Episode 111: How to Write a Book Blurb that Sells with Jessie Cunniffe
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The book blurb (back cover description) is one of the most essential elements for your book's success. But it can also be one of the most challenging!
In this episode, Jessie Cunniffe, expert on writing book blurbs, joins Paulette and Lainey to go deep on her formula for writing a great blurb and discuss mistakes to avoid.
About Jessie
Jessie Cunniffe is a professional blurb writer and book blurb coach from Sydney, Australia. A passionate advocate of the indie author community, Jessie has dedicated herself to taking the pain out of blurb-writing with her custom blurb services and two signature courses: Book Blurb Magic and The Spicy Blurb Playbook.
When she’s not writing or dreaming up the next BBM product, Jessie can be found journaling, exploring new ocean pools, and playing her guitar. On the occasion that Jessie manages to snatch some reading time, she’s probably buried in P. G. Wodehouse or Agatha Christie.
Episode Resources
Anatomy of a Book Blurb - a free downloadable PDF from Jessie where you'll learn the hidden formulas of salesworthy book blurbs (both fiction and non-fiction).
Book Blurb Magic - Jessie’s course, designed specifically for indie authors. Learn the ins and outs of blurb craft and master your back cover.
How Readers Pick What to Read Next - Study by Written Word Media which says book blurb (description) is most important factor
Connect with Jessie:
Jessie’s website: Book Blurb Magic
Full Disclosure: We are part of the Amazon affiliate program, which means Lainey earns a tiny commission (maybe enough for a coffee) if you buy something after clicking through from a link on this website.
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Note: next sections are mostly created by AI for your convenience - so please forgive any typos or inaccuracies!
Summary
Lainey Cameron and Paulette Stout discuss the importance of book blurbs with expert Jessie Cunniffe. She emphasizes that blurbs should not be summaries but engaging, typically 150-200 words, and lead with a hook.
She advises using a framework that uses a hook, setup, inciting incident, and raising stakes. Jessie warns against including too many character names and dislikes comp titles. For non-fiction, she suggests using bullet points.
On AI, Jessie is cautious, noting it can help with word count but should not replace human creativity. Concerns are raised about using AI for book blurbs due to copyright issues and the risk of detection by algorithms and readers.
Outline
Defining a Book Blurb
Jessie explains the definition of a book blurb. She emphasizes the importance of book blurbs, noting they can be responsible for 60-80% of a reader's decision to buy a book.
She explains the typical word count for book blurbs, usually between 150-200 words, and the trend towards shorter blurbs.
Anatomy of a Book Blurb
Jessie outlines the structure of a book blurb, describing it as typically three paragraphs. She differentiates between fiction and non-fiction blurbs, noting the latter often lack a linear story.
Jessie emphasizes the importance of a hook at the beginning of the blurb, which should be engaging and concise. She then explains the setup paragraph, which introduces the main character and the current situation, avoiding unnecessary backstory.
Inciting Incident and Stakes
Next the inciting incident, which is the event that sets the story in motion and should be described in the context of its impact on the character.
Jessie explains the importance of raising the stakes, which involves describing the core tension and the potential loss for the character.
She advises against summarizing the plot, as it leads to a dull and unengaging blurb. She highlights the need for specificity in raising the stakes without giving away too much.
Non-Fiction Book Blurbs
Jessie explains the differences between fiction and non-fiction blurbs, noting non-fiction often lacks a linear story.She recommends using bullet points in non-fiction blurbs to highlight benefits and key features.
Jessie advises including credentials or unique approaches in non-fiction blurbs to differentiate them from others. She emphasizes the importance of a call to action (CTA) in both fiction and non-fiction blurbs, encouraging readers to take action.
Common Mistakes and Best Practices
Jessie discusses common mistakes in book blurbs, such as including too many character names and summarizing the plot. She advises against using comp titles (comparisons to other books) in blurbs, as they can mislead readers and be outdated.
She shares tips for writing effective hooks, including the use of questions and statements. She emphasizes the importance of tone and pacing in blurbs, aligning them with the overall feel of the book.
Trigger Warnings and Sensitive Themes
Paulette Stout raises the topic of trigger warnings and how to address sensitive themes in book blurbs.
Jessie explains the importance of the blurb tone in giving readers an idea of the book's content and themes. She discusses the challenges of including trigger warnings in blurbs without giving away spoilers.
Jessie advises placing trigger warnings in the front matter or at the bottom of the blurb to avoid spoiling the story.
Using AI for Book Blurbs
Jessie expressed skepticism about AI's ability to write effective blurbs, noting it can only be as good as the data it is trained on. She shares a student's experience using AI to help edit a blurb, highlighting its potential as a tool for editing rather than creation.
Jessie mentions a study indicating that ordinary people can detect AI writing 60-70% of the time, emphasizing the current limitations of AI in creating convincing content. She emphasizes the importance of human touch in crafting engaging and effective book blurbs.
Paulette Stout adds that algorithms can detect AI-generated content, which might negatively impact the book's credibility and visibility on platforms like Amazon.
Jessie's Book Blurb Services
Jessie Cunniffe introduces her website, Book Blurb Magic, and the various services she offers, including the Book Blurb Magic Course and the Spicy Blurb Playbook for romance authors, custom book blurbs, and one-to-one blurb audit service.
Transcript
Lainey Cameron 0:02
Hi, this is Lainey Cameron, and I can see we have already got people on the live feed today. Say hi, Paulette.
Paulette Stout 0:10
Hello everyone.
Lainey Cameron 0:13
And I know why we've got people on the live feed, because we picked a topic that has been highly requested by our audience. And I think the reason is, it's so damn hard. Okay, damn Am I allowed that? Did we just make this thing explicit?
Paulette Stout 0:25
You are. We just got our R rating.
Lainey Cameron 0:27
Yeah. Anyway, it's so dang hard, right? The book blurb, the back cover description, it is like such an important element.
Lainey Cameron 0:34
We're going to talk a little bit about how there's research that says it's actually the most important element of your book, other than the cover, in terms of readers picking whether to read the book or buy the book, and we brought in the book blurb whisperer Jessie Cunniffe from Book Blurb Magic, who I have worked with in various ways.
Lainey Cameron 0:49
So excited, we have got the expert. She's going to walk us through her formula. She's going to help answer questions about whether you do first person, third person, what goes in a book blurb, what doesn't. If you're watching live, feel free to put questions in the chat, in the comments. If we don't already have them on our list, we will try and add them. So before we jump into what is going to be just a stellar episode, you want to give us an update about how everything's going with you, Paulette?
