Blurb Writing Service?

[NeverGiveUp]

I'm wondering if any of you out there pay someone else to write their blurbs for them. I stumbled across www.bestpageforward.net last night, and I must admit I'm intrigued. Does anyone here use them or any other blurb doctors? The price is steep, but I'm still considering it.

[Jack Krenneck]

There are a few blurb doctors out there. Some of them are actually good, while some are incompetent. People certainly use them though.

How can you tell which is which? How well they sell their own books on Amazon is a good guide. Their new releases should be getting a sales rank of 5000 or less and holding it for a good while at full price.

Alternatively, they might be professional copywriters. They can be good too. But unless they're self pubbing themselves they probably don't have an understanding of the nuances of book blurbs.

Best option of all is a successful indie publisher who has a marketing/copywriting background.

But, for people thinking of getting their blurbs written for them, I have a bit of unsolicited advice. Blurb writing can be difficult, but the more you understand the copywriting skills required for it the easier it gets. And if you acquire those skills, they'll pay you back in more than just blurbs. They'll improve how you write the back matter to your books, your newsletters to subscribers and your Amazon, Facebook and Bookbub ads. They'll come in handy in pretty much everything you do as an indie author and improve your sales.

Better to get those skills and own them than keep paying someone else for it. And without the skills in the first place, it's hard to know if the blurb doctor is incompetent or a fraud looking for a quick buck.     

[Tom Wood]

I'm an architect with a background in project management of large public projects. I switched over to the marketing side for a large firm that wanted to develop their public projects practice. Whenever I asked the architects about a project I wanted to use in a marketing proposal, they always wanted to talk about the materials, the cool atrium, or some other physical part of the building.

That stuff is of NO interest to a prospective client. The prospective client wants to know how we approached a problem, analyzed it, and came up with a great solution. How did we solve their needs and resolve their pain?

That's what readers are looking for as well - How are you the author going to solve their need for a great story, and resolve their pain of a lack of escape into a different reality?

I'm not all that great at it, but I think Jack is pointing us in the right direction.

[guest1038]

These services fall into the 'capitalize on fearful self-pubbers' category. Save your money and research the net for free on how to craft great blurbs/how to write effective ad copy. My two cents.

[Astrid Torquay]

And read lots of blurbs for other books in your genre. The big trad publishers have some experience in blurb writing, one assumes. Look at what they do, analyze, see what works, and try to replicate.

The trouble with hiring someone is that they don't know your book, so either they have to read it, or you have to create a brief for them, not only telling them what the story is about, but also the mood etc. Creating a good brief takes time.

However, I do find it useful to run my blurb by someone who has read my book -- a trusted beta reader who knows the genre and can say whether or not you've captured the awesomeness of your book and whether they, as a reader, would pick it up.

[spin52]

I always run my blurbs past my trusted beta reader, who knows my characters and setting, but hasn't yet read the book. When we get to the point where she says, "OK, I'm hooked," then I know it's good to go.
Disclaimer: I wrote newspaper headlines for more than 20 years. It was good training for compressing a plot into 150 words.

[LilyBLily]

I'm iffy about paying for blurb writing. Although it is hard work to do it right, it's another learning curve we all probably should attempt. If we can't see the hookiness in our story and distill it, maybe there isn't any hookiness. Especially in the first chapter.

I think some blurb writers are incompetent, and many do not charge enough for their services. That might seem like a contradiction, but it's not. Regardless of the quality of the product, we have to to stop thinking that someone will do something fairly complex for a mere $25-$50. The time spent in setup emails alone leaches away their profit to almost nothing. So if you're going to buy this service, expect to pay some serious money and to provide complex information to the blurb writer. Your sales copy isn't something to be tossed off.

[idontknowyet]

I'm iffy about paying for blurb writing. Although it is hard work to do it right, it's another learning curve we all probably should attempt. If we can't see the hookiness in our story and distill it, maybe there isn't any hookiness. Especially in the first chapter.

I think some blurb writers are incompetent, and many do not charge enough for their services. That might seem like a contradiction, but it's not. Regardless of the quality of the product, we have to to stop thinking that someone will do something fairly complex for a mere $25-$50. The time spent in setup emails alone leaches away their profit to almost nothing. So if you're going to buy this service, expect to pay some serious money and to provide complex information to the blurb writer. Your sales copy isn't something to be tossed off.

I agree with what you said, but oh my I soo want to pay someone to do it for me. Blurbs are evil!!!!

[mike herman]

One solution to writing a good blurb is to look at what other people have written, find what moves you and essentially copy it (as in, modify it to fit your book). Some people go with short blurbs that catch a readers attention while others offer descriptive summaries. Whichever type appeals to you, follow that style. It seems to be highly subjective. I never stop checking out what others write. And i find myself constantly learning from them. Here are two examples...
https://www.amazon.com/WAY-Girl-Who-Dared-Rise-ebook/dp/B07D93N7NG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544884632&sr=1-1&keywords=the+way+kristen+wolf
https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Stern-OConner-Florida-Suspense-ebook/dp/B07D26Y9ZF/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544884725&sr=1-2&keywords=Broken+stern
The first is descriptive. The second relies on the punch to the emotional gut. Both seem to work and both types are used extensively.

[PJ Post]

My advice: workshop them here with an open mind. You end up with decent blurbs and learn how to write them at the same time.

Most blurbs follow this structure:

In the land of story, character must overcome conflict otherwise consequences.

Blurbs are like short stories, and good shorts writers usually do pretty well with them for this reason. Novelists always have a hard time distilling their books down to a single idea - "but it's just too big". No it's not.

It's called a log line, not to be confused with a tag line. Tags are what you see on movie posters, like, 'In space no one can hear you scream'.

A log line is a brief (usually one-sentence) summary of a television program, film, or book that states the central conflict of the story, often providing both a synopsis of the story's plot, and an emotional "hook" to stimulate interest.

Example, for my Palimpsest series:

They were just teenagers, orphaned refugees caught up in the westward migration, fighting against fear and sickness and the abominations unleashed by the end of the world, fighting for their sanity, for each other and the only love they will ever know.