Blurbs That Sell Books is the tenth book in Chris Fox’s popular Write Faster, Write Smarter fiction-writing series. I’ve already read and enjoyed all of the previous books he’s produced, and I credit his book Write to Market as the driving factor behind my debut’s success.
And, being someone who has spent an unhealthy amount of time around blurbs, I naturally grabbed a copy of Blurbs That Sell Books as soon as I heard about it.
The first thing to note is that this book elaborates on some of the concepts Chris has already spoken about on his YouTube channel. For those of you looking for a “preview” of sorts, these videos let you see the logic behind his thinking and how he applies it to both his own and other authors’ book descriptions.
The book itself isn’t an exhaustive or comprehensive guide—being around 70 pages long, according to my Kindle—but it does open a window into a particularly fascinating aspect of book descriptions and human psychology.
The crux of the book is that words operate as symbols. Every word bears a web of associations that act as subtle emotional triggers. As authors, we can use this to our benefit by crafting book descriptions that are loaded with the right symbols for our genre.
Chris calls these “keywords”. As opposed to the 7 keywords we enter into Amazon’s metadata, these blurb keywords are psychologically powerful words that connect with readers on an emotional level.
A fantasy book might use keywords like crown or sword, while a sci-fi book might use spaceship or alien. Using these symbols lets us draw in the right readers, while also turning away people who aren’t our target audience.
Chris also provides some examples from his own books, so you can see the blurb that made Tech Mage into an Amazon top 100 bestseller. I have to say, while reading that blurb, I felt a bit like a wine taster with a rare vintage. Or perhaps like this one clip from The Simpsons:
Chris also provides a blurb from one of his other novels that needed revising, along with his methods for working genre-relevant symbols into your own book descriptions. It’s written for authors who want to DIY the process, so you can follow along even if you’re not able to spend money on keyword services like K-Lytics or Publisher Rocket.
The collection of step-by-step exercises makes it easy to follow along and start writing your own effective blurbs that incorporate valuable keywords.
Overall, I recommend Blurbs That Sell Books to any author who wants to learn more about the psychological impact of language and how we can use it to—as the title says—sell more books.
You can buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Blurbs-That-Sell-Books-Smarter-ebook/dp/B0H6RBX88R
If you’d like to sell more books by mastering the art and science of effective blurbs, download my free copywriting book, The Blurb Puzzle.
Morgan Lee Clasper is a copywriter, book sales strategist, and author of The Blurb Puzzle. With over seven years of experience in the publishing industry, he’s worked with New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling authors, writing 4,000 blurbs and counting.
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