Dear O'Abby: How do I get blurbs? And do I need them?

Dear O'Abby,

I'm publishing my first novel early next year, and looking at other books in my genre, they all seem to have blurbs from other authors on the cover.  Is this something I need to do, or is it one of those "nice-to-have" things that aren't actually that important?

If they are critical, how do I go about getting them?

Best wishes,

Blurbless

Dear Blurbless,

I wouldn't say blurbs are essential, but they do give another layer of authority to the fact that your book is good.  Not everyone reads them, of course, but certainly, having a great quote on your cover from an author well known in your genre can elevate your book in the eyes of readers.

In terms of getting them, it's really just a matter of asking.

If you're with a publisher, there may be other authors in their stable who you can reach out to.  Your editor may even have an idea already who might be a good fit.  If you're self-publishing, you're going to need to do this on your own.

Find the authors you think would be a good fit and reach out to them.  Make sure you give them plenty of lead time and be gracious and polite if they decline the request.  Reading a whole book is a big time investment, and not everyone has that kind of time.

Make sure you choose writers whose work aligns with yours.  A horror writer is unlikely to want to blurb a romance, and if they do, the blurb is likely to confuse readers more than if there wasn't one there at all.  A writer whose work is similar to your own is far more likely to be interested in reading your book and therefore blurbing you.

Make sure you're clear when you need the blurb, and offer to send the author a copy of the book when it's published.  Small tokens of appreciation go a long way.

And that's really all there is to it.

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: Do I really need blurbs?

Dear O’Abby,

I have a book releasing in late 2020 and my publisher has asked me to see if I can get other authors whose work is similar to mine to blurb my book.  I have reached out to literally hundreds of authors through their agents and publishers and not one of them has agreed to write a blur for me.

Do you have any advice about how to get blurbs?  And are they really important to getting sales?

Any information you have would be helpful.

Sincerely,

Blurbless

Dear Blurbless,

Blurbs can be a useful marketing tool, but they are only as good as the authors who give them.  A positive blurb from a recognized name can lift the profile of a book and signal to readers who are fans of that author that this might be a book they’d enjoy. For a non-fiction title, a blurb from an expert in the field you’re writing about would be a great endorsement that the book is relevant to people interested in the subject.

Getting blurbs is not easy, especially if you’re a new author without many contacts within the writing community.  If you have an agent, they might be able to help you get in touch with other authors they represent, if they write similar things to you.  Your publisher may also be able to help, although the fact they have asked you to do this alone does ring a few alarm bells for me.

My best advice is to be as polite and concise as possible when approaching potential authors.  Don’t spam them with endless emails if they don’t respond to you.  Don’t get bitchy if they come back to you with a ‘no’.  Thank them for their time and move on.

Remember that these are busy people and you’re asking them not to just write a couple of nice sentences about your book, but to actually read it so those sentences hold some weight.  Not everyone reads quickly so asking someone to read your book could be asking for a significant time commitment.  Authors who might already be juggling a day job, family, book deadlines and other commitments may genuinely not have the time to read and blurb a novel.

A glowing blurb from that unpublished writer in your critique group or your high-school English teacher won’t do much to lift your book’s profile, so if that’s all you can generate, you’d be better off going out without a blurb.

Blurbs are not essential by any stretch of the imagination and if you can’t get anyone with a ‘name’ in your genre and category to blurb it, your book isn’t destined for failure.  Getting good reviews on Amazon and other sales platforms is far more important in terms of selling books so my suggestion would be to stop looking for writers to blurb your book and save your energy until you have ARCs to send out to reviewers.

Good luck with the release!

XXX O’Abby

April 2015 Mystery Agent Critique Forum - OPEN NOW!

Welcome to the Mystery Agent critique portion of our contest. Those who wished to be included in the open forum are ready for your critiques. The entries are extremely short, so I encourage you to read through them and see what's trending. Pretend you're an agent! What catches your attention? Which ones stand out after you've been through them all, and more importantly... why?

