When you are trying to decide whether or not to buy a book, do you look at the blurb on the back cover? How much does it affect your decision to buy the book?
As an author I sweat over blurbs and play a game of blurb handball with one of my CP’s. I try to keep them down to 150 words and make them as interesting as possible.
If you have a blurb, please share. Here is mine from Lord Beaumont’s Bride.
LADY SERENA WEIR has achieved the impossible. At the spinsterish age of twenty-six, she is the most sought after lady on the Marriage Mart. Serena is determined to find not only a husband, but love.
ROBERT, VISCOUNT BEAUMONT, London’s most hardened rake, was betrayed by a woman once and now wants a wife he can rule with an iron hand. Love has no place in his life or in his heart, or so he thinks.
When Robert decides the only way to marry Serena is to compromise her and smugly declare their betrothal, Serena takes off to Paris until Robert can mend his ways. Can love settle the differences between these two strong-willed characters? Or will both live in the shadows of ruin?
I tend to judge books by two things. Covers and blurbs. The Cover is less crucial in my decision, but the blurb is essential. Even when I’ve heard great things about a certain book, if by the time i get to the bookstore or amazon, and i read through the blurb, it doesn’t catch me, I will not buy it. The blurb is that important!
I agree. I don’t care much about the cover, but the blurb is important. Thanks for posting.
Same here-the cover and the blurb are the deciding factors in my buying a book. They also determine if I go into the reading of the book with excitement or half-heartedness.
Hi Jamie, thanks for posting.
I agree with Lauren, I choose books based on covers and blurbs. If the blurb enlightens me, it’s a sale.
Hi Carole, thaks for coming by.
I agree with Lauren. Covers and blurbs are equally important to me –with the blurb carrying the most weight.
Here is my blurb from A Taylor-Made Life.
Seventeen-year-old Taylor Smith doesn’t want to die a virgin. Unfortunately, if the terminally-ill leukemia patient doesn’t find a lover or a stem-cell match within months, her fear will become reality.
Tech-geek Gavin Taylor has everything he ever wanted, except someone to grieve him when he’s gone. With his melanoma cancer beyond the help of his riches, he agrees to participate in a cancer patient mentoring program where he’s matched with a dying teen from Texas.
Despite his immediate attraction, the Silicon Valley whiz intends only to provide friendship and happy memories to the beautiful young woman who is determined to win his love. Against his better judgment, Gavin’s feelings take a romantic turn, but he continues to resist. When it’s discovered that his frozen sperm and her harvested eggs could lead to a cure, Taylor’s mother offers to be a surrogate.
And Gavin must decide if he can risk the heart he has never given and a child he’ll never know to a girl he just met.
Kary, very nice. Thanks for sharing.
Blurbs are important – it give the reader a taste of what’s inside.
Blurb for Black Dorn – Purchased to be trained as a courtesan, Branwyn arrives in a strange new land. A castle called Black Dorn. Her instructor, Duna Trea, is horrified by Branwyn’s lack of knowledge of the relations between a man and his woman. Branwyn begins her daily lesson in the art of bedding a man.
Back from battle, Prince Malack rests near a brook to freshen before returning to the court of his father. His life is lonely. The noble woman chosen to be his bride rejected him and bedded his hated rival. Malack turned his anger and loneliness onto the focus of battle and increasing the power and wealth of Black Dorn.
Branwyn, lost and afraid, nears the handsome stranger standing by the brook and requests his help. Malack raises his eyes and his gaze settles onto the face of the woman who will be his queen.
Nice Daryl. Thank you.
I HATE writing blurbs! Your’s is very good!
Thanks D’Ann. I hate writing them also.
Blurbs are very important to me, mostly as a filter for what I don’t want to read. If there are some elements mentioned I know will turn me off, I will immediately set the book down.
Here is my blurb for RACING WITH THE WIND, my Regency set in London and Paris in 1816:
THE NIGHTHAWK
Hugh Redgrave, marquess of Ormond, was warned. Prinny had dubbed Lady Mary Campbell “the Swan,” but no ordinary man could clip her wings. She was a bluestocking hellion, an ill-advised match by every account. Luckily, he sought no bride. His work lay on the continent, where he’d become legend by stealing war secrets from Boney. And yet, his memories of Lady Mary riding her stallion were a thorn in his mind. He was the son of a duke and in the service of the Prince Regent…and he would not be whole until he had won her hand.
THE SWAN
It was unheard of for a Regency debutante to postpone her first season, yet Lady Mary had done just that. Far more interested in politics than a husband, she had no time for foolishness or frippery. Already she had assisted her statesman uncle in Paris, and she swore to return to the court of Louis XVIII no matter the danger. Like her black stallion, Midnight, she would always run free. Only the truest heart would race beside her.