Paulette Stout 1:11
Yes, yes definitely, um, I'm just winding down for my book launch. The response for this book has been just phenomenal. It's just, you know, it's you write books, you hope people will enjoy them, and it's just been really great to hear the reader reactions to this.
Paulette Stout 1:33
But beyond that, I have started outlining my next one, but I'm kind of giving myself a little bit of a break, a writing break to focus. I've been publishing kind of non stop since my first book, you know, was really it 2020, so it's been almost five years of just like, publish, write, publish, right, publish, right. So, um, the other piece is, I'm really just kind of digging into Amazon ads for the first time in a long time. I have run them before.
Paulette Stout 1:59
I think that there's a lot of, you know, interesting dynamics happening in the marketplace right now. People are, you know, dropping their social media. They're, you're not going on Facebook, they're, you know, not buying on Amazon. And that's really impacting, you know, authors, you know, in a big way.
Paulette Stout 2:14
So I'm looking to kind of see if I can make a success out of the Amazon ads. Some people do better Facebook. Some people do Amazon. I've always been better on Facebook ads, but right now, with the dynamic, I'm just going to dive in and I can report back in a little bit and see you know how that's going. Um, but yes, I'll be able to talk more about Amazon ads in the future. What's going on with you, Lainey?
Lainey Cameron 2:37
Oh gosh. So on the one hand, I'm still when I can plugging away on revisions from my second novel. I'm teaching my class on Book Marketing. I'm going through my 12 week program right now, and I love it. I have so much fun doing that. On the other hand, my personal life is very challenging because my mom has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks. She just got out. She needs full time care. I'm staying with her overnight, and so it's been my hubby and I who stay in the house. So it's been challenging. I'm exhausted. I'm not getting enough sleep, getting enough sleep, getting up multiple times per night, and I'm just, you know, praying she gets better. She's in a lot of pain. She had a big infection and sepsis and all kinds of ugly stuff. So it's just on the personal level, been, gosh, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster, just when you think it's getting like, evening out, flying up and down again. So life, it just keeps being lifey.
Paulette Stout 3:18
Life gets lifey. I'm, I think we need merch, y'all. So if you want merch, life gets lifey, you know, we'll I'm really feeling like this should be a thing.
Lainey Cameron 3:26
I think we both need to do a podcast wearing Life gets Lifey t-shirts.
Paulette Stout 3:30
Merch. It's like it's happening, people, we're doing it. We're doing it.
Lainey Cameron 3:35
Okay, well, let's introduce Jessie and get into our episode, because this is so exciting, and I have worked with Jessie in the past. Hi, Jessie.
Jessie Cunniffe 3:50
Hello.
Lainey Cameron 3:51
And Jessie is joining us from, where are you Jessie?
Jessie Cunniffe 3:51
I'm in Syndey, Austalia.
Lainey Cameron 3:51
How is tomorrow?
Jessie Cunniffe 3:53
It is, it's pretty great. Actually, it's sunny. Uh, can't complain. It's a good Thursday.
Lainey Cameron 3:59
So I was gonna say that I've worked with Jessie in my book marketing program. We had Jessie teach part of my class on how to write book blurbs and help my class. We also did a webinar together, and I have actually signed up to work with Jessie myself on my own book blurb for my next book.
And one of the things I like is Jessie takes this thing that can seem just so scary and hard and complicated and makes it seem easy, and that is the hardest thing in the world to do. And I, like, you know, one of my favorite thing is anyone, anyone who makes something seem easy that I think is hard, like you're already on my I love you list. So we're gonna, hopefully do the same for the audience today is help them see how to make this easy.
And we'll, we'll talk a little bit more at the end about Jessie's different offerings. She helps in different ways. She is a professional book blurb writer, book description, for those who don't know what we're talking about, and she has lots of cool stuff. Her company is book blurb magic. She does one on one stuff. She does classes, she does group programs, all kinds of fun stuff. So we'll talk more about that later, but let's get going into our first question. Let's do it.
Paulette Stout 4:57
So, yeah, so let's just jump into the basics. We talk about a book blurb, what is it? What are we talking about here, Jessie? Help us please.
Jessie Cunniffe 5:06
Yes, of course. It's funny. I always feel like this is the most obvious question that a lot of people actually don't even ask, because everyone thinks that they know what a book blurb is, I find and there are actually a couple of different definitions. So we need to be careful in terms of miscommunication between particularly between Trad publishing and self publishing as well.
Jessie Cunniffe 5:24
So the definition of book blurb that I use is that back cover book description. When you pick a book off your shelf, you flip it over find out what it's about. It's like it looks like a kind of summary of the story. It gets you excited to read it. It's not a summary, as we're going to find out. So I'm going to just flag that word right there, but that's essentially what what it looks like. And of course, this pops up on Amazon, wherever you're selling your books online as well. You have that, you know, dreaded book description box that you have to fill. It's usually about 150 to 200 words. You usually like. How do I fit my story into that many words? This is ridiculous, but the other definition of blurb, which I do just want to kind of highlight, because it does still pop up, and it's actually the original definition of blurb is those endorsement quotes that lots of us have a love hate relationship with, because sometimes you flip over the book and there's just endorsement quotes from people you don't care about.
Jessie Cunniffe 6:13
And interestingly, I think it was Simon and Simon Schuster who recently said they were doing no more blurbs, no more and by that, they don't mean no more book descriptions. They mean no more endorsement quotes. They're like, it's not working. You know, social proof is important, but it doesn't matter if people don't know who's giving the quote. So really interesting. I think we're seeing some movement away from endorsement quotes. So occasionally I get, you know, a confused person, message me and think that they can pay me to write an endorsement quote for their book. That's not what book blurb magic is about, I'm here to help you write the back cover book description, the online book description. When I say blurb, I that's what, that's what I mean.
Lainey Cameron 6:49
And how important is it? Like, like we call this episode, book blurbs that sell. But how important is a blurb in selling your book?