Our rules are simple:
Even though it's April Fool's Day...

Be helpful.

Be relevant.

Be kind.

*For THIS contest-- I decided to list Runner Ups who were NOT chosen by Raffelcopter, but wanted to be in the forum for critique. (Sorry I couldn't rearrange the topics--- or Runner Ups would have been moved to the bottom of the list.)

Congratulations to all our winners, and to these lucky winners who opted to not be included in the forum:

Amber Riley

Tlotlo Tsamaase

Nicki Pau Preto

J.C. Welker

All entries have been forwarded to our marvelous Mystery Agent, and in a couple of weeks, I'll reveal our Mystery Agent and his top picks in a post of amazing awesomesauce.  :-) 

Thanks in advance to everyone who chimes in, and to all of our fantastic entrants. Happy critting! 

One last thing....
For easy access to the entries throughout the month, look in the tab under the OA blog banner: MA Critiques.

Just a little more info about the forum:

-You DO NOT have to register to comment.
-To comment on a pitch, just click Reply on the main post in the thread. It will bring up a comment box where you can enter your name and comment.
-To return to the full list, click April 2015 Mystery Agent in the top left corner of the forum.

Still have questions? Leave them in the comments below this post.

My Office is Peaceful Once Again!

We recently replaced the flooring in our house, and I jumped on the opportunity to put tile in my office (an 11'x10' converted bedroom). The carpeting in there had a Crater of Doom worn into it from rolling my chair from desk to desk, and a more durable surface was overdue.

But as much as I love the new floor, I wasn't prepared for how disruptive renovations in my office would be to my work schedule. The office was supposed to be the priority for completion, but the contractor wasn't as familiar with the epoxy grout and that translated to several extra days of scrubbing to get the film off the tile (not scrubbing by me, mind you--but it's not how my hubby pictured his vacation).

The extra days meant I was sort of a vagabond in the meantime, sometimes working in the craft room, and sometimes in the travel trailer at the dinette. That latter spot wasn't too uncomfortable at first, but then we had 90+ degree days and I had to turn on the air conditioner out there. Which also meant ear plugs, because that sucker is loud.

But even with the "fun" of packing up and trying to find a place to settle, I was able to answer emails and tackle some other items on my to-do list--but not any actual writing. Which is when I got the email from my editor, asking for some blurbs and an elevator pitch on the Sekritt Project. Sigh.

One insight did come from all this turmoil; it hearkened back to my 20s, when I kept waiting for my life to "settle down" or "smooth out"--then I would be able to write. But I eventually had to realize that "settled" doesn't happen--or even if it is possible, you can't wait around for the perfect opportunity. You have to make those opportunities, at least if you're trying to be serious about creating some sentences.

So I'm returning to to book two of Crow's Rest (and those blurbs my editor wants) with a new determination. And because I know some people will be curious, here are a few before and after photos of the office flooring (yes, that is tile and not wood):

We also have some new reading chairs in our living room--plus another YA bookcase--and you can see those pics today over on Angelic Muse.

Excerpts and the Art of Ellipsis: Dot dot dot vs. yadda yadda yadda

Now that my middle-grade debut Deadwood is out, I have industry and blog reviews. Some writers won't read their reviews, but I do. At the very least, a review shows that your book exists! Someone read it and thought enough to write about it. I'm very grateful for each one and include review excerpts on my site.


And that's where the art of ellipsis comes in. Dot dot dot. What do you include, and what do you ellide?

Some reviews rings so many happy bells I'd love to include the whole thing, but I can't -- the copyright for the review is owned by the writer, and fair use doctrine means I have to choose an excerpt. Tough decisions!

Most reviews have phrases I love and others that I'd rather not put on a book jacket, and that makes it easier to decide what to include. Easier, but less straightforward.

