[This piece was first published in 2016 on my Medium publication titled Booksist. I’ve made a few small edits, mainly to remove the completely irrelevant and outdated info about the number of Google search results for this topic, and to change the CTA, as I’m now into other things.]

A perfect blurb should be concise, catchy, and compelling: a promise of a great emotional or intellectual adventure. Everybody knows that. If you google “How to write a book blurb”, you’ll get countless results, not to mention GPTs and other LLMs that can apply the formula within a split second. 

There’s plenty of great advice out there. Follow the guidance, and everything will become easy. You only have to write a few convincing sentences, and it shouldn’t be a problem — they are simple (there is a huge no-no for wordiness in blurbing), and you are a writer. What a relief!

Until you sit down and try to write.

Even if you manage to follow the advice literally, you’ll get stuck because something essential is missing.

Crafting these perfect sentences is not that hard, but it is already phase two of blurb copywriting. If you have jumped over phase one, you’re in a problem.

I’ll tell you more about phase one. It all starts with close reading. 

Forget about sitting back and relaxing with a book. Serious reading is a complex activity. Get yourself a cup of coffee, some paper, and a pen.

For most people (naïve readers, as Thomas Mann used to say), reading is nothing more than receiving a message. For professional readers (e.g., writers, copywriters, critics, academics, journalists, etc.), it is not that simple. You have to perform an in-depth analysis of content and style. Content must be demystified, intentions cleared, and style reconstructed. It is never only about getting the message. 

An average reader reads for an experience. It’s all about identifying with the characters, enjoying the plot’s twists and turns, making moral judgments, and emotionally investing in the text. That’s a passive, unconscious process, guided by the author’s intentions and your natural impulses.

Expert reading is different. As a competent reader, you know what you’re doing while reading. You need to deconstruct and demystify the content, identify literary devices and techniques, and expose the intentions. This involves the ability to recognize allusions, understand the context, and have a delicate nose for irony.

A skilled, professional reader is beyond the story and, therefore, able to make a convincing interpretation of the text (book review, essay, study… or a blurb). You need to be able to manipulate the interpretation, emphasize whatever you want, and omit other elements. This particular skill is essential for blurb writing.

We can argue about the ethics of this method, but in fact, every opinion-maker in the world does this. Misuse is possible and frequent, so be careful. Use it only to catch the attention of people who want to read a book just like the one you’re trying to sell.

This extremely powerful skill, often used and abused by critics, is not that difficult to learn. So, listen carefully; I shall say this only once…

Be aware of yourself, your expectations, and your intentions. You are a formed individual with your own point of view, values, beliefs, and attitude. Like it or not, it will always reflect on your reading (and writing), and that is perfectly fine as long as you know what you’re doing.

Blurb writing is similar in some ways (it is not about retelling the plot), and still much different from reviewing. You shouldn’t let your personal taste guide you. You are the guide. You might not like the book you’re about to write a blurb for, and that is completely irrelevant.

Hide your personal taste and intentions. Even if you absolutely loved the book, slow down and keep a cool head. Write down your expressions of delight, but don’t use them all in the blurb. Make a selection based on the potential effect any of those statements would have on the readers. Move yourself away. In the narrative of a book blurb, you do not exist.

Read like someone else would. Project common and not-so-common expectations that other readers might have when reading.

Your reading experience and your knowledge of the market will help. Hopefully, you’ve read a lot of books in your life and just as many (if not more) reviews and critiques, and you know what works for whom. Use that knowledge.

Imagine someone who would love that book and read it like they would. A specific person you know. Make them curious about the book you’re writing about. Read to detect the value that appeals to them. Detect the faults, too, for your own records, so you can masterfully ignore them.

Don’t lie. A tiny bit of exaggeration is allowed and useful, but do not play with anyone’s expectations. There is always someone who would hate the book you are trying to sell, so don’t make them buy it and leave a one-star review afterward. Your goal is to identify the kind of reader that would love to read it and make them pay attention by presenting the most interesting facts about it. Whichever promise you give to a reader, the book must fulfill. Period.

The rest is poetry. Every word matters. Use them with exceptional care. 

Read and listen to what beta-readers and reviewers of your book have to say. They are the most precious source of feedback and material for your new blurb.

Choose the betas carefully. You’ll need different kinds of beta readers:

• a naïve one (with no or little literary knowledge), so you could check if the story works on a basic level

• a fan of your genre, able to compare your book with others with the same subject and similar narrative

• someone who prefers other genres to give a special light to universal and not only genre-specific qualities

• and at least one truly competent reader (someone with a degree in literature, philosophy, or creative writing…) to convincingly articulate the presence of all those qualities.

Ideally, you should not know these people personally, and neither of them would have any reason to be anything but honest.

I’m no longer actively looking for blurb writing jobs, but if you think we’re on the same wavelength, you’ll easily find me online, onchain, on socials, and freelancing platforms. 

Books are not as they used to be, and I crave a good one. 

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This article has been minted and linked to my creator coin $PHILOLOGIST, tradable on Zora.