For those of you who don't know the publishing lingo. The cover blurb is usually the back cover copy of a print book.
BUT it's more than that. It must:
- give the potential reader a taste of the story
- the feel for the author's writing style
- it must pull you into the story without giving anything away
- it must entice you to take the next step of opening the book
AND I STILL GOT IT WRONG.
At least wrong for that story. I'm going to fix it, but I will say that I'll have my blurbs ready PRIOR to my final edit of the next story.
In fact, I have a potential blurb ready for Book Four, IT TROLLS FOR THEE. Yes, book four. Haven't written it yet. No clue what's going on in it. Oh, have some scene ideas, but that's it. First I have to reread #3 TROLL to see what I wrote to come up with a blurb for #3.
--yes, this is putting the cart before the horse, but it wasn't my fault. I woke up out of a dead sleep with this blurb in mind.
This isn't the final copy. Heck, this isn't even much more than some brain drippings onto a page. It could almost be considered an 'elevator pitch' or a logline. Here it is the rough copy :
Betrayed by her best friend.
Her goblin mentor captured by the Dark Ones.
The war in Celestia is heating up as the evil gains control by pain and death.
With only her human mother to help her, Kyte Webber must rescue her goblin mentor. She knows she can't do it alone . . .
I'm playing with these lines:
New friends turn up in unlikely places. Enemies will soon become her allies in the war.
Will I use this?
Don't know. But I do know that the logline for book 3, FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS, basically allowed me to write the entire 50,000 word story in 19 days.
What was the logline?
Half-elven tween steals a Celestian book to help the ‘good’ side in the war, but inadvertently helps the Dark Ones gain power . . . oops.
This is weird that you're writing about cover blurbs, because Misty Evans and I are offering to critique a cover blurb for one commenter on my How To Write Shop blog. Misty Evans majored in marketing, and worked in that area before quitting it for the glorious world of writing.
ReplyDeleteI like your "brain drippings" and think it would make a good cover blurb. The one thing I'd change would be this: "Enemies will soon become her allies in the war." I'd just say "Enemies become allies." It's short and snappy.
My quibble is that this story sounds very dark. Since your voice has natural sardonic humor, I wonder whether there might be some way to get that in the blurb.
Synchronicity, Edie, synchronicity !
ReplyDeleteI've notice that many blogs cycle at the same time.
Since I haven't written #4 yet, I don't know how dark it will be. #3 TROLL has a deep betrayal, so I'll probably continue on in that vein.
I've found that starting with a blurb helps me to focus on the story without too many tangents!
Like your blurb! Also love your story line.
ReplyDeleteMeg--I thought about adding frogs marching and a$$hattery, but it didn't really fit THIS story!
ReplyDeleteFYI: I invented a story on Twisted Sisters blog (http://3twistedsisters.wordpress.com/)
Meg--I thought about adding frogs marching and a$$hattery, but it didn't really fit THIS story!
I like the blurb, too, though agree with Edie that it sounds pretty dark. Just get a little of your snark into it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marilyn.
ReplyDeleteNow I need to read what I wrote for #3 TROLL. I haven't looked at that story in over a year, except to take some of the first chapter--tweaking and editing the heck out of it--and using it for a teaser at the end of FAERIE.
I had the same first impression as Edie - it sounds waaaaay too dark for me to let a kid read. Any reference to pain or death would make me cross the story right off my kid's reading list!
ReplyDeleteConsidering I haven't written this story yet, I think there's time to tweak it. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the story will be great! Just need to go easy on the pain and death stuff. How about some sunshine and unicorns? :)
ReplyDeleteRight now, I'm tired of unicorns and rainbows, Jody. I'm contemplating writing a horror story a la Isle of Dr. Moreau.
ReplyDelete