Excerpt Best Practices

There are Generally Accepted Excerpt Best Practices, which actually may not be generally accepted or well known. Here are the three biggies (reference Kirkus):

1) Do not add words to reviews (including change cases/tense)
2) Use ellipses to indicate when words are omitted. 
3) Do not alter the integrity of the review.

Number one seems clear. Number two also sounds clear, but that's where things get fuzzy. If misused, your ellipses push you into number three, where the review is manipulated so that it appears to mean something it does not. For example, if a reviewer writes, "This is a great book for people with terrible taste," you can't just include "This is a great book..." because you are altering the reviewer's meaning (and why wouldn't you include the whole thing? The full pull quote makes the book sound fun!)

But experienced reviewers take pains not to include phrases that can be easily misconstrued, just as many of them purposefully include pull quotes that can be easily excerpted. Other times, you get a pretty good review with not a decent pull quote to be found -- every positive is snuggling up tight with a negative turn of phrase. And that's where it's tempting to elide, slice, and dice your way into number three territory.

The Guiding Principle:
Use the reviewer's words and intent as your guide, not what you wish the reviewer would have said and meant.

 

As an example of what works and what doesn't, I'm including a short excerpt from my review from Foreword Magazine here, and different ways to elide it that are right, ok, questionable, and wrong.

Right:

“Danger lurks around every corner, but these two strong characters — both of them sporty and clever, with diverse backgrounds — can hold their own. Short chapters amp up the pace and hold attention, bolstering the story’s wild suspense.” —Foreword Magazine

Love the whole thing! Yay. Now, what if I excerpted it like this?

OK:

"Danger lurks around every corner, but these two strong characters ... can hold their own." 

That's not incorrect, but it's a little awkward. While the writer might just be pressed for space, a reader might wonder what is missing and suspect it's something bad.

How about this?

Questionable: 

“Danger lurks around every corner, but these two ... characters ...  can hold their own" 

Definitely awkward, misleading, and bowdlerized into vagueness. The reader might play MadLibs with the missing modifier, and it may not be flattering:  "annoyingly peppy," "Marysue-like," "Completely unbelievable."

Wrong:

"Short chapters amp up the ....wild suspense.” 

This one crosses the line into number three. In this case, I'm changing the whole object of the sentence! The part that's missing is crucial to the meaning. In my example, it doesn't truly change the sense, but the elided phrase could as easily be "...the reader's impatience, finally spiraling into general silliness and..." This is where the dot dot dot is the review equivalent of yadda yadda yadda in an old Seinfeld episode.

Every review is individual, and every excerpt has to be included on case-by-case basis, considering the content and character count where the excerpt is to be placed. Now if only we could use ellipses in our everyday life! I'd replace every "but" with a dot dot dot.

Your work on that project was really sound but...
You're a great girl and I've enjoyed the time we've spent together but...
Your child has been working hard to improve his behavior but...
I appreciate your insight on ellipses but....

Writing Back Cover Copy

Back when I was first working on a query for my YA Urban Fantasy, Crow's Rest, I wrote the query "blurb" section with back cover copy in mind. I thought, "Why not make it do double duty, and have it ready to go when I need it?"

But although that query blurb got my book lots of interest and requests, I came to realize it wouldn't work very well for a back cover blurb. For one thing, it was too spoilery for cover copy, and that meant it didn't have that hook a reader is looking for. The hook that makes them actually crack open the book (or download the sample) and keep reading.

In the end, the text for the back of a book is much simpler than a query. As I said in a post about queries on my blog, "a query serves as your introduction to an agent or editor, gets them excited about your premise and how you've enacted it". In an ideal query, you also want to show some voice, and possibly reveal one or more plot twists.

But none of that belongs in your back copy--except the excitement about the premise, which is where your hook comes in. Copywriter Carly Hoogendyk, in a post on the Book Country blog, says this about a hook:

"There’s something about your novel that makes it original and specific and intriguing to readers. That’s your hook. Working your hook into a tagline that opens your copy is a tried and true way to get a reader to continue on to the rest of your synopsis and, ideally, the first page of your book."

