I think we all know that blurbing is very important to a book Possibly even more important to those of us that are ebook authors and have to write them ourselves.

You have to give just enough info to get me involved with the characters and their situation but not enough that I don’t have to read the book. I want to talk about the first. Giving me enough information.

And I’m going to talk to it in relation to a movie trailer (which is after all, just a move blurb).

Have you seen the ad for the Jodie Foster/Airplane movie?

It doesn’t give me enough information. It doesn’t tease me into wanting to see the movie, it teases me into wanting to know what in the hell the move is about.

What I can tell from the trailer: Jodie Foster built an airplane. She may or may not have a little girl that may or may not have dissapeared on this airplane’s maiden voyage.

1. Who leaves a small child alone on an airplane?
2. Is this a paranormal (is the plane haunted)? Psychological thriller (Jodie Foster is crazy)? Bad guys vs. Good guys? I don’t know.
3. Why do I care?

So, do books have an advantage over movies with a cover (though movies do have posters)? It kind of gives me two chances to know what the book is about. If ther’s a stilleto on the cover, I’m going to assume chick-lit. If I turn it over and the blurb screams historical, I’m probably not going to buy the book.

So, what are some must have in blurbs?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2005 at 10:53 am and is filed under Writing - theory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.