I Changed My Blurb

I didn't change it much, but something about it had been nagging at me ~ too much info, perhaps ~ because I once again stupidly followed the trend of loooong blurbs the publishing houses use. There's a fine line between telling the entire story and providing just enough information to be intriguing. 

For a while with my books I latched onto the fifty-word blurb ~ it made writing one so much easier; not that it's ever easy. Then I realized they were too sparse, so I went the opposite direction. My blurbs will never be as...exhausting...to read as most of those I've perused on Amazon, because most authors don't seem to understand the term "blurb":

blurb

noun

noun: blurb; plural noun: blurbs

1. a short description of a book, movie, or other product written for promotional purposes and appearing on the cover of a book or in an advertisement.

Unlike most writers, I don't suffer from "word vomititus". Shoot, I was amazed I was able to crank out an over-one hundred thousand word novel. I understand that authors are proud of their work and are eager to spread the word (except for those awful romance novels that are written strictly for $$$). But giving away the whole story in a blurb is not only amateurish but hubristic. Yes, we know you love your work, but your job is to make us love it.

My blurb in its current incarnation is 173 words long, and I still managed to hit the high (and low) points. I didn't list every character's name, just the protagonist's. No one cares about their names when they haven't even read the book. That might have originated with my querying days. It's the accepted procedure to concentrate on one character in a query (unless, you've written one of those...you know...books). 

Another annoyance of mine is reading blurbs written in first person. It's jarring. I'm not the main character; I'm the author. I've been told that first person blurbs are standard for that...you know...crappy genre, but even then, they just read as odd. While my novel was written in first person, I do recognize that Leah is not me and I'm not her. 

As usual, just like with my book covers, I find myself bucking the trend. What can I say? I like what I like. But if I see a way to make improvements, that's a whole other story.