Perfect timing with this contest. But, for the record, the blurb does nothing for me. Usually it’s the title or cover of the book, and then I’ll read parts of the first chapter before making a final decision.

Still, I think this is a great opportunity to give writer’s a chance to perfect their pitch since that’s part of the writing process. I’ll email my non-traditional pitch later. Thanks.

S

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By Scott on 09.14.09 8:02 am | Permalink

This is perferct timing for me, as well!
My book has changed so much since I first wrote the pitch months and months ago — I’ve been needing the motivation to work on it.

I look forward to seeing what everyone else has to offer =)

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By eden on 09.14.09 11:13 am | Permalink

I’m with you Scott. Title and cover go a long way for me. But if I know nothing of the author, I do sometimes read the blurb.
And, yep, since this is something we all need, me included, I thought why not help each other.

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By Sarah Jensen on 09.16.09 1:02 pm | Permalink

I’m the same as y’all — I hardly ever read blurbs. I just buy the book if it looks good and the short pitch is intriguing. But yeah, we all do need it as agents tend to read pitches
I’m working on mine right now, in fact… We’ll see…

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By eden tyler on 09.16.09 10:50 pm | Permalink

I almost always read the blurb, even if I am familiar with the writer; having said that, I ALWAYS read it if I am unfamiliar with the writer. Cover is not enough for me as I’ve grabbed books in the past for their cover and been disappointed.

Great idea! I’ll have to work on my pitch

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By Lou Riddell on 09.26.09 2:23 pm | Permalink

Like Lou, I care about blurbs mostly when I’m unfamiliar with the author. There are people whose books I will read regardless, and then there are “hunh, wonder what’s up with this book” ones, and the latter are the ones for which the blurb could make a difference.

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By Anica Lewis on 09.27.09 4:29 pm | Permalink

So… is this exercise for writing a short hook like on the QueryTracker site, a back cover blurb, or a short synopsis? I’ve never done a query (cause I have no book ready to query yet! ) so I’m kind of learning the terminology.

Thanks. Might try to put one together to send in for evyerone’s feedback… though I don’t know if I want to write it for my WIP or the story I’m doing for NaNoWriMo. Hmm.

As for me: usually, the cover and title attract me first, then I read the blurb. If that sounds promising, I’ll read the first few pages or even the first chapter before I decide. If I only had 15 seconds though… the blurb (and price! ) would have to do it for me.
Jen´s last blog ..And the winner(s) are…

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By Jen on 09.27.09 10:24 pm | Permalink

Jen, this is like a blurb on the back cover, but we’ve got one, going up on Sunday that’s got a hook (blurb) and a pitch.
So you can send us either.

And don’t you just love Querytracker?

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By Sarah on 10.01.09 1:45 pm | Permalink