Week of Sept. 15, 2013 - Blurbs

By: Joan Whetzel

 

We’ve all seen them, those blurbs on the back cover of a paperback, on the inside dust jacket of a hard cover book. Those few words are what draw in readers, makes them want to buy the book and take it home to read. Blurbs can also be written to entice readers to pick up a magazine to read a specific article, or continue to a website to read their online content.

 

Blurbs Defined

Yes, blurbs can also be written to describe any product – especially those sold in catalogs and online stores – to entice buyers to fork over their hard earned money. But since this is a blog dedicated to writing,  we’ll stick to the writer’s definition of a blurb. The word “blurb” was invented during  the 1907 American Booksellers Association meeting, allegedly by illustrator and humorist Gelett Burgess, to describe a brief advertisement or announcement. These ads and announcements are generally congratulatory in nature, a short summary intended to excite readers.

 

Blurb History

It seems, Mr. Burgess had recently published a book, but it wasn’t selling well.  So, he took the opportunity to present members of the American Booksellers Association  with copies of his book with  specially designed bookplates showing the picture of a young lady – Belinda Blurb -  singing the praises of his book. The name blurb appealed to the booksellers and publishers, as did the idea of singing the praises of their books to rope in the readers, and so the word “blub” stuck and became a stable of the publishing industry ever since.

 

Writing Blurbs

To write blurbs about your books and articles – or products –

1.                  Keep it short, but don’t tell them everything.

2.                  Give your audience just enough information to intrigue them or tease them, but don’t spoil the movie for them.

3.                  Use juicy, compelling verbs and nouns in your descriptions.

4.                  Write for the correct audience – after all you’re not going to sell an “R” rated book to a pre-teen. So know who your wrote the book or article for and write the blurb to that audience as well.

 

Blurbing is easy, once you do it a few times. The more you do it, the easier it gets. If you're really not sure if your blurbs sound quite right, though, first compare them to blurbs written by other authors. Then try reading your blurbs aloud, and tweak them as necessary.