Some Unconventional Advice about How to Write the D*mn Blurb

“Your blurb (aka Product Description on Amazon) has one — and only one — purpose:  to make the reader an offer s/he can’t refuse.

How do I know?

Because over the years, I’ve written hundreds — more likely thousands — of blurbs…

When I started out in publishing at Bantam… I was required to take my efforts to my boss, the Managing Editor, a savvy old-timer, for his OK. We met in his office almost every morning when he would go over my attempts and show me in word-by-word detail how my blurbs could be improved…

[M]y blurb-writing education continued under another savvy senior editor. This time, a grouchy EIC who wielded a magic machete — a red pencil — to slash through my efforts.

He was too busy (or impatient or hungover) to bother explaining, but I watched as he quickly turned my ‘brilliant’ efforts into even shorter, snappier, selling blurbs with a few strokes of his pen.

How?”