Blurbs are those short, pithy book descriptions found on the back cover and on online book sites. Writing this is a challenge for many authors. Instead being free to develop the story over pages or writing, the author must shrink the gist of the story down to a few words. There are many ways to do this. Here is one way, but it not the only way.

What a Blurb Needs

A blurb can be written at any time during the drafting process, but it works best if you write it before you start drafting. That’s because the process of creating the blurb will let you know if your story elements are strong enough to carry a novel to its conclusion. A blurbs requires the same things a plot does:

• A setting
• A protagonist
• Who wants or needs something
• An antagonist who is stopping them from getting it
• Dire consequences if they fail

It also needs to use powerful words that invoke emotion in the reader. Here is an ordinary sounding set of elements for a detective mystery.

• A city
• A detective
• Solve a murder
• Murderer is leaving false clues
• The murderer will kill again

Now let’s add power and emotion to these elements

• The subway and sewers of New York City
• A blind teenage girl
• Find the man who murdered her mother and exact revenge
• Murderer is leading her on a false trail
• She will die

By making the elements more specific, more personal, and more threatening – she will die if she fails as opposed to some stranger – the future novel becomes more emotionally powerful.

Composing the Blurb

These five elements now need to be smoothed into the book description. Usually there is a long one of about 120 words, a short one of 55 words, and a tagline of one sentence. I usually start with the same order as listed above:

1. The setting
2. The protagonist
3. The want or need
4. How the antagonist is stopping them
5. The dire consequences if they fail

Here is what I came up with for this example:

Deep beneath the streets of New York (setting), a blind teenager (protagonist) hunts for the heartless thug who slayed her mother (want). She can’t see him, but he sees her. Will she get her revenge or will she end up just another dead body for the sewer rats to gnaw on?

For another example, see my Tide Harbor Story Bible Blurb Work for Concealed by the Tide.

Blurb Template

The following template provides a very simple framework you can use to explore ideas for your book blurb. Don’t worry if you end up with a long list of possible blurbs. Just the process of playing around with your basic elements will help you hone your story ideas and those multiple versions may later serve as cool marketing tools.

---

Do you have a favorite way to write your book blurbs?