Jessie Cunniffe 6:58
I wish that I had, like, more hard data on this. But of course, it's one of those things, like, one day I'll do a big, big range study. I'll have some kind of I'll have some kind of tech that can measure it. But something that I think that is really interesting is, I've had several clients message me their Net Galley stats, like, you get a little graph, and the reviewers basically say, you know, what kind of pushed them into choosing this, this book to, you know, review, or whatever. And consistently, my clients came back to me and the cover is there, the title is there, the I think, you know, book blurb, a couple other things consistently.
Jessie Cunniffe 7:30
Of course, cover ranks super high. Like, we know this, we know the covers are important, but in some cases, like, it's so close with blurb that they're actually, like, they're pretty much on a par with each other, and I think that that they're really exciting stats to see. They're the only hard stats I can refer you to. But there are editors publishers who kind of estimate that the blurb is responsible, like 60 to 80% responsible for the readers buying decision.
Jessie Cunniffe 7:55
Now, again, like their numbers that feel like they've been pulled out of the air, but they do really kind of ring true. I had a client message me just the other day that said, once she changed her blurb with me, her sales went up. And so like, this is obviously not something I can promise. There's a lot of factors in book sales, but it is something that we do see consistently. When a book is flagging and we change the blurb, if there are no other issues, if the blurb is the stumbling point, then changing it can have a really significant, measurable impact. And the way that I like to think of it is, is, you know, the cover sells the click, the blurb sells the book. It's, it's your stories, light bulb moment, right? Yeah, your story's first impression. It's your story's first impression. So the cover is like the first pretty like genre impression, title impression. You know, maybe you have some Easter eggs on the cover that really appeal to your ideal, you know, audience, but the blurb is actually your story's first impression. And obviously that goes for non fiction as well as fiction, and we'll get into that a bit later. But yeah, that that's your your book's first chance, the content of the book, it's the first time that it gets to shine.
Lainey Cameron 8:57
And you said 150 to 200 words. Is that the ideal for what a book blurb should be?
Jessie Cunniffe 9:07
Ideally? Yes, I blurbs are getting shorter. So even, like as recently as you know, four or five years ago, I was writing blurbs that were consistently 200 sometimes for an epic fantasy, you go over that like 210 220 you pick up the average book now, and on the back cover, it's like 50 to 100 words. Sometimes it's really what you know, I don't know you can call it The Tick Tock age. Whatever, our attention spans are getting shorter.
Jessie Cunniffe 9:30
Blurbs are getting shorter. So I try to stick these days to as tight as 150 as I can. I will say, for some non fiction books, like instructionals, occasionally self help, you will hit 200 occasionally you'll go a tiny bit over it depending because like and it does depend on sort of your content as well. But I find the sweet spot tends to be somewhere around 170 280 and that's where a lot of a lot of blurbs start to fall again. There's some variants for genre, but you right now, my advice is definitely don't go. Of 200 try not to go above 180 with some very small exceptions.
Paulette Stout 10:06
So let's get into, like, the anatomy of a book world. Let's like, talk What are like the parts of a book, or what are the elements of a good book blurb, in your view?
Jessie Cunniffe 10:16
Yeah, 100% I think this is, this is interesting. I mean, I love that you called it anatomy of a book blurb, because we know this is my free cheat sheet that'll be linked. We can, we can have a chat about that a little later as well. But a lot of authors come to me and they're worried that using a formula for a book blurb is going to make their blurb sound formulaic. And that is just, I mean, it can be the case depending on how flexible the formula you use is.
Jessie Cunniffe 10:39
So I like to kind of say that I have a framework rather than a formula. I think I do use the word formula in my course, but like, I've gradually moved away from that towards framework is probably more accurate. And the reason this is is because we always have expectations of various text types. If you read the care label on your shirt, you're not expecting a beginning, middle, end, narrative flow. But if you read a book blurb, you are expecting some kind of some kind of structure, right? So to an extent, yes, we follow a formula, but every book blurb should be as as unique as your book in terms of its content. So your average book blurb is approximately three paragraphs. Give or take doesn't always perfectly fit into those three paragraphs, but they kind of roughly three sections.
Jessie Cunniffe 11:23
Now, fiction and non fiction blurbs do have some important differences, which I'll kind of touch on here. But I also want to say fiction and non fiction is kind of a little bit of a lie in terms of the two blurb types. It's actually more like narrative and non narrative. And in my cheat sheet, I do refer to them as fiction and non fiction and non fiction, because it's just a little simpler. But for example, if you're a memoir author, I'm going to be using the fiction style blurb, because you're writing a narrative piece, right? Some self help, or even historical books sometimes fall into narrative as well. So when I say fiction and non fiction, I actually mean narrative and non narrative. So non narrative being like, How To books, you know, manuals, instructional, all that kind of stuff that don't necessarily have a linear story.
Jessie Cunniffe 12:08
So if we're writing the fiction type for all blurbs, we want to start with a hook, which is the headline. So that's actually for fiction or non fiction. I shouldn't have, shouldn't have started with fiction there. But for all blurbs, we want to hook. So this is the headline. It's like, you can think of it as like the click bait of your book, but obviously you don't want it to be clickbait. You want, you want to make good on your promise, right? But it should be that hooky, interesting thing that readers you know, get get interested in. It's often bolded, sometimes on your physical back cover. It'll be in a different font. It'll be a bigger font on Amazon and things. It's often one of the only things readers can see before they click read more. So it's super, super important. It should be right up the top of your book blurb. Always makes me cry a little bit when I see people dump reviews and random stuff up the top of their book blurb, and they use that precious real estate where we could be getting straight into the hook and the story for other things.
Jessie Cunniffe 13:02
So hook for fiction and non fiction, that's what we want up the top. It's usually one to two sentences, something really short and snappy. It's often the hardest part of the blurb. I have an entire master class just on hooks. I have an entire article just on hooks because, like, it's it's just its own. It's probably the most creative part of the blurb. It's when I start to feel like I'm in an ad agency trying to think up a slogan. Like, that's what it sort of, that's what it sort of feels like.
Paulette Stout 13:27
How important are keywords when you're writing a hook, like, in the metadata aspect of things?
