Here’s How to Create a Back-Cover Blurb That Sells – Let’s Find Out

If you think about it carefully, then your entire book can be utilised as a powerful marketing tool that can ultimately help with the buying message to your readers.

Your entire book cover can be a marketing tool, and the back cover can also be a very powerful marketing tool; and we would argue that it is even more powerful than the front cover.

That is exactly why today we are going to tell you how to create a back cover blurb that will actually help sell your book.

We are going to talk about all the important things that your back cover blurb should contain for your book to actually perform well when it comes to sales.

But before we can do that, we need to understand what is a back-cover blurb of a book so that we can move on to understand why this is such important marketing real estate for a book and also how to create the best one.

So, let’s begin.

What Is a Back-Cover Blurb?

A back-cover blurb is perhaps one of the most ingenious marketing tools out there and it is usually printed on the back cover of the book.

However, it should not be confused with the synopsis of the book because it is not a summary of the book but instead it is a very short description that is primarily there to spark curiosity and make the users buy the book.

You can think of it as a sample of the book in order to give a quick taste regarding the tone and the premise of the book and it is basically there to convince people to read the actual book.

If we have to explain this in movie terminology, then it would be comparable to a movie trailer or a teaser, which is short and engaging and is just there to spark curiosity without giving away the story.

Writing a book blurb can definitely be considered a very unique skill, and it matters because it presents the very first impressions about the book and is one of the most essential hooks that sets expectations for the readers.

Key Ingredients of a Blurb That Sells

Start With a Hook

The very first thing you can do to create a good blurb that sells is to start the very first sentence with a hook that will make the readers stop on their tracks and continue reading.

In order to do that, you can start the first sentence with a question or even drop a very shocking fact or tell something that is quite emotional and will make the readers stop and think.

This is one of the most necessary things you must keep in mind when you are planning the hook and this is not really optional because if you want a blurb that actually sells and performs well, then this shock and awe factor should always be present.

Introduce Your Protagonist Quickly

There are many reasons why people might fall in love with a book and one of the primary reasons has to do with the protagonist and that is exactly what you have to do with the blurb.

When you are starting the blurb, you should not waste any time in introducing the protagonist so that the reader instantly has someone to connect with and you should do that in a way that gives away just enough detail to start interest in the protagonist.

You must put in details and highlight things that are going to make the character unique and if you decide not to make the character unique, then you must at least decide to make the character relatable.

However, then again, you must keep it tight and not reveal too much and perhaps maybe just put in the name of the protagonist and the role they are actually playing in the story.

Present the Conflict (Without Spoiling the Plot)

After you start with the hook and introduce the protagonist, it is now time to sprinkle a little bit of spice and flavour into the blurb.

This can only be done by presenting the conflict in a way that showcases the actual engine that drives the story.

However, this is an area that you must be extremely careful with because you simply cannot risk revealing the actual conflict, the climax or any crucial detail.

Instead, you can do something like talk about what is at stake for the character and what kind of things the character might lose in case things go in the wrong direction.

In addition to that, you must also try to present the environment of the conflict and hint at all the forces that are working against the protagonist.

But then again, you must be very careful in this stage of the blurb because if you reveal too much, then there will be no reason for the reader to get the book.

Match the Tone to Your Genre

Matching the tone of the blurb to the actual genre and the story is quite important because a blurb, in its basic form, is a small sample of the entire book.

You can think of it like a food sample, where if the sample is not similar to the actual dish, then the consumers will be disappointed. Similarly, the blurb must feel exactly like the book but it should just stop before it reveals too much.

That is why you must place special focus on the genre of book you are writing when you are creating the blurb, because if the book is a thriller, then the blurb has to be full of urgent sentences, and it should have a fast pace to it, and if it is romance, then the blurb has to be emotional and dramatic, etc.

End With a Tease or a Call-to-Action

Now that you know everything that you must put into the blurb, it is also important to understand how you should end it because you should end it with a tease or something that makes the readers want more.

The primary purpose of a blurb is that it is a teaser that will make the readers want to invest their time in the story and that is why you should end it with a mystery and invite them into the story so that they actually get the book.

Avoid

It is also quite important to understand the things you should avoid and the very first thing you need to understand is that this is a teaser, and you should totally avoid dumping too much information into the blurb. If you do that, you will ruin the book.

You must also try avoiding clichés that readers have read a thousand times and you must also keep the length short and finally avoid spoilers.

We hope this blog has helped you understand how to create the perfect back-cover blurb that helps you sell your book.

And if you have decided on the back-cover blurb after completing the manuscript and are looking for one of the most reliable and reputed names in the industry when it comes to publishing, then we are here for you.

We are Orange Publishers and we are a legacy publishing company that presents you with the reliability of traditional publishing combined with the convenience of self-publishing all under a single name.

We have extensive publishing experience with different media and genres and we would love to publish your very own book, complete with a powerful back-cover blurb.

We welcome you to visit our website for more details.