Step 9
The
blurb is a short description of the story intended for the back cover of the
book but also may be used for advertising purposes. The trick is to suggest the
main points without giving away the story. If this is for an agent or
publisher, the blurb would be expanded into something longer often called a
synopsis, which does include everything, spoilers and all, because the people
you work with need to know the complete story.
The
blurb, however, is only about 200 words. In submitting a book manuscript to a
contest, for one purpose, there is often a limit on the word count for the blurb. For the back
cover, you must be aware of the space which the text takes up.
For EXCHANGE, my JFW (just-finished-work, as opposed to WIP, work-in-progress), I dabbled
with the blurb well before I even reached the middle of the writing. There is a
basic template which helps sometimes, hinders at other times: Introduce main
character and situation/setting; mention chief problem faced; discuss why it
will be difficult to solve problem or what the ramifications will be if problem
is not solved; end with a question, something like "But will he
succeed?"
Here
is what I've been working on for EXCHANGE and continue to tweak:
Bill
Masters has a good life as a high school teacher in suburbia. But that life is
shattered when his wife and daughter are killed in a mass shooting. Prepared to
wallow in depression and drink himself into numbness, Bill must pull himself
together when their foreign exchange student arrives not knowing what has
happened. Forced to try to be a good host father, Bill finds Wendy Wang from
China to be both a hindrance to his recovery and a boost to his will to go on.
As Bill struggles through the stages of grief, however, he must battle on-going
crimes and threats to his peace, giving him a second chance with Wendy. He will
protect her. This time he will not fail - no matter what it takes.
That may look like a lot of text yet it is only 129 words. In it, I
have who the story is about, what the situation is, the main obstacle(s), and a
suggestion of possible love-interest or foil, and the direction the
story will take. As it is, it's rather clunky. Tweaking continues.
[Note: Because the book is finished and has been published, the tweaking has stopped and a much tighter blurb made it to the back of the book cover. See image below.]
Step 10
In
the indie publishing world, we hire someone to make a cover for the book. If
it's an ebook such as for Kindle we only need a front cover. If it will
be a paperback, we need the full front, spine, and back.
Looking
at recent covers of literary fiction in my local Barnes & Noble, I see the
trend to have a single image which suggests the main character, the plot, or
the setting. The title and author's name is enlarged to cover much of the
image. Not my favorite style but it seems the trend today, so I'm following it.
Science
fiction and fantasy are known for their elaborate and evocative cover art.
Romance covers usually feature a couple. Crime fiction features some prop that
suggests the crime. You get the idea. But literary fiction can be about
anything as long as it is contemporary.
So,
following the latest "rules", I have a front cover for my newest
literary novel, EXCHANGE. The image is of one character in a
provocative pose. Actually, there is nothing particularly provocative about it,
but readers may find it provocative because of the way other elements of the
cover come together.
For the back cover, I like how the front cover image continues, but a different cover might have different art. Be aware that the back cover will have small text on it (the blurb) so the art should not be too complex to obscure the readability of that text. Note the "Gun Free Zone" tattoo on her shoulder. Glowing quotes from readers, serious author picture, publisher logo (in gray) are other elements of the back cover - plus the bar code, which has not been applied yet to this image (it goes in the white space below the publisher logo). Always check for the readability of the blurb (contrast, size, font). Then wait for things to happen. Meantime, start at Step 1 on a new project.
This
concludes the Process posts. We hope also that the Solitude comes to an end, as well. Too much idle time makes Jack a dull boy, as they say.
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(C) Copyright 2010-2020 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.
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