Jessie Cunniffe 13:35
I never prioritize keywords over great writing when it comes to the blurb. Like, we always want to prioritize something that reads really beautifully. If you're trying to keyword stuff, it often compromises the writing. So if a keyword fits into the book Great, the hook is often where I try to get tropes in upfront. If we've got a very tropey book, but never force it like it's got to be it's got to be good writing first and foremost. If it's good writing, people will read it and read it. And, you know, keywords. I've got a few tips for how to get keywords in a little bit later, but I don't stress too much about necessarily having up the top. Probably the thing I focus on the most is tropes. Like, if we if we know, like in romance readers, looking for particular tropes, I try to get that into the hook as much as possible, so that they're like, Yes, this is the trope I want. And then they keep reading. So that's, yeah, that that's sort of what I would focus on. There. Stand for fiction, we usually get into a setup paragraph. So this has to tell us where we start in, like, chapter one. Don't worry about the PROLOG. Don't worry about backstory. This is where people get really bogged down. Literally take us, like, where is your character at the very start of the story? Right when we start in present time. And then if any backstory is needed to make the present time make sense, you contextualize it after the fact. So introduce the character, and then introduce whatever details you need, if you start with ever since so and so was six years old, they've done blah, blah, blah and blah. It makes the book sound like it's. Following them from six years old, right? So, but if you say so and so, has always been afraid of the dark, because when she was six, this happened, then we instantly get context, but we know that we're dealing with an adult, right? So there's that.
Jessie Cunniffe 15:10
That's the main thing in the setup paragraph. A lot of authors get bogged down in backstory, which is totally understandable, because in your head, you're like, This is all connected. They have to know the backstory in order to know what's going on now they don't. You need to, like, introduce them to where the character is. Now, any backstory or background is only on an absolute need to know basis and always contextualize after the fact. That's kind of my biggest tip for that paragraph moving through, we then need to kind of flesh out the plot a little bit. The second paragraph might be where you introduce a secondary character.
Jessie Cunniffe 15:41
But the most important thing we're going to start to move into, and this is why I don't say three paragraphs is set in stone, because sometimes this happens in paragraph one, sometimes it happens in paragraph two. We need to get into the inciting incident. So often you have, like, setup inciting incident, then we've got to raise the stakes. That's kind of the the flow in a nutshell. So when we're going into the inciting incident, this is, like the thing that happens that means your character has reached the point of no return. Someone dies, something gets blown up, someone I don't know has to move house, like whatever it is, it's the thing that actually kicks your story off.
Jessie Cunniffe 16:13
And interestingly, it can often feel like a spoiler to you, like you can kind of go, oh, but this is like, Isn't this too much of the story? No, it's a whole reason your story is happening. It's a whole reason that people actually are reading your book. There is no story without the inciting incident, and this also gives weight to the stakes when we get into those later on as well.
Jessie Cunniffe 16:32
So we do actually need, you don't need to give every detail of the inciting incident. There might be aspects of the inciting incident that are a bit spoilery that you do want to save, but we need to kind of know, like, what's the, what's the big explosion moment, like, what's changed, what's forever changed in this, in this character's life?
Paulette Stout 16:51
Do you like to focus on the impact of the inciting incident, rather than describing what it is like. Is that a way to get around it?
Jessie Cunniffe 17:00
100% 100% so we're describing the inciting incident in the context of, like, context of, like, what does it mean for the character? So, yeah, you don't have to go into heaps of detail around, like, yeah, if, especially if you have a very detailed inciting incident, we need to know, like, if they have to move home, but they're broke, right? Like, they don't have the money to move or they that kind of thing, right? So we, yeah, we definitely need to know the the impact of the inciting incident on the main character is the most important thing, 100% 100% and that, yeah, that might be where you introduce a secondary character as well. And then moving into the last paragraph or so of the blurb, this is where we raise the stake. So this is where we need to understand what the character stands to lose.
Jessie Cunniffe 17:33
And if you set up your inciting incident properly, then we should understand the core tension of the book. And it's easier to build up these stakes. This is often where authors get stuck, because you sort of like, well, how far into the story do I go? What do I give away? I can't give away. Spoilers. People start getting really vague. It's raising the stakes. Really requires you to kind of get creative with foreshadowing while also sort of being specific.
Jessie Cunniffe 18:02
And this is, this is the thing, like, often when I'm sitting in, like, my one to one blurboard, it's the main thing we're doing with the stakes is, I'm like, you've just said, you know, when secrets emerge, the darkness threatens to swallow them. And I'm like, what, what like could is the secret that you have a crush on your neighbor as a secret that you killed your mother. Like, what's, there's a huge, there's a huge range of secrets here, right?
Jessie Cunniffe 18:21
Like, so we need to, actually, you know, you have to kind of give us an inkling of what level those secrets are on for a start, and where is this darkness coming from, and how does it so, like, Do you know what I mean like? So it's, and it's not about more words, and it's not even necessarily about more description. It's just about being a tiny bit more specific. And I think that's possibly one of the trickiest things to learn about book blurbs, especially because you're used to like, when people, people are like, what's your book about? You're like, quick, hold all the spoilers.
Jessie Cunniffe 18:48
Like, I'm not going to tell you anything. I'm going to tell you the first few little bits. And then, like, you know, that's it. So you actually have to get you actually have to have the spoilers in the forefront of your mind when you're raising the stakes. And you have to go, right, how specific can I be about telling them what path we're going on without actually telling them where the path ends up.
Lainey Cameron 19:06
I went through this with my my blurb that I'm gonna gonna show you when I get there for my second book. And one of the things I was struggling with is it's so heavy with backstory, and my character killed someone when she was a child, and I really struggled with, like, Does this belong in the blurb? Does it belong in the description? Does it belong? And in the end, I realized that, like, the more I told people that, the more interest that they got in the book. And so I realized, like, Wait, if that is the thing that when I'm having a conversation with someone, it makes them go, Wait, tell me that again. Wow, that's interesting. Then it belongs in the blurb, right? If it's, if it's the thing that's actually starting a conversation and getting someone interested in person, getting someone interested. And so I had to get over it and go, like, we're no longer say, gonna say she has a dark secret from her childhood. We're gonna say what happened.
Jessie Cunniffe 19:50
Well, and this is the thing, if people find that out real quick, like, if that's in the prologue, for example, you can put it in the blurb, like you can if we're talking about something that's more. More like past Act One. That's when you want to go, Okay, we're not going to tell them that. That info, I do sometimes get authors say, Oh, this, this blurb only talks about, like, a really small part of my book. I'm like, that's that's actually the point. It's going to feel a little bit weird, because it should only really be kind of talking us through act one and then giving us a sign post. It's interesting. I saw an agent talking about this on threads the other day. They're like, if I can't see where your story is going to go from your query, which is mostly a blurb, right? They're like, I then I'm not going, I'm going to pass right?
