Sell It BSB 117

Blurbs Sell Books

Today on the show, BPF trainer and writer John Phythyon and copywriting guru Abigail Dunard tackle an author-submitted blurb to dissect it and understand how to write killer sales copy.

To watch video of this episode, view it on Facebook at Best Page Forward.

Here are this episode’s read-along selections:

Blurb:

TERF Wars by Dharma Kelleher

A Fight For Justice Has Become A Battle for Truth

Bounty hunter Jinx Ballou has been hired to apprehend a fugitive who brutally murdered a transgender woman in a public restroom. As a trans woman herself, Jinx is more determined than ever to bring this bigoted killer to justice.

What Jinx didn’t anticipate was the powerful media machine her fugitive controlled. She finds herself in the middle of a war of media manipulation, disinformation, and deep-faked videos designed to further harm an already vulnerable community.

TERF Wars takes readers on an action-packed thrill ride that dives deep into the issues of identity and intersectionality, oppression and accountability. As one of the only openly transgender authors in crime fiction, Dharma Kelleher delivers a heartfelt tale that will leave readers cheering for more.

Targeted Takeaway:

When writing your book description, it’s important to think about what readers want. That’s essentially two things: A main character they can root for and identify with and to buy books they enjoy reading.

Your description should let them inside your MC’s head. As we often say, don’t tell the reader what happens to your protagonist; show the character’s reaction to the events of the story. Readers want to walk alongside your MC, feeling what they feel and hoping for them to triumph. Give them that with show instead of tell.

It’s equally important to sell them your book. Once you’ve given them a brief taste of the action, you need a selling paragraph that identifies the title, whether or not it in a series, what number book in the series it is, the genre, and the tropes the reader will find inside. This helps them know that this is a book for them – one they will enjoy. And then you need a CTA telling them to buy.

A blurb is a sales tool. Its job is to sell the book. And you should not be ashamed to ask someone to buy your work. That’s what a reader is there to do!

For indie authors, that’s the ultimate happy ending.