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Do you think it's easy to write blurbs? Or really difficult?

What do you look for in a good blurb?

I'd like to know :]

I hate writing blurbs.

When I read a blurb, I want to know who the main characters are and get a little teaser of what's to come.

Blurbs are incredibly challenging to write. Even to give a taste of your book it feels like you need to jam in so much information into such a small space, but the truth is most of that information needs to be left out. It is a counter-intuitive process, and I suspect it would be easier to have someone else write them. Author's are just too intimate with the stories.

What I look for is a good tease. Give me a sense of the book's vibe and hint at the plot. But then of course, it needs to interest me. I also look towards originality - a too generic blurb turns me right off.

Writing a blurb for me is a nightmare xD When I try to write mine I always pick books off the shelves (both from my room and the bookstore) and read them to see what they're like (esp. the ones in my genre).

I think a good blurb includes a really good hook, that is non-cliche (and so the struggle with writing a blurb begins xp). As Cassandra said, it introduces the main players of the book as well as the looming threats. It's good to give enough of the conflict but still keep it vague enough to entice the reader (Oh the woes!). Leave the reader questioning 'what's going to happen to this character? how does that work? What's a Perick and why the hell should I fear it? :p How did said characters get so powerful.

If you can get a reader asking all these questions just by reading a blurb they'll want them answered and read the book to find out ;)

I hate writing blurbs too. It's always a challenge to dig out what needs to be in it and what needs to be a surprise.
Personally, I like airy blurb. If someone presents me a huge block, I'll read the first few sentences and unless they are what I am exactly looking for I'll go NEXT.
I also hate the never ending blurbs with too much details. It makes me wonder if the three hundred pages of the book will be mostly the author mumbling, not knowing exactly what he or she wants to say.
While writing a blurb for a first book or a stand alone is hard, I hate writing for a sequel even more. Does it need a recap? If so, won't it give too much of the first for those who haven't read it? Nightmare!

I personally like a teeny tiny blurb. Something I can just glance at. But I don't know how popular that is xD

Edit: I just realised what you wrote Nicole. Well played :p

:D

Like everyone else it seems, haha, I find blurbs very difficult. I'm trying to finish my first novella right now and I'll confess I've been avoiding writing the blurb like the plague. For me a good blurb makes me curious but avoids cliches and spoilers.

I enjoy writing blurbs, perhaps because oftimes the very first thing that pops into my head during the writing process IS the blurb, or something close to it. I think this comes from being such a movie fanatic from a young age. The very first image that I see in my head is akin to a movie trailer...

IN A WORLD WHERE WRITING IS A STRANGE AND MYSTERIOUS PROCESS, ONE MAN MUST HARNESS THE POWER OF HIS BRAIN TO WRITE A BLURB WHICH WILL SELL HIS FREAKIN BOOK.

And...scene. It's kind of odd, but I get stuff like that all the time, popping into my head from the ether, and I have to jot it down quickly. Then, I just let it percolate somewhere in the back of my head, and some time later, sometimes years later, I get a more complete picture of what the completed book or story will be like. The back of my head works on it while the front of my head is busy with my current story.

Hidden in shadows, he protects her from ancient assassins . . . and himself.

Now, ask me how many years it took to come up with that---stop laughing!
*flounces*

I've read blurbs that are so well written, I nearly sob with envy. Then, I go home, new book in hand, more determined than ever to master this thing called writing.
Pfff.
I think I'm still kidding myself.
Blurbs suck.
They're right up there with query letters and synopsisisisis--try saying that with a lisp and 3 shots of tequila!

@J David THATS BRILLIANT :D


@Karey oooooh that's good. How ling did it take? :o

@Nicole
*spews tea*

Karey wrote: "@Nicole
*spews tea*"

Now THAT is a blurb!

Seriously though, hasn't someone figured out a formula or something for blurb writing?

I read this but what I wrote still sounds craptastic:

A young woman's world collides with a secret order of protectors, who call themselves Wards, when her lovers are kidnapped by creatures they call the umbra.

Her only hope in saving their lives and hers?

To work with a reclusive man who is hiding something and looks like a beach bum, and to become a Ward of the South.

I checked the link. It sounds real cool the way he puts it but his lines all fit well before he even put it together.

As for your blurb, whatever order they said to put it, I'd still have to begin the sentence with the end.

EX:

When her lovers are kidnapped by creatures called umbra, a young woman's world collides with the Wards, a secret order of protectors.

Her only hope in saving their lives?

To become a Ward of the South and to work with a reclusive bum.

Yeah that sounds better. I did change it around a bit because it sounded too cookie cutter. I might work her name into it as well instead of just her>.

Thanks G.G. :)

This is harder than writing the bleeding book itself!

You know what is helping? Using J David's example and putting on a gravelly-American-cinema-trailer-narrator-guy voice and reading it aloud and thinking, "would I watch this movie".

Good call, sir!

Jim wrote: "Yeah that sounds better. I did change it around a bit because it sounded too cookie cutter. I might work her name into it as well instead of just her>.

Thanks G.G. :)"

Bah I just turned your own sentences around. Following his example was too much of a cookie cutter. And yes, I agree, you should definitely add her name in there.

Yeah, I love J. David's blurb on the man trying to write a blurb. That was brilliant!

I tried J. David's trailer voice thing. But I can only hear david attenborough :x

HAHAH. If it helps, the guy that does the voice of Winnie the Pooh does, or did, a lot of movie trailers.

That's fine, but in my blurb he's talking about his luscious curly auburn locks, his irritatingly tight pencil skirt and meeing the handsome muscly man of his dreams.

It's not sounding how I think it should sound.

Bisky wrote: "That's fine, but in my blurb he's talking about his luscious curly auburn locks, his irritatingly tight pencil skirt and meeing the handsome muscly man of his dreams.

It's not sounding how I think..."

Can't help but hear the voiceover from Dragnet.
Yeah, aging myself :P

As Pooh bear might say, oh bother.

I had to google Dragnet :p

*applies anti-wrinkle masque*