Jessie Cunniffe 20:29
So we actually, it's about saying, Hey, here's the path we're going on, but you can't see the end of it. That's probably the best analogy I can kind of think of for that. And I think this brings me back to the word summary, because, as you might have kind of figured out from this structure, we're not summarizing your book. And this is the number one thing that gets in authors way, like genuinely the number one confusion. There are articles online, when you google how to write a book blurb that say, summarize your plot without toilers.
Jessie Cunniffe 20:57
A summary is boring. A summary I hate. I don't write synopses for a reason, because I find them boring. I only write book blurbs, right? And book blurbs get to be exciting because their job is to sell. Their job is to tease, to create curiosity. A summary is what you you go on Wikipedia to look up the whole plot, right? That's the summary. It has everything, spoilers and all. That's what a summary is. And so when you write a summary that stops, where the spoilers start, you actually just drop your readers off a cliff. There's no momentum. They're just like, well, this is a, okay, half of a book, but I don't know what's happening.
Jessie Cunniffe 21:32
And this is probably why your blurb is too long. It's probably why you can't decide what belongs in there or not, and it's probably why you just feel like it falls flat is because you're approaching it like a summary. And so summary and synopsis we can use interchangeably. Blurb is its own thing. Blurb, book description, we can use interchangeably, but never the two shall meet, okay? Because it's summary.
Jessie Cunniffe 21:54
Summarizing is, is killing your book. Blurb, essentially cool and sorry. Go ahead. I was gonna say a comment from Beth that I kind of want to jump into. Gonna drop both jobs, sorry. Beth has said I put something from Act Three out of four in my blurb. Maybe I need to reconsider that 100% reconsider that, because this is the other little bias that happens in readers brains when they're reading a book blurb. We expect the book blurb to be only the beginning part of the book. If you put your act three thing in there, they're going to assume that's the beginning of the book. It totally throws the pacing off for them.
Jessie Cunniffe 22:28
So they're then it actually can change the reading experience of your book, because they're then reading Act One, going, where's this act three thing, where's this act three thing, what's happening? I thought this was in the beginning. I thought this was the inciting incident. I thought this was what kind of kicked the story off. And then it can fall really flat for them once they get act three.
Jessie Cunniffe 22:43
And I've seen some appalling like in trad publishing, actually, I've seen some pulling examples of this where it makes it sound like the whole point of the inciting incident is actually the end of the book. So then you get you read the inciting like, Okay, I don't really know what's happening. I thought this was the point of the story. And then you get to the end and realize it's kind of been spoilt for you by the blurb. And the blurb. And that's when people you get, some people who are so scarred by blurbs, they're like, I never read them because they spoil. They spoil the story for me, which they shouldn't do, like, if you're doing a blurb properly, it shouldn't spoil. So 100% really, really important thing about book blurbs is having the pacing matching your book. And if Act Three is in the blurb, it's going to make it sound like that's part of Act One. So it's a great, it's a great question and something, something to fix. Sorry, I'm giving you homework.
Paulette Stout 23:26
No, it's great. No, it's great. Um, so question for you, because that's like, one thing not to put in the blurb. So sometimes there's conversations about, you know, how many characters you put in, how many plot points you put in? Can you just address? Like, what are some of the big don'ts when it comes to book blurbs?
Jessie Cunniffe 23:42
I got pulled up on this recently because I always say, Don't put, like, if you can manage it, don't put any more than two names in the blurb. Like two character names. Names are a lot for readers to process, because they don't immediately create any imagery. So you have to try and connect them to, you know, their so and so sister or their give them their job title or whatever, so that we can picture them. If you have a whole bunch of names, that's a whole lot of space in your blurb that's not actually creating any imagery for your readers.
Jessie Cunniffe 24:11
And imagery is so cool in blurbs, because if I say it's like the old thing, if I say yellow elephant, you can't stop thinking about a yellow elephant. I'm like, don't think about it. You're still thinking about it, right? Imagery actually implants your story into people's brains without them even trying. So if you can get great imagery into your blurb, it's just going to transfer your story into their head, right? So the more names we have in there, the more that gets diluted. I sort of cap it at a max of three if you absolutely have to.
Jessie Cunniffe 24:39
However, working with a client. Last week, she has got five, five POVs in her book, and we included all of them in the blurb, because she's introducing a team of people who are then going to be solving mysteries in the rest of her series. Right? So we're not going to do that in every single blurb, because obviously every book is going to focus a bit more on just. One or two other people, but in the first book, I'm like, well, we need to kind of know the team we're going to be hanging out with.
Jessie Cunniffe 25:05
So there are ways around it, but you do have to do a very different blurb structure from what I've just described here. And I'd consider it an advanced technique. What happens most often, because I haven't done it that much, what happens most often is, even if you have like, six POVs, or even three POVs, people like, I think I need all three POVs, but the blurbs too long. There's always one or two characters who are the most important. And it's not to say that the third character isn't important too, but they might not drive the plot as much. So then you need to prioritize the two who drive the plot, and then readers can fall in love with character number three in the book. That's totally fine.
Jessie Cunniffe 25:44
So what happens most of all is that you realize we don't need more than two, Max, three people in the blurb. But there are contingency plans for if, if you have, I think the most I did was there was nine POVs in the book, and I got six into the blurb, and that was, wow. I never wanted to do that again.
Paulette Stout 26:00
Epic fantasy. I'm hoping please, please say epic fantasy.
Jessie Cunniffe 26:03
It was epic fantasy.
Lainey Cameron 26:06
I know we mostly mostly have fiction folks listening to our podcast, just because we know a lot of the audience, and they talk to us all the time. And we love that, by the way, talk to us. We love it when you tell us what you want to hear next, like this episode. Um, but what about non fiction? Is there a big difference that you want to point out when someone's writing a non fiction blurb?
Jessie Cunniffe 26:23
So I think the main thing if we look at non fiction in the scheme of non narrative, because, like memoir writers, I'm throwing you in with the fiction that that same fiction structure, right? Because you're telling the story. If we look at non narrative, which is mostly self help, slash instructional, that kind of thing, readers often read the blurb in a slightly different way. They're much more likely to skim.
