Write The Blurb And Outline Your Book
| Hot: |  | | | | |
Day Three Tasks
Task One: Write at least three blurbs
Write at least three blurbs for your book: 200 words, 50 words, and 25 words. (See the sample blurbs in this chapter.)
Task Two: Collect sample blurbs
Blurbs sell books. Everyone from the publisher who initially buys the proposal, to the book store owner who stocks your book will decide whether they’re interested in your book based on the blurb alone.
Become a connoisseur of blurbs. Start your own blurb collection. Each time you see a blurb which you think is effective, copy it, and put it into your Blurb File.
Writing the blurb
The “blurb” is the back cover material for your book — the selling points which will get people to buy the book. If you compose the blurb prior to writing an outline, you are assured not to drift off the course as you compose your book.
I can’t emphasize the importance of your blurb enough. If you’ve been thinking of skipping this section, please don’t. Here are some reasons to write your blurb first:
* it keeps you focused on the theme of your book;
* it makes writing the outline easier;
* it makes selling your proposal easier;
* it will assure your agent and editor that you know what you’re doing, and they’ll feel comfortable working with you and handing over the advance;
* when you’ve sold the book, and the time comes to write it, you’ll have an easier time because you can keep the blurb at the forefront of your mind.
Your blurb helps your agent and editor to get a contract for you.
Your blurb is the “sales story” for your book. If your agent becomes enthusiastic about your book, she’ll become enthusiastic on the basis of your blurb. She’ll use the blurb as her sales pitch to other people. For example, when she talks to an editor at a publishing house who may be interested in your book, she’ll start with your blurb. The conversation will stop there if the editor doesn’t see the book’s potential. Let’s say that the editor likes the blurb enough to look at the proposal. If she’s still keen, it’s her turn to sell your book, on the basis of the blurb, to the other people in the publishing company. She’ll need to convince Sales and Marketing that they can sell your book. If they’re not keen, you won’t get an offer.
When you’ve written your book, your publisher will try to sell your book to book distributors, and later to booksellers, all on the basis of the blurb that you started out with. So the time that you spend working on the blurb is not wasted, it’s the most important part of your book. Without a good blurb, your book will not come into existence.
Having said all that, it’s also important that you don’t obsess over your blurb. Everything you write can be fixed, so focus on getting your blurb written, in various lengths, rather than striving to make your blurb perfect. Your blurb may well go through many incarnations: you’ll make changes, your agent may want changes, and your editors will definitely want changes.
Sample blurbs
Here are two sample blurbs.
The first is from a book called LifeTime: Better Time Management in 21 Days, published by Prentice Hall in 1997. This blurb was writen while working to gather material for the book. It took around ten minutes to write. You will often discover that as you are commencing to work on your book, your blurb will occur to you as a flare of inspiration. If it does not, do not worry about it, just adopt the formula defined below.
The second is from a book called “Making The Internet Work For Your Business” which was published by Allen & Unwin in 1998. This blurb was written after the book was completed, and the publishing company was sending a brief to the cover designer. This blurb took a while to write. There was a lot of difficulty writing this book, If the blurb had been before the writing was started, It would have had a much easier.
Sample blurb from: LifeTime: Better Time Management in 21 Days by Angela Booth
You’re about to meet a very powerful genie. This genie will give you all the time you need to be everything you want to be, to do everything you want to do, and to have everything you want to have — you are this genie!
LifeTime: Better Time Management in 21 Days exhibits how to handle your time so that you are able to accomplish any goals you set for yourself. You will learn to feel centered and at ease as you accomplish your goals.
Spend 21 days with LifeTime: Better Time Management in 21 Days and in just 20 minutes a day you’ll learn to how to:
* Focus, so that you get more done in less time;
* Separate tasks into the urgent and the important;
* Effectively prioritise and delegate tasks;
* Practise relaxation daily until it becomes a habit;
* Determine your values, so that you can set appropriate goals;
* And become more creative.
Daily reading can give you concepts, inspiration and motivation, as well while fundimental tasks help you develop your time management skills.
(The above blurb is around 200 words. Create several versions of your blurb at different lengths — more on this below.)
Sample blurb from: Making The Internet Work For Your Business by Angela Booth
When you use the Internet for your business you don’t need to wait for customers to come to you because a Web site is a 24-hour sales force to the whole world. Making The Internet Work For Your Business offers clear and practical advice on how to use the Internet to develop your business; how to promote your products and services; how to find vital information; and how to pursue new business opportunities.
This book includes the following features:
* Introduces online basics and describes the equipment you will need to get your business online and build your own Web site;
* Offers practical advice on how to expand your business online, including tips on your site’s useability, how to market your Web site, and how to boost Internet sales;
* Provides case studies of how people are using the Internet inexpensively and simply to develop their businesses;
* Includes a fast-finder directory of useful resources available to businesses on the Internet: company contacts and suppliers; trainers and educators; financial sites; government and legal information; human resources; freebies on the Internet; and other SOHO-related resources.
By using the Internet you can run more business more efficiently with lowered costs, fewer staff, and less space requirement, and have more time to develop your business creatively. Explore the advantages to your business of e-commerce using your Web site as a merchant commerce system that can handle orders, payment and fulfilment via the site.
The above blurb runs to almost 250 words, which is a little long. If I were writing the book now, I would make it shorter and punchier.
The one-sentence version of the blurb is: “Making The Internet Work For Your Business offers clear and practical advice on how to use the Internet to develop your business; how to promote your products and services; how to find vital information; and how to pursue new business opportunities.”
related post
- If You Have Publishing Credits
- Write the proposal
- Personal List - Mixed Content
- What Your Proposal Must Contain
- Step Number 5 Create An Irresistible Offer
Shared Post
Related Posts - Step Number 32 Check And Rewrite Your Copy Now that you've had a little time to put some distance between yourself and your copy, it's time to get to work on rewriting it to make it even more effective. The process of rewriting is simple. The first step is to write and add in any new ideas......
- Concept Generator 1: What You Are Good At Build a list of twenty things you are good at. Do not think very hard over this. Perhaps you are good at purchasing gifts for people - you have a knack for picking out just the right gift. Perhaps you are a expert cook, or a skillful parent, or a......
Related Websites - Profit With Affiliate Marketing and AffiloBlueprint Most people who want to begin their business through internet or from home are aware about earning high revenue through online affiliate marketing. Many people ignore affiliate marketing as there are carried away by many get-rich-quick scheme that promises to get you a good return from your investment but they......
- The Quiet Millionaire by Brett Wilder There are so many personal finance books out there and most seem to fall into one of two categories – Get rich insanely quick or get frugal to turn your life around. For those of us that want a more solid and easy to accomplish means of developing a personal......
Tags: author, book, book proposal, material, proposal, Writing