Book Blurbs
harder than writing the book itself...
Recently in writers group we worked on crafting the perfect book blurb. You know, that very short paragraph or two on the back of a book that somehow has to summarize the entire book, but not give away the plot, while instantly hooking the person so they’ll purchase and read your entire creation? No pressure right?
Here is the back cover copy I wrote for my upcoming novel Godspoken:
War is coming, and the gods stir.
Naiya, Low Queen of Xault, was born to rule, but destiny is a heavier burden than she imagined. With her mother gone and foreign forces at her door, the kingdom she swore to protect teeters on the brink of ruin. Gifted ancient magic and bound by duty, Naiya must face a truth she can no longer deny: the power in her veins may be the only thing that can save her people. But as the Greylor Imperium tightens its grip and the gods whisper their will, wielding that power could cost her everything.
Godspoken is a sweeping epic of magic, duty, and the price of destiny—perfect for fans of The Poppy War, The Priory of the Orange Tree, and Red Queen.
This was hard! And it still needs a lot of work. But after sharing this in my writers group there was some common feedback for all the blurbs.
There seemed to be a tendency to summarize the book when instead the focus should have been leaving crumbs of intrigue. Many of the authors present, shared far too much plot!
Several of the book blurbs felt long even though their actual word count was well within the standard range. If you’re working on your own back of the book blurb and it feels long, play with your wording.
Many of our blurbs would have worked WAY better if their structure was simply rearranged. We all tended to summarize the story from the beginning, when introducing the villain or big bad first, might have been a stronger hook.
As a reminder, we host two writers groups every month and if you’re interested in checking it out, join our discord or come check me out on TikTok.
I’m here and have no clue what I signed up for. Back button wouldn’t work, things were auto checked for me, couldn’t select the categories I wanted before the page moved. I HATE technology.