Jessie Cunniffe 26:45
Because if you want to learn how to do woodwork, specifically with, I don't know a specific kind of saw you just bought. I know nothing about woodwork. My dad is listening. He's going to be so ashamed. But then you pick up this book, and you're going to skim through the back and go, does it teach me how to use this? This saw, right? Like that's, that's what I'm looking for. So very often people looking for a specific thing. If the self help book about setting boundaries, 100% that person is picking up that book, thinking about their difficult friend and that one and they're looking for things that will help them with that one relationship, right? So I'm actually a very big fan of using bullet points in a non narrative blurb.
Jessie Cunniffe 27:20
So we still have our hook. Hook is non negotiable, same deal as as for fiction slash narrative blurbs, your opening paragraph. The goal here is to resonate with your reader and to make sure that they understand you understand them. So if it's, you know, a Vegan Cookbook, it's like, have you tried, you know, being a vegan? But it's so complicated and there's too much information online. Well, here's like, the simple here's like, the simplest way to learn, right? It's that kind of it's that kind of thing. So you really want to show them I understand your problem and I have the solution. Second paragraph, you move into qualifiers. So whether that's you having credentials, you know, I'm a such and such, you know, dietitian with X number of years experience, blah, blah, blah.
Jessie Cunniffe 28:01
Or, if you are super new and you have no credentials, and you're writing this from your personal experience, you focus on the cool ideas and the different approaches that you take in your book. Like, what's different about your book? What is it that it can teach people that maybe they haven't learned before? Is it easier, simpler, faster? Is it just a shorter book when all the books in that genre are really big and take forever to read through? Like, what is, what is the thing that you're doing differently?
Jessie Cunniffe 28:22
And then we just go straight into bullet points and one line to close. So bullet points, they're a bit of an art to do, like they're, they're a whole, they're a whole kind of thing. But essentially, you want to be highlighting the benefits of your book and what it can give your readers. So rather than just saying, you know, it's got a five page meal plan. You might want to say five page meal plan, you know, so you never fail Your diet again. For example. Do you know what I mean? So, like, we're actually highlighting the benefits. What's the benefit of having that meal plan?
Jessie Cunniffe 28:51
You don't have to think, or it's, you know, these meals can be prepped in five minutes, or whatever. I'm writing cookbook blurb this week. It's just It's stuck in my head. So this is, that's the kind of thing, that's the kind of thing that readers want to know, like, what is it going to actually give them around about five bullets is enough. Like, it's a kind of sweet spot. And then, like, one line to close. By the time they've skimmed through those, those bullet points, now is not the time to bombard them with more information. One really strong line about taking action, or like, this is what this book is going to give you. It's time to do this, whatever. And then something I haven't mentioned, but it's very important for both types of blurb you want a CTA or a call to action. So this is more for your online book description than your back cover book description, but the call to action basically says, click Buy now to you know, experience the magic of vegan cooking today, whatever it is, right?
Jessie Cunniffe 29:38
This just authors get understandably uncomfortable about asking for the sale. You know, we were talking just before Paulette, before we came on live about, like, it feels like spam when you talk about your own stuff, right? Like, I feel like that too. I write a newsletter five days a week. I email people five days a week. It took me a long time to get brave enough to do that, because I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, no one's going to be. Interested in blurbs five times a week. It turns out that's not the case, and I'm very lucky. I love my email list. If you're here, like, you're the best people, but I think it's important to be brave enough to ask for the sale, because you believe your book could help somebody or give them enjoyment, right? Which is, which is helping them also, actually, so it's you're actually doing them disservice.
Jessie Cunniffe 30:20
If you're like, Oh, here's the book, like, and that's it. You know, people like to be told what to do next. When we're online, there's so many options to click and scroll and go elsewhere. So a really simple, like, click by now to get so such a day. It's actually not as intrusive as you think. Maybe you don't put it in, like, huge Caps Lock and scream in them, unless you like, unless that's your jam. That's also fine, but it's actually, it's actually okay to tell them, like, here's where to go next. You're helping them. So that's for your online book descriptions for both of those. And I will just quickly say, because people do ask me, I do use the same blurb for the back cover as for the online book description, just minus the CTA for your physical cover.
Lainey Cameron 31:00
Cool.
Paulette Stout 31:01
I saw one question in the thing you want to take that?
Lainey Cameron 31:05
Sure, yeah, let's take the one from Leslie. I think it's a really interesting question. So Leslie's asking, What about comparing with other books in your blurb, especially your online blurb, right? Like, it's lessons in chemistry, meet Sex in the City kind of thing. Like, do you like to do comparisons with other books? Or you are no never put that in your blurb.
Jessie Cunniffe 31:23
I hate comp titles. That's my hot take for the day. I hate comp titles, mostly because they have only ever misled me, like the amount of times I've seen a comp title that I hate and then have loved the book that they're like, you know. But let's, let's talk through this.
Jessie Cunniffe 31:39
So there's a couple of advantages if you were to say something like this novel is a cross between lessons of chemistry and Sex and the City. The cool thing is that those titles then go into your blurb as keywords, and people potentially searching those books. If your book is legitimately like them, may find your book too. So that that is a decent argument for putting comp titles in that online thing. I know you have to do comps for queries as well.
Jessie Cunniffe 32:01
I know that it's not particularly helpful of me to say I hate comp titles, but this is an interesting discussion that has sort of been having my audience as well. They don't help people anywhere near as much as we think that they do. They might help agents and publishers because they're going what marketing box can I put you in? But in terms of helping readers, if that's your your primary motivation, they're not as helpful as you think they are.
Jessie Cunniffe 32:22
And the thing that you risk doing, like reading is subjective, right? And no matter how much you think your book is like lessons in chemistry, what if someone had a really different experience of lessons in chemistry? Or, I know some people really dislike it because there's something graphic I haven't read it, something graphic in the first couple of paragraphs or chapters. What if, yes, your book is like, I don't know the good parts of lessons in chemistry, but someone really hated that there was violence in it. And therefore, is like not reading your book, but your book has no violence in it, right?
Jessie Cunniffe 32:53
It's like the other parts of lessons in chemistry. So you run the risk of alienating people unnecessarily with comp titles, and you also run the risk of people being like, well, this is nothing like Sex and the City. I had a completely different experience of Sex in the City, and your book is nothing like it. But maybe to you, your book does feel exactly like your experience of Sex in the City. So that's that's a tricky thing with comp titles, if you're super confident they can be decent keywords, I wouldn't go dumping more than like, two like, like, you've got two lessons of chemistry, Sex and the City cool. So I can see the argument for them helping keyword wise, I don't think they help readers as much as people like to think that they do. That's, that's my hot take.