Regan
http://www.reganwalkerauthor.com
Regan, It’s great. Thanks for sharing.
I’m with Lauren – the cover will attract me first. If I like it, then I’ll read the blurb. 🙂
Hi Sheri. Thanks for stopping by.
Blurbs are as dautning as queries and proposals. We always get super nervous, simply because it’s what draws us to buy a book. That was a great blurb, Ella. Hope we can come up with something like that!
Thanks, Inion. It just takes time and working with someone else.
The blurb is the pitch. Hook me and I’m yours!
“In the war on terror, sometimes the best weapon is a woman…
Sarah Stevens is a washed-up military cop whose life is a shambles until she is offered a position as an agent with the CIA. The thirty-year-old, overweight, down-on-her-luck Stevens goes to a secret training camp where she is transformed into a sexy and deadly agent whose mission is to stop, by any means possible, the financiers of terrorism against the United States and its allies. Sarah soon discovers that this is an exciting new life loaded with adventure, danger and undeniable temptations…”
Blurb from The Path to Freedom: http://www.amazon.com/Path-Freedom-Task-Force-ebook/dp/B006L0RRW2
Lisa, that’s a great blurb.
Hi Ella,
I look at the cover first, and then the blurb. I never buy a book without reading the blurb first. I really like your blurb for Lord Beaumont’s bride. I’m buying it the minute it comes out. I’m suffering through writing the blurb for my Christmas novella now. Ugh. I hate writing those things.
Thanks, Callie. Let me know if you want to toss your blurb to me.
I’m like others. The book cover must grab me. Then I look at a blurb.
Ella~ Love your blurb. Love strong-willed characters, too. You’ve got a winner.
I don’t have a blurb for my WIP, but here is the blurb for my last release, The Siren’s Song
Pirate captain Thayer Drake lures ships onto reefs for plunder, and business is lucrative. Yet, saving a lass from drowning after her ship wrecks becomes more than he bargained for when the crazy wench dives back into the raging sea for her blasted purse.
Tavern songstress Gilly McCoy, penniless and fleeing from the man who murdered her lover, stowed away on the doomed ship. Now at Drake’s mercy, Gilly must earn her passage by performing for the captain. And that is not all: she must also kiss the captain at every ring of the ship’s bell. But she discovers kissing the handsome rogue is not entirely a bad bargain…
Drake is intrigued by the beauty, but there is no room in his black heart for a woman. He has demons that he drinks nightly to forget. Meanwhile, Gilly has her own secrets to keep–including why her purse is more valuable to her than her life…
Thanks, Jenn, I like yours too.
Love the blurb, Ella! If it’s an author that’s new to me, the blurb is very important and helps me decide whether to buy the book. I don’t care too much about the cover, unless it’s so horrible it keeps me from wanting to be seen holding the book.
Thanks, Ally. I agree, for me it’s the blurb.
It’s very inspiring seeing everyone’s blurbs.
Thank you for coming by.
I’m attracted first by the title and cover, then read the blurb. If it sounds interesting I’ll open it and look for the author’s voice. Even if the blurb sounds wonderful, I know there are certian “voices” that I won’t read. But the blurb is extremely important to me. They are tough to write, but worth it. Here’s mine from Only Scandal Will Do (not the original one I submitted; the publisher changed it.):
Kidnapped and sold at auction in a London brothel, Lady Katarina Fitzwilliam squelches an undeniable attraction to the masked stranger who purchased her, pits her wits against him, and escapes him and the scandal that would ruin her life.
Unable to resist temptation in a London brothel, Duncan Ferrers, Marquess of Dalbury, purchases a fiery beauty. She claims she’s a lady, but how can she be?
No lady of his acquaintance in polite society is anything like her. Then he discovers she is who she says, and that this latest romp has compromised her reputation. He knows how that is. One more scandal and he’ll be cast out of London society, but he needs a wife who’ll provide an heir to carry on his illustrious family’s name. He seeks out Katarina, intending only to scotch the scandal, but instead finds his heart ensnared. He’s betting their future he’ll capture her heart, but does he have what it takes to win the wager?
WARNING: A blade-wielding heroine who crosses swords with a master of sensuality.
I still think it’s good. Thanks for commenting.
Hi, Ella! To me, the book blurb is the most imporant element in getting me to purchase a book. More important than the cover, an excerpt or even the author. The blurb pulls me in, and if it catches my interest, I’ll buy the book.
I agree, Susan. Thanks for commenting.
Hi Ella,
The blurb is very important to me when purchasing a book. I admit a beautiful cover will catch my attention but the blurb makes the sale .
Hi Deirdre, Thanks for coming by. I agree with you.
The blurb is so important. It’s great you try to keep it down to a certain word count and as interesting as possible. I love the one you posted, Ella.
Thanks so much, Melissa and thanks for taking time to comment.