I'm still playing around with my hook for Crow's Rest, but I've moved on to tackling the actual blurb and have discovered that the version I like the best is pretty bare-bones. It's only 5 paragraphs, and each paragraph is only 1 or 2 sentences. A few years ago, I probably would have been aghast at using something that short to convey my entire book, but since then I've learned that you're not trying to do that.

The blurb is a sales tool meant to intrigue the potential buyer into opening the book, and that's all! I found some helpful resources on writing back cover copy and wanted to share them here:

7 Secrets to Writing Persuasive Back Cover Sales Copy

How to Write a Blurb (Back Cover Copy)

What to Avoid When Writing Back Cover Copy

Tips for Writing Back Cover Copy

How to Write Kick-Butt BCC

And the best way to get a sense of successful back cover copy is to read a bunch of them! Go to the library, a bookstore, an online seller, or your own bookcases, and read a wide sample. Which ones make you want to crack open that book, even if you've read it before?

Blurbs -- make them work for you

It's that time again. Yep. Blurb time.

While many of you have submerged yourselves in the NaNoWriMo (productive) hole, I've been working on the blurb for my upcoming book, If I Speak True. If you haven't done so yet, writing a blurb is actually a good thing to do during NaNoWriMo, too. It took me a couple of years, but I finally learned that writing the blurb at the beginning of writing a book makes a major difference in knowing which direction the book is going. (Versus having no idea what is actually supposed to happen at all, and writing blind, which can be frustrating.)

So. Here's the universal formula (ish) for writing a blurb (A.K.A. a brief synopsis -- but blurb is less scary of a word than synopsis, right? Ha.)

1) Forget everything detailed you've written and separate yourself from your story. I know, this sounds hard and maybe a little mean, but it's necessary. Yes, it's good, yes it's the best you've ever written (let's be honest, we're proud of our work), but for now, step back a bit and imagine only needing to know a couple of key elements. Then prepare yourself to possibly not use all of those, even.

2) Start your blurb out with the current situation. Is Moe heading to the store to get a cup of Joe when a car falls from the sky, severing his toe? Then start there, using a quick, easy-to-understand summary no longer than a couple of sentences.

3) The issue. Now what? Imagine inserting the word "but" here, then hearing the dun dun dun... because something is about to happen.

Moe heads to the store to get a cup of Joe, when a car falls from the sky severing his toe. BUT.... without his toe, he can't prove he is an alien from Schmoe. If he can't prove he's from Schmoe he can't marry their princess visiting earth, Lady Doe. What will he do? How does he prove this? Where will he go?

Here's where you throw out the problem that gets things rolling.

4) A lot of times the thing the character is set to lose is mentioned here. (Think: stakes.) The more I read, the more I see there aren't always huge stakes, though... life isn't always like that. So use this to work for you, but make sure to pull in the reader and make them go: I need to know what happens after this. Now.

Remember: Make your words count. 

* Anything that stands out or goes with the title/storyline will bring your book back to mind again and again. That's a good thing.

* Don't go all crazy on the adjectives. ("Silly, exuberant, klutzy Moe and his big, swollen, alien toe...")

* Pretend you're watching a commercial for your new book on TV. What would stand out and make you go, I AM SO GOING TO WATCH THAT? Here's an example of an upcoming show I can't wait to see (Notice any key elements that get you anticipating the show's arrival?):


Last, this is the time to show off your writerly voice. Don't let the summary turn into a Ben Stein commercial. Give them a taste of who you are; set them up for what's to come.

Here are three blurbs I really liked -- you can see they're all very different (one is contemporary, one dystopian, and post-apocalyptic).

Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham 17, finally confronts her past. Hannah, the closest adult she has to family, disappears. Jonah Griggs, moody stares and all, is back in town. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future. ~ Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive. ~ Unwind by Neal Shusterman

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death? ~ The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Feel free to share blurbs you've enjoyed in the comments!