Paulette Stout 33:31
That's another place. There are lots of other places you can use the comparisons and social graphics. You can add it to your A plus content. You know, there's other places on the page where you can reference those. I know that sometimes Amazon changes their policies around in terms of what they allow in terms of other author references. I couple years ago, they were really discouraging people from using other author references in your book form.
Paulette Stout 33:54
So I pulled all of mine out so that other piece too, especially if you start having a big back list. If you have lots of book references in there, not only do opinions change, but they kind of have to maintain them over time. So it just, it's another complication, I think, too.
Jessie Cunniffe 34:11
And I mean, the other thing to remember in this great day and age where people get canceled is if something happens with the author, it might be the best comp title in the world. But if that author suffers a suffers a hit, it could, it could potentially damage, you know, your book's reputation as well. So I feel that they're risky and not, like, worth the payoff. But I see the argument in terms of it potentially being a useful keyword.
Jessie Cunniffe 34:31
As you say, they're Amazon like, I know they were really discouraging people from doing that a while back, and now you kind of can, but I'm just not sure they're the most helpful things. I hope that was a helpful answer. I know it's I feel very strongly about comp titles. Yeah, I never put them in. I never put them into the blobs that I write. I never do that. If all my clients want to add it afterwards, that's really fine, but I don't ever actually put them in.
Paulette Stout 34:57
There's so many good questions here next, Lainey, do you want to. Um,
Lainey Cameron 35:00
Okay, I think, I think we had a question about the hook. And I often see, I often see people like in romance novels, they they put a question right, like, you know, will they get together? Well, true love triumph? Will, whatever, what's your take on questions for the hook? Yes or No. Love them, hate them?
Jessie Cunniffe 35:17
I love questions for the hook. I don't love questions for the end of the blurb. So those will they won't they questions. Is, I had a client I worked with, and her book got picked up by Penguin after we did the did the um blurb, which was really exciting, and they actually kept the blurb as is, like what we worked on together, except they put a question at the end. And, like, I think Trad publishers, potentially, it's a trend at the moment to put questions at the end. I personally don't like them. I don't think it ruined the blurb, just for the record, like Penguin, know what they're doing, but, um, but it's really interesting to me. I think it's a bit of a trend.
Jessie Cunniffe 35:49
And then potentially, you might find that it becomes dated down the track. Question for the hook, if it's the right question, it's fabulous. Um, the question you want to ask is the kind of question that your readers can get involved in. So if you can say, like, can a broken heart ever love again? Might not be we can actually think about that. If you ask, Can Jenny ever love again? Don't know Jenny yet? Like, do I care? Probably not. Sorry to be callous, but like, that's it doesn't it doesn't hit home.
Jessie Cunniffe 36:19
But if it's a question that the reader can actually, you know, is it wrong to always block like these kind of sort of controversial perhaps questions like that get to the crux of what your character is struggling with, but also invite the reader in to put themselves in their shoes and ask that same question to themselves. Fabulous. So I love question hooks. They can be overdone, but like, if you have a great question, go for it the end question. Here's my challenge to you, right?
Jessie Cunniffe 36:45
And I'm talking about both of these because you know, Lainey, I'm sure if you've read my emails, you know how I feel about questions, you're baiting me. So a question at the end. I'm really not a fan of will questions. So if we say, will they find their way back together, or are they doomed forever? We just know the answer is, read the book and find out. And also we know the answer is probably not, because this is a nice, fluffy romance. So it doesn't actually do much to raise the stakes.
Paulette Stout 37:10
Oh my god, you're going to hate my book when you see it. I've got the state there at the top and the question at the end, and I'm just, I'm a hot mess girl, so I know you're in Australia, but I'm gonna be banging on your door. Like, in an hour.
Jessie Cunniffe 37:27
Get rid of my question. Like, will, will questions are just, they're often, like, almost like, rhetorical question, like, we kind of, like, we don't really care about about the answer, if you change them to can, you can often save a will question.
Jessie Cunniffe 37:45
So I don't know what it is about, like can, but it feels a little less certain, a little less set in stone, right? And so even though, like, you know, can they find their way back together, or, you know, is their love doomed, feels just a little less certain than will they I don't know. It's just, I just feel that it kind of gives us a little more doubt in a good way. But one thing that I do like to challenge authors to do, if they're really in love with the question at the end of their blurb, and like, it's not terrible, it's fine, I still challenge them to say, hey, write this as a really strong statement.
Jessie Cunniffe 38:15
Instead. Just try it. Just write the question out as a statement. And like, nine and a half times out of 10 they come back and they're like, oh my god, I love the statement more. So like, I will say, I think it is really interesting. The tribe publisher, like, the one thing they changed about my blurb was they put a question at the end. So if you want to ride the trend and you want to do that, go for it. The big tribe publishers doing it. It's obviously not doing terribly for them. Like, and it's potentially a sort of formula slash trend that like particular romance authors are learning to expect right now.
Jessie Cunniffe 38:45
But just be aware that it could be dated in a year, two years, whenever, as well. And you could be like, Oh, remember when we all put questions at the end of our blurbs, and then, you know, if you have a lovely statement at the end, like, that's not going to go out of fashion, there are absolutely times when a question at the end is the right call. I don't want to scare everyone off all questions, just see if you can do better. Write it as a statement. If the statement is better, like, then mostly the whole blurb feels better. So, yeah, that's, that's questions.
Lainey Cameron 39:12
So we, we have way too many questions for our one hour. Try something for a second. I want to try, like, a speed round. Okay, so we're gonna do it just two or three questions that are very specific and like, let's see if we can speed round on these. And then we're gonna get into the really icky, hard ones around trigger, okay, AI and all kinds of stuff. But let's try speed round.
Jessie Cunniffe 39:30
Love it.
Lainey Cameron 39:31
First question, present versus past tense.
Jessie Cunniffe 39:34
Uh, present, always present, always present.
Lainey Cameron 39:37
Okay, easy. Uh, third person versus first person?
Jessie Cunniffe 39:41
Oh, that'snot a quick fire question. So
Lainey Cameron 39:45
So couldn't go either way. Both can both can work. There's not a never do.
Jessie Cunniffe 39:48
Both can work. Third person is the gold standard,
Lainey Cameron 39:52
Perfect um blurbs and leading with awards um or someone else talking about the book instead of a regular hook?
