU they’ll remember and talk about.
And if you’re interested in getting feedback on your novel, feel free to check out my services page. You can also contact me if you have a particular custom service in mind.
Normally, in the world of marketing and advertising, these ads are part of a wider sales funnel. They are not usually sending traffic directly over to a sales page because potential buyers don’t know who you are yet.
When I was studying the Facebook and Instagram ad course at Copyhackers, one thing that came up was how people these days react to ads.
In the old days, people scrolling tended to notice ads more.
But over time, they became acclimatised to them.
One piece of research showed that subjects in a study didn’t even look at the ads on a page. Their brains had filtered the ads out without even looking at them.
So, how do you get people to notice your ads? Some people adopt ad styles that are more native to the platform. For example, they might have a photo cropped in a way that’s similar to ordinary users and not a professional. It then looks less like an ad.
Another method is to aim for pattern interruption. If a lot of ads are in colour, then black and white might stand out more. This is not in relation to book ads, just ads generally.
Illustrations might also stand out more where photographic images are more common.
Basically an ad which is different breaks the pattern and the viewer is more likely to notice it.
As a Twitter user, I find myself mentally filtering out book-related ads if there are too many of them one after another.
I’m not talking about ad posts coming from the same account. I’m talking about many authors tweeting their books into a hashtag.
Of course, authors have to get their books to potential readers somehow! It’s perfectly understandable that they will post on Twitter.
But for the ordinary Twitter user, or even someone interested in books, it can become a stream of image-based posts that start to merge into one another.
This is why it’s important to have a great cover, a catchy title and tag line, and to post interesting text in your tweets where possible.
But it’s also worth remembering that people who don’t know you are unlikely to buy your book. They are ‘cold prospects’.
You need to build up a relationship over time. That might mean you first of all have to tweet content that will make you interesting enough to follow. This content can be about your book, book research, etc, or it can be more personal.
Getting people to engage with you as a person is a good way to get them curious about what you write.
It’s also not a good idea to bombard followers all day with book ad posts. At the same time, different people will be online at different times, and because of the algorithms, many won’t see your post the first time.
This means you need to tread a careful path between extremes. Mix up content. Show you have a life beyond your books. Remember pattern interruption. Remember that the overly professional-looking ad can look too much like an ad at times and that people are now used to mentally filtering them out.
Also, and this is very important – Facebook in particular has rules about paid advertising. It’s a good idea to check out what the current compliance rules are since they can change over time.
