sales copy – Sean Monaghan

I mentioned in a recent post about how I enjoy not knowing too much about what’s coming when I’m planning on watching a movie or starting in on a new book. I should add as a contradictory corollary, that I do have some favourite movies I will watch again and again – where I pretty much absolutely know what’s coming.

But in that post I mentioned that when it comes to writing blurbs for my own books, that I work hard to ensure that I don’t give too much away, but do write enough to entice readers.

The balancing act. I like how the high-wire walker in the photo here has still got safety cables attached. You wouldn’t get me up on one of those things, but sure as eggs I’m confident that the smartest of those people have safety cables carabinered on.

Here’s my practise a blurb for “Mech Variant”, a Wildest Skies story coming out later this year.

A brutal and challenging tale that pits common sense against survival instincts.

Galactic explorer Ed Linklater wants a quiet moment enjoying planet Gladioll’s sweet, restful scenery.

To bad the scenery lies in the firing line.

A high-stakes emotional roller coaster of a story that takes no prisoners.

Do I give too much away there? Not enough? Have I straddled the balance of revealing enough to make someone sufficiently intrigued to read the story, but not so over-informed that they won’t bother?

As with anything in writing, I’ll just keep learning and keep striving.

image: Adobe stock. Book cover image © Grandeluc | Dreamstime

I like to think that I’m growing and learning as a writer (and despite a string of university qualifications, I’m starting to wonder if I’m a slow learner. Perhaps a topic for another post). As I learn, I hope I’m getting better a writing blurbs. Blurbs are a whole other language (did I mention somewhere that I struggle with learning languages?).

Stories seem to fall out of me, yet blurbs are more like that old story about pulling teeth.

It strikes me that a blurb, as in sales copy, must describe the book, but not reveal the book. They must be punchy. Rather than saying, ‘well, you might enjoy this book’, they should say, in effect, ‘READ THIS NOW! Your life depends on it!’ I’ve been looking back over some of my blurbs and starting to get a sense of how they miss that. By a wide mark. Sometimes wide means something like the gulf between galaxies.

My recent book Raven Rising started out with this goofy blurb:

“Practically swallowed up by alien forest, the wreck of the Raven offers few clues to the team eager to discover why the ship wrecked so violently. Crack investigator Angelie Gunnarson faces an enormous task. Will she be able to find the answers before time runs out? An action-packed short sci-fi novel from the award-winning
author of The City Builders.”

I think this blurb has some good moments (the last sentence kind of works), but frankly overall it’s pedestrian. Where’s the good reason why a reader might be interested in the book?

All right then, I’ve had a go at another iteration:

“Light years from home, Starship Raven went down in an plunging blazing wreck. Crack investigator Angelie Gunnarson and her team love this kind of impossible mystery. But the Raven might have more secrets than even Angelie can handle. An action-packed short sci-fi novel from the award-winning author of The City Builders.”

Hmm. Not quite sure yet. Don’t quite know what the next iteration will be.

I am, however, going to take a course in Writing Sales Copy, to see if I can’t get a better handle on this.

Then of course there’s work to do on the covers… and all the time work to do on the craft of writing too…

All this is pretty fun.

Tag: sales copy

The High Wire Artist

Writing sales copy – still learning