Publishing Tips & Tricks Part 4: The First Words Matter, BookRix [summer beach reads txt] 📗

Our last tip was related to the fact that a good cover tempts a reader to open the book. But is it really that simple? Initially, the cover attracts a potential reader; whether or not the book will be opened depends on many other factors.

One of these factors is the blurb, without a doubt: The cover will definitely attract readers, but the blurb decides whether the book is read or not. When it comes to the blurb, the author has the opportunity to prove his or her writing skills. Creating an appetizer for the whole story with only a few words often seems impossible, but follow these steps and you'll be "blurbing" in no time!

A blurb shouldn't provide too much information, but rather set potential readers thinking about what the book is about. However, there still has to be enough information to entice the readers.

In addition, the author will find more obstacles in his or her way:

1. How can the author objectively decide whether or not the blurb achieves the desired result?
2. The author is influenced by his work, so how will she/he know if the blurb appeals to the target audience.
3. Does the blurb fit the book’s content?
4. Does the blurb raise expectations the book can't meet? This would be very bad because it would cause the readers to be dissatisfied. This might result in upset readers writing a bad book review.

Of course, our users have found a solution for these problems: They get help from fellow BookRix members who will collectively and honestly critique and improve their blurbs.

Simply put, if your blurb is terrible, readers will assume your book follows suit and won’t even bother to open it.

Publication Date: 06-14-2012

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