- Level
- Mixed
- Basic and Premium Members Prices
- Premium Members $25 Basic Members $35
Register by May 24th and save $5, use code BLURBRILEY2021 at checkout!
- Category
- Business
- Marketing
- Pitch
- $5 off Early Registration Coupon-expires 1 week before class starts
- BLURBRILEY2021
The purpose of this interactive workshop is to edit your blurb for your current WIP into an effective sales tool.
As a submissions editor, I read too many blurbs that have no emotional impact. Or worse, negative impact. If I don't like your characters and care about what they're trying to do, why would I read your book? The same is true for readers. The purpose of a book's blurb is to hook the reader.
Choose your words carefully. You're not talking about the book -- not like a synopsis or a plot summary. Like the plot itself, every word needs to further your main goal, which is to hook the reader -- you need to invest the reader in the outcome of the plot.
Consider what the reader actually needs to know.
Who are the main characters?
What is the main characters' objective?
What gets in their way?
What do they stand to lose if they fail?
Remember Jack and Jill? Let's borrow them for a beginning blurb structure.
1) Who are the main characters?
Jack and Jill
2) What is the main characters' objective?
They must make it up the hill
3) What gets in their way?
Jack's pinned down by sniper fire.
4) What do they stand to lose if they fail?
If Jill can't rescue Jack, they'll fail their initial mission. Her only chance to save the day is...
We don't need a lot of backstory, though it might help to know Jack's Special Forces, Jill's a combat sniper, and at the top of that hill there's enough fire power waiting to take out half the allied forces. Just make sure whatever detail you do include actually heightens the reader's investment in the story line. As a reader I need to want to read the book to find out what happens next.
Remember, a blurb is a sales pitch. Bait. Buy me, and I'll tell you the rest of the story...
As a submissions editor, I read too many blurbs that have no emotional impact. Or worse, negative impact. If I don't like your characters and care about what they're trying to do, why would I read your book? The same is true for readers. The purpose of a book's blurb is to hook the reader.
Choose your words carefully. You're not talking about the book -- not like a synopsis or a plot summary. Like the plot itself, every word needs to further your main goal, which is to hook the reader -- you need to invest the reader in the outcome of the plot.
Consider what the reader actually needs to know.
Who are the main characters?
What is the main characters' objective?
What gets in their way?
What do they stand to lose if they fail?
Remember Jack and Jill? Let's borrow them for a beginning blurb structure.
1) Who are the main characters?
Jack and Jill
2) What is the main characters' objective?
They must make it up the hill
3) What gets in their way?
Jack's pinned down by sniper fire.
4) What do they stand to lose if they fail?
If Jill can't rescue Jack, they'll fail their initial mission. Her only chance to save the day is...
We don't need a lot of backstory, though it might help to know Jack's Special Forces, Jill's a combat sniper, and at the top of that hill there's enough fire power waiting to take out half the allied forces. Just make sure whatever detail you do include actually heightens the reader's investment in the story line. As a reader I need to want to read the book to find out what happens next.
Remember, a blurb is a sales pitch. Bait. Buy me, and I'll tell you the rest of the story...
