Gill Fernley
When it comes to the back cover blurb, many authors think they have to summarize their entire ninety-thousand-word novel in just a few lines. But a successful blurb is not meant to be a summary of your novel. It’s a sales pitch to nudge people into buying it. It’s time to shift how you think of your book’s description from an exercise in crushing your plot into less than two hundred fifty words to a chance to highlight the moments that are going to make people read, click, and buy.
Here are our ten best tips to producing a blurb that entices and converts.
- Know Your Audience
When writing a blurb, your goal should be to include what will appeal to your readers and make them want to pick up your book. In order to do that, you have to know your audience. Who do you write for? What do they look for in your genre? Examine your story’s themes and tropes and the elements that your audience will connect with the most, so you can be sure to add those to your blurb.
- Look at the Top Selling Books in Your Genre
“After the title and the book cover, your description is the most important book marketing material,” according to Scribe Media. The best-selling books in your genre have that title for a reason, so where better to look for examples of what works?
As you read through each, note details like which tense they use, whether they are written from the character’s point of view, the plot points they highlight, and how they entice you to read more. Then, try to do the same with your novel and create something that reads as though it fits in with those top selling books.
- Don’t Overthink It
When it’s time to write, set aside a block of time to focus entirely on your blurb, and turn off your inner editor. Approach this brainstorming session the same way you did writing sprints for your book’s first draft.
If you’re stuck, start by picking out as many highlights from your book as you can that might appeal to readers, as well as any relevant story details readers should know at the start of the first chapter, such as character names or world-building elements.
Pro Tip: Think of your blurb like a movie trailer—the best ones draw audiences into the story by emphasizing the stakes and leaving readers with more questions than answers.
- Use a Formula If It Helps
If you’re struggling, following a formula for your blurb can make it easier. Once you have the general bones, you can tweak it until you’re happy with it and add more emotion and tropes to make it your own.
James Scott Bell offers a simple formula in his Knockout Novel software:
- First Sentence: Your character’s name, vocation, and initial situation
- Second Sentence: “When” plus the first doorway of no return
- Third Sentence: “Now” plus death overhanging
Note: Death overhanging doesn’t necessarily mean actual death. It could be emotional or psychological death.
Just those three sentences can get you away from the blank page and give you something you can edit, which is often half the battle. If you add the plot of Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope to that formula, here’s what you get:
Luke Skywalker, a farm boy, is stuck on the desert world of Tatooine, though he longs for adventure in space.
When he uncovers a desperate message for help from Princess Leia Organa, his aunt and uncle are killed by Imperial troops in search of the droid containing the message, and he finds himself in danger.
Now, he’s aboard the Millenium Falcon with a space pirate, a giant Wookie, and the princess, with the might of the Galactic Empire in pursuit. Can the small band of rebels destroy the deadly Death Star space station before it destroys them and ends the rebellion for good?
Pro Tip: A quick Google will bring you a variety of blurb formulae. Experiment with a few of them until you find one you prefer.
- Consider Emotion, Conflict, and Stakes
Bryan Cohen, the CEO of Best Page Forward, says his best advice for blurb writing is focusing on the emotional journey your character takes in your novel. “Too many authors focus on the plot, but plots are a dime a dozen,” he says. “If you concentrate on how a character reacts to the plot throughout your blurb, then you have a better chance of getting your reader to react as well. Making an emotional connection at this stage of the game is key to getting readers to click the buy button.”
Consider the emotional moments of your novel, where your protagonist faces mounting stakes or reaches a turning point and is forced to shift their perspective. If there’s a plot twist you’re expecting will make your readers gasp, hint at it when you write your blurb.
- Leave Them Hanging
When writing a blurb, you’re almost writing a new, very short story to entice readers and leave them wanting more. And of course, they can only get more by buying your book.
“Blurbs are hard to write, and every single word must count,” says Robert J. Ryan, author of Book Blurbs Unleashed. “But the ending is critical. Finish on a cliffhanger, with a story twist to give it even more punch, and leave the reader desperate to know what happens next. Your conversion rate will climb.”
Not only should you not tell people the whole story, but you should also deliberately leave questions unanswered and possibly even end with a full-on cliffhanger.
- Keyword It
Amazon is a big online bookstore, but it’s also a massive search engine. As you’re tweaking your book’s description, consider the terms your readers search for, and work those words and phrases into your blurb. Mentioning tropes and themes in your blurb makes it even more enticing and easier to find among the millions of other books online.
- Get Feedback
Once you’re ready, share your blurb with trusted writer friends—and maybe even some of your readers—and ask for their thoughts. Are there details that confuse them? Did they reach the end and need to know more?
You get to make the final decision on what your blurb looks like, but if several people make similar comments, it’s worth listening to them.
- Polish it Up
Kindlepreneur offers a free book description generator for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo that allows authors to generate the HTML code needed to format their blurb for different platforms.
However, the tool now includes an AI element, connecting to ChatGPT, that breaks down the description into elements like “hook,” “setting,” “main character,” and “suspenseful sentence” and suggests revisions to make it more attention-grabbing.
This part of the tool is optional but can generate ideas you can take or leave. It’s your blurb, after all. Paste any parts of the AI blurb that you want to use into the generator, edit them as necessary, then click “Go Back to Formatting,” and you’ll be able to regenerate your code.
- Refine, Edit, and Test
Don’t put pressure on yourself to come up with the perfect blurb immediately. You might write something good enough for now and then keep tweaking it until you find you’re making more sales. You can always edit your description down the road, even after the book has been published, so if you’re not sold, try cycling out several descriptions until you find one that works. Just be sure not to change anything else at the same time. If you also change your cover, for example, you’ll have no idea which change made the difference in sales.
Gill Fernley
