Every author knows that a well-crafted back cover blurb can be the key to compelling readers to pick up your book. Let’s explore ways that you can write a back cover blurb in 150 to 200 words that will grab the reader's attention.

Hook Them With The First Line.

The opening sentence should have a powerful impact on the reader. Think of it as the elevator pitch.

But what’s an elevator pitch?

A pitch contains a few straightforward, irresistible sentences that could be delivered during a typical elevator ride (imagine going to the 10th floor with the agent or editor you most admire.) Don’t worry about listing characters and outlining plots, just try to give a general overview of the theme of the book. The two examples given are both about young people at a boarding school.

For Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, the blurb is about a hundred words. The first paragraph goes into some detail about Harry’s unusual life both before and after Hagrid takes him to Hogwarts. The second paragraph is the actual blurb.

The longer blurb for The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros begins with prestigious reviews, then introduces the heroine in two sentences. The rest of the blurb sets up the choices the heroine will face at her new school: graduate or die.

Tone and Depth 

Your blurb should reflect the tone and emotional depth of your book.

The Harry Potter blurb promises a rollicking and mostly lighthearted adventure – just like the book. Harry is given some astounding news. He’s a wizard! He is plucked from his nasty relatives and sent to an astonishing school where he is promised “an incredible adventure.”

The back cover blurb for The Fourth Wing is much darker and dives deeper into the fearsome environment the heroine has entered. The reader is told “death is only a heartbeat away” and “she’ll need every edge . . . to see the next sunrise.”

Though their tones are very different, both blurbs are equally compelling without giving too much away. 

Balance Summary and Intrigue

Not divulging too much is the key. In the Harry Potter blurb, the reader isn’t told about Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, and Draco, nor the specifics of any of their adventures.

In The Fourth Wing blurb, the reader isn’t told about the students’ vicious and deadly competitiveness, nor the dangers of dragons, nor the swirling clouds of political intrigue.

Know Your Target Audience

This might be the easiest part of the process. In the cases of these two books, you can easily see that younger readers want a promise of adventure without too much complexity. Older teens will be intrigued by the dark and dangerous lives in The Fourth Wing. To tailor a book to a young audience, take a look at the Frye Readability Scale and the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Tests. They can tell you whether your blurb (and your book) are suitable for younger readers.

Books for adult audiences depend on genre, so match your back cover blurb to your genre. If you’re targeting romance readers you’ll need to know the differences between sweet, steamy, and erotic writing. For crime novels, don’t write a cozy mystery blurb with a hardboiled crime slant. If your book is science fiction with a technological bent, you’ll write a very different blurb than one for character-driven science fiction.

Use Testimonials

Two reviews/testimonials are probably more than enough. Unless you’re already a big name author, though, they can be hard to get. A good strategy is to find other authors who’ve written similar books and trade Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) with them well before publication day. Publishers will give you an advance electronic ARC just for this purpose. You’ll read each other’s books and (hopefully) write and post an honest review.

Edit and Refine

First, use the spelling and grammar options on your word processing program. Second, don’t depend on just yourself for editing. You can easily develop blind spots and pass over the same mistake a dozen times without seeing it. You’ll also have favorite words like “hiss” and “just” and “obviously” that need to be culled out. Ask fellow writers to proofread, if possible. There are also editing programs that you can buy, like Scrivener, Grammarly, and Pro Writing Aid. The most expensive option would be to hire a professional editor, but they can give you the most help in refining your book. If your main plot has wandered away from you, or there are unnecessary subplots; if there are too many paragraphs describing landscapes and homes and wardrobes; or if your character development needs some help, an editor can help you straighten it out. 

About the Author

View Cathy’s work at www.cathyseckman.com