How to write the back cover blurb for a short story collection?

The Second Moon

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So, I'm on the second draft of my short story collection about the same characters. I want to write a back cover blurb (sorry if that's not the right name/term for it). I want to write it to keep me motivated to keep editing. That way when I'm in a editing slump, I can look at it and be reminded of how exciting my story is.

But this isn't one story...it's nine. How do I write a back cover blurb for it? I've seen on the internet that I could write short blurbs for my favorite stories in the collection, but I my collection is about the same characters. Would that method still work without spoiling anything?

My other idea is to write a general blurb about the MC and what he wants, but this short story collection has two more collections following it also about the same characters. I don't want every collection's back cover blurb to sound the same.

(I've been also thinking I should share what I have right now in SYW. I post it in the Query SYW, right?)
 

The Second Moon

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So it has been a few days since I started this thread and I'm not sure if it just got lost in the shuffle or if I worded it in a confusing way. But, I'm still looking for help either way.
 

Brightdreamer

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Hmm... This is kind of a specific thing you're asking, then.

Have you read blurbs for similar collections?

For an older example, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories (classic sword & sorcery - he even coined the term) follow the same characters in different adventures; you can read them in different orders, but there is a chronology, and once in a while a past event will be mentioned or become relevant in a future tale. You might see how reprints convey this in their blurbs/Amazon descriptions.

Seanan McGuire's Sparrow Hill Road is essentially a collection of short stories that build into a larger arc, a retelling of the "Phantom Prom Date" urban legend. The back cover blurb considers it all one story. Are your short stories closely enough related to essentially be chapters like this?
 

The Second Moon

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Thank you Brightdreamer. I looked up Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories and the back blurb for it was set up like how I've got my blurb now. I think that's a good sign.
 

Elenitsa

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But why are YOU writing your own blurb? The fourth cover blurb is usually written (at least in my country) by the publisher, by another more known writer or by a literary critic.
 

The Second Moon

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But why are YOU writing your own blurb? The fourth cover blurb is usually written (at least in my country) by the publisher, by another more known writer or by a literary critic.
Is it the same for self-publishing? Because I plan to self-publish.

Thanks for the info.
 
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KBooks

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What I did for mine (I also SP) is to look at 10 similar books in the same genre and read their back cover blurbs to see how they were structured. That helped me figure out the general tone, style, what they did and didn't do, and I used it as a baseline to form a rough draft for my back cover blurb, which I posted in SYW and got feedback on.
 

Elenitsa

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Is it the same for self-publishing? Because I plan to self-publish.

Thanks for the info.

I have no idea about self publishing, I am indie press published, but not self-published (in my country, self-publishing is not much of a thing, usually those who want it go directly to the printing house, without passing through a publishing house and without getting ISBN).