Blurbs & back-cover copy
The hardest 150 words you will ever write about your own book.
You have lived inside it for a year. That is precisely why you cannot see it from outside — and the blurb only works from outside. R950, about US$53, seven business days.
Sample blurb opening · cozy mystery
The village had buried three vicars in eleven years. Only one of them stayed buried.
The deliverable
Three lengths, because you need three.
A blurb is not one piece of copy. The paperback, the retailer page and the advert each want a different shape, and cutting the long one down never quite works.
- The back-cover blurb, 120–180 words. Set for print: it has to survive being read standing up in a shop, in bad light, by someone holding a coffee.
- The retailer description, up to 400 words. Written for Amazon, Kobo, Apple and Google Play, with the natural keyword phrases readers actually search built into sentences rather than bolted on. Supplied in plain text and in basic HTML for the KDP description field.
- Three short hooks. One line, one sentence, one paragraph — for ads, newsletter swaps and social posts.
- One revision round within fourteen days, no argument and no fee.
What I need from you
Not the whole book. A blurb is written from shape, not from every scene, so this tier runs on a synopsis and your opening chapters — which is why it is cheaper and faster than a review.
- A one-page synopsis, spoilers included — I need to know how it ends even though the reader will not.
- Your first three chapters, so the copy sounds like your book rather than like a blurb.
- Three comparable titles, or three authors your reader already buys.
- Your series position, if any, and whether the book stands alone.
- British or American spelling, and any series-specific terms you want kept exactly as they are.
Buying a review as well? The Single Craft Review already includes three blurb-ready pull-quotes. Add full blurb copy to any review tier for R650 instead of R950, since the book has already been read.
Why blurbs fail.
Most indie blurbs die of the same four things. Knowing them is half the job.
They summarise the plot
A blurb is not a synopsis. It raises one question sharp enough that the reader has to buy the book to close it, and then it stops talking.
They describe the wrong protagonist
The person on the cover copy should be the one the reader will care about by page thirty — which is not always the one with the most scenes.
They hide the genre
A reader decides in four seconds whether a book is for them. If the copy will not say plainly what shelf it lives on, they move on.
They sound like a press release
Adjective stacks, a “gripping tale of” opener, three exclamation marks. The copy must sound like the book, in the book's own register.
Tell me about the book.
No payment is taken until the brief is read, the word count is confirmed and the price is agreed in writing. If the book is not a fit, I will say so and point you somewhere better.