What’s harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?
The awesome co-hosts for the November 3 posting of the IWSG are Kim Lajevardi, Victoria Marie Lees, Joylene Nowell Butler, Erika Beebe, and Lee Lowery!
Back when I wrote poetry – some of it pretty good – I had the worst trouble coming up with titles. How to condense those few words I’d written down to two or three words? It seemed impossible!
But then I started writing fiction, and it was a new ballgame. The titles came to me before I’d even finished a first draft. That was especially true for books that were not the first in a series.
However, we won’t mention the book I’m working on now. The title is giving me a hard time. Well, the whole book is giving me a hard time. It’s a new genre for me, but I’m not giving up on it.
But blurbs are hell! And everyone has a different idea of what makes a good blurb. I can hand a draft of a blurb to three different authors and have it rewritten three different ways. How long should it be? Are all the verbs action words? Are all the adverbs eliminated? Have you left the reader with enough information to hook them without giving away the ending? Don’t forget to include keywords Amazon algorithms are looking for! Just when you thought you’ve got it right, a fourth person comes along with more suggestions.
I think you know where I am heading. Yeah, blurbs are harder. That’s my vote.
Just for fun, here’s the blurb I’m NOT going to use for my next book.
Jake Hennessey lived by his own set of rules
Always be nice to old ladies and little kids.
Always watch out for other drivers.
Always keep an eye out for the cops.
Never carry a gun.
Never sell drugs.
Never steal from the bride or groom at a wedding.
Never get too close to a potential target
Never stay in one place too long.
Then he met Harmony Duprie.
To find out what other authors think about this topic, checkout a few of the links below.
Until next time, please stay safe!
I’m probably not someone you can trust to gauge effective blurb, BUT I love yours. I think you’re onto something. I appreciate the underlying humour.
Thanks. The problem I see is that it comes off as a romance. And though the story has a heavy romantic element, there isn’t a happy ending, so I need to push the crime aspect.
Agree with you on Titles for poems. The hardest thing to decide upon. So much hangs on them.
I hope you are able to figure out a new title for your book soon. I hear you on titles usually being easier than blurbs, which are the worst.
I’m toying with “The Thief and the Angel: The Fall of Jake Hennessey.” Does that sound religious? I don’t want it to.
I agree. Blurbs are hard. A few people this month mentioned the Amazon keyword thing, which is something I never thought about before. I will have to keep that in mind, too, going forward.