Thoughts from Blurb Land

I wrote the blurb for Xmas Carol last week but I don't like it much. I just don't have a knack for writing pithy descriptions. I need more elbow room! Also, I hate blurbs. Since they often contain spoilers, and you don't know if one will or won't reveal too much, you can't read any of them. How does that make sense? I think blurbs should be vanquished. All we need is a title, an author, an image -- and an evocative phrase like "An Artificially Intelligent Horror Story". (Thanks, Casey!) Heck, what more do you need?

Anyway, because of this foray into short-form writing, I've been highly blurb-conscious of late. I see blurbs everywhere. I even see obituaries as "people blurbs". But you know who does the best blurbs? The folks who write the movie descriptions for TV listings. They have this itty-bitty space for a description and yet they have fun with it. Take, for instance, this treasure:

The Shanghai Gesture (1941)  Gambling den boss Mother Gin Sling drags her British ex-lover's daughter into decadence. Gene Tierney, Walter Huston.

Ain't that great? You hardly even need to watch the movie. Anyway, when I'm happy with my blurb, I'll show it to you guys. In the meantime, take two aspirin and call me in the morning.

Blurbily yours

I wrote the blurb for Xmas Carol today. You know: the short description of the book that would appear on the back cover if it was a physical book. With an ebook, it's just a few paragraphs that you can call up with a click. But it's important: this is what draws readers into the book.

Before I began, I read a lot of blurbs by other authors. I wasn't impressed. But then, I'm not impressed with the content of many books these days so this wasn't a big surprise. In any case, it taught me nothing and I simply banged one out.

Let me live with it for a few days and then I'll put it up here. Comments will help me to sharpen it, I'm sure.

All is well with Xmas Carol. It won't be long now. Hang on. I know I've been saying that for a while but this time I mean it.