Template: How to write a book blurb

How do you write a book blurb? And other things about self-publishing that were harder than they should have been.

The only people who think writing a book is hard are the ones who haven’t tried writing the blurb. Let’s be honest, once you have finished a manuscript you get to pat yourself on the back. You’ve done something not many people have done. You showed up to the page. You dared to call yourself a writer and you wrote, but when faced with a silly thing like a book blurb you apparently can’t write. Not a word. Nada. Not one.

You’d think that being a trained copywriter would stand me in good stead. I should be able to do this with ease. Pitching, selling and persuading should be (is) my stock in trade. Not so much when I have to sell my own products.

When in doubt, ask Google.

So, I did what I usually do when I’m stuck, I asked Google (See my previous post about the time-stealing power of online writing articles). I googled “How to write a book blurb.” It directed me towards a site called, I kid you not, Writers Write. Hehe. I just should have started there.

Turns out my friend, Amanda Patterson had already written a lovely post and as with all things Amanda writes, I used her template and boom: I had a book blurb. It’s all about the SCOPE apparently. Here is my blurb. Can you see how I used SCOPE?

The cursor blinks. The white page waits for your story…and waits and waits and waits and then, at last, it arrives, but so do the questions:
Is it good enough?
Is it long enough? Or short enough?
How do I add setting without adding to the word count?
Should I be showing or telling?

Write the Crap Out of It and Other Short Story Writing Advice is an easy-to-use guide to the art of the short story that will help you answer these questions. It’s for everyone from the novice who wants to write their first short story to the novelist looking for a side project. This book, based on a series of blog posts written for Writers Write, will get you writing. It includes good writing advice and plenty of writing exercises.

Let’s see what I did:

Setting: A white page

Conflict: A writer’s worries

Objective: Learn to write a short story and how to evaluate your own work.

Possible solution: A awesome eBook about writing short stories.

Emotional promise: this book will help you write.

Added bonus: besides all the cool stuff you will learn you can also join the awesome Write the Crap Out of It community on www.deadlinesforwriters.com. You can post all 27 of your exercises on the site. You post one exercise and comment on four.  Click here for sign-up instructions.

Questions: write@12shortstories.com