The blurb

Umgowa

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In my crime novel, the male protagonist (who currently has a serious girlfriend) develops a new love interest in the course of the action. I am debating whether or not to include this fact in my blurb. On the plus side, mentioning the new love interest would appeal to women readers. I know women are very interested in plots that involve romance and love. The down side, however, is that if the new love interest is mentioned in the blurb, my readers will know exactly what will happen with this female character as soon as she is introduced. There are no other contenders. They will know she is the new love interest mentioned in the blurb. I will be depriving my readers the experience of wondering and discovering what may or may not become of this new relationship with my protagonist. In short, mentioning the love interest in the blurb, optimizes the blurb, but minimizes the reading experience. I welcome your thoughts.
 

KBooks

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It's okay in blurbs to spoil some information because the whole point is to entice readers to want to purchase your book and read, or at the very least, to click on your "Look Inside" and check out those first pages. The blurb for "Twilight" reveals in sentence three that Edward is a vampire, and that's a huge spoiler that Bella doesn't figure out until maybe 20% into the book.

Generally I assume all other things being equal, the first attractively-described person who appears on page is going to wind up being a love interest. You probably don't need much for the blurb, just "with the help of special agent Lacey Bradshaw" or whatever. Readers will get the idea. And SYW is a great resource for helping with blurbs!

Now, about the cheating... is he cheating on his serious girlfriend? Or do they break up early on? I would only include information in the blurb that makes reader want to click. As a woman, a romantic subplot? Yes! A dude who's cheating on his serious girlfriend with the next hot thing that came along? No! Now, it may be the situation is super-complicated. Maybe they've grown apart. Maybe she cheated, too. Maybe she's abusive. Maybe he has emotional issues and doesn't know how to end the relationship like he should and you show his growth over the course of the novel. But if you don't think you can explain it in a sentence and make it a selling point, I would leave it out. Your blurb doesn't have to explain the whole novel, it just has to get readers to click on your "Look inside."

Hope that helps!
 

Helix

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I know women are very interested in plots that involve romance and love.

Are they? Are they though?

To get to your question, it'd depend on her role in the story. Is she there to push the narrative forward? Or is she there to make the novel appeal to women readers?
 

Woollybear

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I know women are very interested in plots that involve romance and love.

I welcome your thoughts.

I'm a woman interested in stories that explore both sides of an issue in a way that allows me understand why any particular individual would align with one side or the other. Looking through my shelves, some have romance, others don't, all explore issues.

I love spoilers, and for the books I own in which romance is featured, it is the good writing of that romance that matters, where I very much want the couple to be together (and they'd better be stymied a couple times first) and their kiss had better be worth the buildup. In other word, the experience of the relationship, not the fact of the relationship. If I see on the blurb that there is a romantic relationship in the book, I expect it to be written well and in a way that I am rooting for those sweet kids.

KBooks' and Helix's advice is good.
 
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halion

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how long should a blurb be? What is a good benchmark. 3 sentences which are nice and crisp? 100 words that are clear but not too telling?
 

Bufty

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how long should a blurb be? What is a good benchmark. 3 sentences which are nice and crisp? 100 words that are clear but not too telling?

How long is a piece of string. A blurb is what entices the browser to buy the book - NOW. If it achieves that it doesn't matter how short or long it is, but clarity is more important than length because if the blurb is unclear or boring nobody is going to finish reading it and the book goes back on the shelf. Read some in the local bookshop or library and decide for yourself.
 

halion

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Hmmm....I wonder if it depends on the genre what a blurb should be.

Ie romance for 30+ olds. Fantasy for 10+

Am I right in saying that blurbs are, when a book gets published, written by a third party anyway?
 

Marissa D

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Hmmm....I wonder if it depends on the genre what a blurb should be.

Ie romance for 30+ olds. Fantasy for 10+

Am I right in saying that blurbs are, when a book gets published, written by a third party anyway?

Maybe. Maybe not. Depends. Some might get written by the book's editor or his/her assistant, or by the marketing department. Or the author or agent might have written something that the editor decides would make a good blurb. And as far as length goes, that depends too. There's no formula.
 

sandree

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I’ve had a hard time with this too. I have struggled with not wanting to reveal the plot but having to draw the reader in. Thank you for saying that I could mention the romance (or other details) in the story and it would not truly spoil it. This will help with my blurb.
 

Norman Mjadwesch

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I've been looking at the word count for blurb lengths and the main thing to consider is: will it fit on the back cover if it's a print edition? I've found that anything between 120 - 170 seems to hit the sweet spot between empty space and clutter. If you are including author bio info then this needs to be factored in as well.
 
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