Sometimes we authors write our own book blurb, and we tell all about the book’s contents but we don’t sell it. With examples, learn how to write a book blurb without crying anguished tears.
History book blurb example
Two Rivers Run is the tale of the first European to settle in Gippsland, a vast and diverse region that has become the economic powerhouse of Victoria.
Not far from the spreading development of Melbourne and Port Philip Bay, Western Port retains a place for wildlife and nature to thrive. Land beside a small freshwater creek near Bass provided a good place for Scotsman, Samuel Anderson, to start growing wheat and potatoes. The intrepid bookkeeper-turned-trader was to become Victoria’s third settler and Gippsland’s first.
A bumper harvest from the trial crop convinced Samuel and his friend Robert Massie to create a farming business. The diverse 150-acre farm and orchard soon thrived on the fertile river flats beside Bass River in Western Port. Not content with helping feed the rapidly-expanding settlements of Melbourne and Launceston, they also built a sailing vessel to transport their produce to market and a flour-mill to grind their grain. Both were built on the nearby estuarine mud flats, far from civilisation.
The author brings together for the first time inspiring stories of resolute, hard-working, and courageous Scottish pioneer-settlers. People who saw the potential of Western Port when most others chose Port Phillip. They laid the foundations for the productive Western Port region community we see today.
This book will serve readers interested in Gippsland history; giving an insight into the original Aboriginal inhabitants, the exploration of Western Port and the early pioneer-settlers of Victoria.
This blurb does a great job of bringing the reader into the scene while intimating what they will be reading about.
A Blurb for my Money Book
Next up, we have a blurb about my money management book.
Be on your guard. Swift talkers, seminar spruikers, Bitcoin clones and work-at-home ‘opportunities’ will rob you of your potential to create wealth.
Read Creative Ways with Money if you’re tired of the hype and promises and instead want to learn ways to:
- spot a fake ‘opportunity’
- invest in shares with just $5 to spare
- start a side business
- start to think creatively about your money zone
So come along, bring your fears and anxieties out of the dark cupboard. Find out why you should make your own financial choices, confidently, to design your life the way you want it to be.
Proving that it’s easy to make poor financial decisions when emotion is in charge, Jennifer Lancaster tells of her experiences, various scam stories and interesting psychological principles… to fully inform new investors.
This was a difficult blurb to write because the book contains many topic areas and key learnings. One thing I forgot in my blurb was my ‘8 Money Rules’, as in: ‘Remember the guidelines to keeping safe, with 8 Creative with Money Rules.’
I don’t think this blurb is good enough to carry the reader away and buy the book. So, it needs an overhaul with more nods to the depth of material in the book.
The first line is the tagline I used in other websites.
Tips for the Blurb Format
Adequate Length of Blurb: between 120 words and 250 words.
The blurb above is only 133 words.
Kindlepreneur also has a few tips on writing a back cover blurb:
- Give the reader what they expect (for this genre)
- Put yourself in the reader’s shoes
- Make it scannable, and short
Indeed, the reader wants to read a blurb that is simple, light and airy (lots of space around the paragraphing). They prefer conversational or bouncy writing. Then they are drawn into it.
Writing a Book Blurb is…
If you find writing a blurb very painful, you and me are on the same page. But amazingly, I can edit and co-write blurbs for other people’s books much more easily. I can see what they might have left out that would be a benefit or feeling of reading the book.
That’s why I included support for writing a book blurb and bio in my Book Launch Support package.
