In today’s Journal
* A Favor to Ask
* Topic: Writing Your Story Description
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
A Favor to Ask
Apparently my posts from HarveyStanbrough.com (author site) no longer go out, which means nobody on that large mailing list received my special promo announcement about the ebook giveaway.
It will take me some time to figure out what happened and why and how to fix it. I’m also no longer on Facebook. So if you don’t mind, please share this link with your friends and on social media. It would be a big help. Thank you: https://hestanbrough.com/the-journal-if-i-may-share/.
To see the offer, they should scroll down to A Special Treat.
Thanks again, those of you who decide to share. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
Topic: Writing Your Story Description
You know the one I mean. The description you upload to D2D or Smashwords or Amazon or Bundlerabbit or wherever to entice the reader into buying your short story or novel.
The description is different from the “blurbs” that go on the back cover of the paper version of your book. Those are primarily one- to few-line hooks. Of course, your description should be filled with hooks too.
Here’s an example of a cover blurb. It’s from a first reader and it’s about the Wes Crowley series as a whole:
“I only very rarely encounter books or movies so appealing that I want to read or see them time and time again, but like the movie Casablanca and Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, the Wes Crowley story is among the very few that I don’t think I would ever tire of experiencing no matter how many times I had already done so.”
Will I put that on the cover of the Wes Crowley series when I repackage it in two volumes with six novels in each? Oh yes.
Journal reader and writer K.C. recently wrote that my description for Rise of a Warrior made her want to read the book “right now.”
Perfect. That’s exactly the reaction you’re hoping for when you write your description. And of course, I sent it to her just about that fast. (grin)
Of course, I’m not being altruistic with giving away the first novel of the series. My hope is that the ending of the first novel will “sell” the second novel, and so on through the series.
Remember that old saw? The opening sells the current book; the ending sells the next one. (I’m paraphrasing.)
Likewise, the purpose of the book description is to sell the current book.
I’m not a master of writing sales copy (the description). My own best advice is to stay away from plot points in your description. You want to talk in vague but exciting terms to entice the reader to learn the plot for himself. By buying and reading your book. Then you cross your fingers and hope the story and characters are engaging enough to make the reader want the second one, and so on.
I once read a description of 36 Righteous Men, a then-new novel by none other than Steven Pressfield. But the description was so filled with plot that when I was through reading the it I felt no need to buy the book. I had learned the whole story in the description.
So in that case, the description actually kept me from buying the book. You can read that particular description at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324002891. Read it to understand what I mean.
The description for Pressfield’s next novel, Gates of Fire, is considerably better (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038AUYGO). But in the description for his latest, A Man at Arms, he (or whomever is writing descriptions for him) reverts to giving away far too much. You can see that description at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393540979.
If you want to write truly great descriptions (and yes, you do), I recommend you buy Dean Wesley Smith’s book How to Write Fiction Sales Copy, which you can find at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0178MQVX2. I believe he also teaches a 6-week workshop on the topic, but I found the book more than adequate. I even bought a paperback copy, which is now dog-eared.
I recommend you read it cover to cover first—you will be amazed—and then keep a copy handy. You’ll refer back to it often.
And I recommend you don’t wait until you have a boatload of stories and novels under your belt, for which you have to go back and change the sales copy.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 5” at https://mystorydoctor.com/making-better-magic-systems-lesson-5/.
See “A New Brain Implant Translates Thoughts of Writing Into Text” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/a-new-brain-implant-translates-thoughts-of-writing-into-text/.
See “Live Chat Was Fun” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/live-chat-was-fun/.
See “Falling but Not Failing” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/05/falling-but-not-failing.html.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 780 words
Writing of Wes Crowley (novel, tentative title)
Day 1…… 3089 words. Total words to date…… 3089
Day 2…… 3871 words. Total words to date…… 6960
Day 3…… 5202 words. Total words to date…… 12162
Day 4…… 2900 words. Total words to date…… 15062
Day 5…… 2530 words. Total words to date…… 17592
Day 6…… 3543 words. Total words to date…… 21135
Total fiction words for May……… 42797
Total fiction words for the year………… 414076
Total nonfiction words for May… 11730
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 96590
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 510666
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 8
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 61
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.