Short, Sweet, and to the Point

 ~*~ Publisher's Corner ~*~

By Jamie Hill

"Man hates whale, man pursues whale, whale destroys man." 

Name that book in ten seconds.

Does this help?

"When Ishmael sets sail on the whaling ship Pequod one cold Christmas Day, he has no idea of the horrors awaiting him out on the vast and merciless ocean. The ship’s strange captain, Ahab, is in the grip of an obsession to hunt down the famous white whale, Moby Dick, and will stop at nothing on his quest to annihilate his nemesis."

Apparently back in the 1800's authors weren't required to write a blurb--just the book. Somehow they managed to sell a few copies anyway. Today, with more than a million different books available on Amazon, the blurb and the cover are the only things a reader might ever see about your book. 

An eye-catching cover is a given. Without that, busy readers might not even stop to give your blurb a chance.

A catchy title might get you a second look. You've drawn the reader in. Now snag him or her with your blurb!

The blurb sets up the story, but unlike a synopsis, it shouldn't give too much away. Tease the reader with the plot. Give them a hint of what the book is about, make them want to read more. 

For my novel-length romantic suspense books which show two characters' point-of-views, I like a two paragraph blurb. One about her, one about him. For example:

Family Secrets

As if stumbling over a dead body isn't enough, Crystal Cartwright finds herself playing surrogate mother to two small boys when their father--her neighbor--doesn't come home. The kids aren't much trouble, but the thieves, drug dealers and kidnappers they're about to encounter are.

Detective Jack Dunlevy, a cop down on his luck, draws the cases no one else wants. A simple investigation involving a dead homeless man quickly changes as Crystal enlists Jack's help with the children. Drawn into a mystery that none of them could have anticipated, they're faced with a situation that will change their lives forever.

and the sequel:

Family Ties

With a couple of dead bodies thrown in, Detective Brady Marshall's stolen goods case has just become a lot more interesting. His love life takes a turn for the better when he meets Gina Morris, a feisty waitress at the club where the latest victim has surfaced. A happily unattached ladies' man, Brady isn't looking to settle down. But after meeting the beautiful Italian spitfire, his thoughts are shifting in that direction.
 

Gina Morris doesn't date cops. Until she meets Brady, that is, and gets won over by his dogged persistence and winning smile. With things in her past that are best left unspoken, Gina hesitates to get too close, but can't resist the handsome detective's charm. When his case runs smack dab into her past life, both of them are forced to make choices they never dreamed possible in an attempt to salvage their relationship, and possibly even save their lives.

 ------------ 

Fun factoid (okay, fun for me, anyway). The first line of each of these books mentions a dead body. So do the blurbs. So does the first line of book three, Family Honor, coming to Amazon in 2012.

That's my style. Every author should have his or her own.

A few things to remember:

Don't write one line only, or merely use a line from a review as your blurb. (Somebody else wrote that.) Come up with some thoughts of your own. It's your book, after all.

Do double check your blurb for typos and consistency. Ask anyone who proofreads your manuscript to look at the blurb and make sure it's clean and compelling. If it's ho-hum, you need to know before the book gets published.

You spent a long time writing the book. Spend a bit longer making sure the blurb is going to get your masterpiece noticed.

Don't Ignore Me!

~*~  Publisher’s Corner ~*~

By Jude Pittman

I have a day job, so a lot of the work I really love to do (publishing) gets squeezed in between the “must do firsts.”  As a member of the publishing team at Books We Love, I’m the formatting queen.  If a book comes out with off center headings and missing indents—I’m the one who receives the pointed finger. 

Most of the time this is a relatively simple chore – straightforward and not too different from the demands of my day job – except writers are generally a lot less stressful to work with than lawyers. 

There are, however, exceptions, and Amazon’s ever-changing Kindle evolutions is enough to make any sane word processor joining the folks at Jane Toombs’ Thirteen West residence. 

Of course my life inside Books We Love isn’t all formatting.  There are lots of little ups and downs to make my day.  Since we’ve gone primarily Amazon exclusive, we make it a point to closely monitor where the books are on the best seller lists, if our scheduled free books are actually showing up as we promised the readers of our official Books We Love Blog, BWLPP they would be on any particular day.  And if, as has happened a couple of times recently, the Amazonians who release the free books are either sleeping late or have forgotten us altogether, then it’s up to me to send an SOS and ask them what happened?  Sometimes I get an answer, and then sometimes I don’t.  But, at least they know we’re around and watching them.

Then there are the interviews of our authors appearing at various blogs and sites, I try to make it a point to pop over to the hosting Blog and read the interview – sometimes I even comment, but sometimes I just enjoy reading and letting others do the commenting.  Janet Lane Walters recently hosted Vijaya Schartz over on Eclectic Writer.  Definitely a “not to be missed” segment, especially for those of you who are entertaining the idea of writing your own book one day – or maybe even in the process.  Vijaya’s one of our most talented authors, and this interview is packed full of helpful tips and interesting ideas.

Of course, there are emails by the dozens – some days by the 10s of dozens.  We have a rule at Books We Love, no email goes unanswered for more than three days.  My biggest pet peeve, and the thing I hated the most about epublishers I have been with in the past, was being IGNORED. 

Never, in my entire working life, have I encountered an industry as Rude and Inconsiderate as the Publishing Industry, when it comes to replying to correspondence.  Books We Love is the exception.  If you have written to us and three days have passed with no response, then you need to be following up on your inquiry, because your email must be lost in cyberspace.  We have a rule.  I DO NOT CARE IF WE GET 1000 EMAILS A DAY.  If our business is so busy that we can’t answer an email in three days then we’re going to hire someone to answer the emails!

Ignoring email is just plain bad manners.  There is no excuse.  Deal with it folks.  If someone emails you, reply.  Tell them you’re too busy to give their matter consideration at the moment and you have diarized it for January 25, 2030, and will get back to them.  Tell them you don’t want to correspond with them by email any longer and request that they quit emailing you.  If they don’t quit write back and tell them you’ve added them to your SPAM filters (along with all those folks from Nigeria who keep trying to give you money) and you won’t receive anymore of their emails.  I don’t care what you do, but let’s try to improve Publishing’s Bad Reputation.  Just because the mega-corporations in New York got the idea that it made them look busy and hard to get if they ignored all their correspondence for months at a time, doesn’t mean we have to follow their example.  Hey, even lawyers – the subject of all those “KILL ALL THE LAWYERS” books, make it a point of answering their correspondence at least on a weekly basis, if not daily.

Happy Writing All, and Happy Answering emails.  

Jude