QUESTION: I’ve read your article on blurbs, but I still can’t figure out one for my book. Help!
If my tools aren't enough to dissect your book into a blurb, you may want to get some second opinions (critique or beta readers) on the book to see if you have a coherent plot with your main character's goal firmly in place. If you don't, you are probably far from the point of self-publishing or sending it out to agents or publishers.
If even this doesn’t help, you may have a truly different book. Years ago, I helped one of my science fiction publisher's authors with the blurb from hell. Her novel was a series of mythic stories within stories within stories like A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, and we ended up using a comparison to NIGHTS and a famous book of amassed mythology but on speed. A comparison like this works only in cases of desperation, and you need a comparison that many readers would know.
Once you have your blurb written, get your critique partners or some helpful reader friends to read it to see if it draws them in. Make sure they actually read this kind of book.
There is, also, one site that does query critiques— Agent Query.
Every so often, one of the sites I check for my “Links of Interest” posts will have a temporary free critique offer so keep an eye out for those in my Wednesday links post.
Good luck!
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