Jessie Cunniffe 40:02
Unless the person is like, I don't know Stephen King and you're a horror writer, like, no, just start with your hook.
Jessie Cunniffe 40:09
Don't start with, like, a good read reader review, I get that they are totally awesome, and you're super proud of them, and you should be, but they can go at the bottom of your blurb if you want, although that's technically against Amazon guidelines. So just heads. People do it. People do it. People get away with it. But just heads up it's not actually allowed.
Paulette Stout 40:24
Can I add to the speed round, just really so what about like if your book is part of a series or a standalone, and like if it's a later book in the series, adding it's a standalone, or where it sits in the series? Is that ever good at the top?
Jessie Cunniffe 40:42
Not at the top. Oh, okay, I would, I would tend to put that at the bottom.
Paulette Stout 40:46
I put stand alone, but they're numbered, for instance. So I want people to know that my book four is like, they don't have to read book for the before.
Jessie Cunniffe 40:54
So just very recently, I was talking to a client of mine who writes a lot of romance books, and she's actually quite sort of experiencing this, and she's been experimenting with putting at the very top each book follows a different couple in, like, in the series, so showing that they're all interconnected standalones.
Jessie Cunniffe 41:08
And she said that does really well. So that's a newer thing. Like, genuinely, I was only talking to her about that a couple of weeks ago, so I would say there's an argument for, like, yeah, giving readers a heads up, especially if they can read that book on its own. I think that is actually doing well at the moment. It may not in a few years, but at the moment, I think you can go for it.
Lainey Cameron 41:27
Okay, great. So we're going to take a short sponsor break. And this was actually kind of fun, because we don't have a sponsor this week. So our short sponsor break is Jessie, tell us about the special offer that you have. Seeing as I know you have a special offer. If people go and download your anatomy of a book blurb, right?
Jessie Cunniffe 41:43
I do so if you go to anatomy of a book blurb.com, it's not the easiest URL, is it? Um, if you go there, then you will get the page to download my free cheat sheet, which takes you through the fiction and the non fiction structures and a little bit more deep well, like you know, you've got a whole page of detail to kind of keep by your bedside and review as you need to when you're writing blurbs, rather than trying to remember everything I've just said.
Jessie Cunniffe 42:06
And then once you've downloaded that, don't refresh or close the page or anything, because it will go to a new page that will offer you my book blurb magic course for just $37 instead of 67 but once you click away from that page, it's gone forever, and I think you have 10 minutes before the offer expires. So it is a bit of a bit of a quick one, but I do just want to reward people who are really, really keen to write their own blurbs and get really good at it. Book blurb Magic Course is my original course.
Jessie Cunniffe 42:29
It has had hundreds and hundreds of students through it and really great reviews. A lot of people find that that's all they need to write fantastic blurbs without any further help from me. It covers both fiction and non fiction, or narrative and non narrative blurbs for pretty much all genres. If you're specifically a spicy author, I have someone else for you, we can talk about later. But if you're in the fiction and non fiction camps, generally, anatomy of a book blurb.com get the free cheat sheet. It'll put you on my newsletter list, which is a lot of free information. And you'll also get 10 minute offer for book blurb magic at its absolute cheapest, $37
Lainey Cameron 43:02
Awesome. Good deal. Thanks. I'm glad you shared that and Paulette, seeing as we have a couple of minutes in our sponsor segment. And your new book just came out, and it's fabulous, if anyone hasn't read it yet. It kind of blew my mind on diet culture. We were talking earlier about cookbooks and diet culture. There it is what we give. It is giveaway. It is beautiful. It is palette. Just tell us a little bit about how it's going in the world, because I know you're getting some feedback that is making you cry as you get this book into the yeah, don't cry.
Paulette Stout 43:31
It's, I think it's been overwhelming. You know, people are, like, life altering, like, I'm getting like, these, like, you know, reviews that are just people feel changed after reading it, which is really amazing, because it's basically for those are familiar with what I write. I write, you know, spicy women's fiction, plot driven romance, kind of in that intersection. And this one takes on the issue of weight and body size. It has a second chance romance. It has a pudding couple. We have someone who's got, like, some eating disorder issues with a chef, so there's natural tension there.
Paulette Stout 44:05
People love the food. I have recipes on the website, y'all, so if you want to go to plots out com, get the recipes on the book page, you can do that. So yeah, it's just been a really positive experience, and I'm just trying to figure out how to get the book. And as many people say it's as possible, if you've read the book and you enjoy the book, please tell a friend, leave a review. You know, you send me an email, whatever. So thank you, everyone. Everyone go read it.
Lainey Cameron 44:31
Sounds awesome, amazing. I it like I thought that I was kind of educated on this topic, and it blew my mind on several of the things around diet culture that I was like, how was I misled? And how was I so out of sync with what all the studies actually say these days? So blew my mind. And I love anything that takes my perceptions and twists them around and says, like, Nope, you did not understand the way the world works. You had it wrong. I'm like, Yeah, I had it wrong.
Paulette Stout 44:53
The one thing that was kind of weird is that people keep saying they can't wait for the next one, and this is the last one. So, like. I'm like,
Lainey Cameron 45:01
Oh well, maybe it's not the last one. Maybe someone sees her on television, and it affects them, and there's another character to come? Okay, we're gonna get into some nice, controversial topics now, like, oh, Paulette, the next one's you? What's What's the next question?
Paulette Stout 45:18
So yeah, so this is just as right in my wheelhouse. So I have, you know, I usually take on kind of sensitive social issues. I've had some different things going on my books, you know, they're, you know, I've had some sexual harassment stuff. I've had some, you know, different racism. I've had, you know, weight, you know, things so what? What's your thinking about, like trigger warnings and how to address those types of themes in a book without, like, one giving them away. I know different authors hand them differently. I've read some, you know, controversial books that didn't mention anything, like the blurb for it ends with us, doesn't say anything about, like, anything that's in it. So I'm just really curious what your thoughts are about trigger warnings.
Jessie Cunniffe 46:00
Yeah, this is a really interesting one. I think the first thing I'll say, because, you know, the blurb should do some of the heavy lifting in terms of giving readers a head, heads up as to what the tone is of your book.
Jessie Cunniffe 46:10
So I think, yeah, like, where things like it ends with us went wrong is that it sounds like a very fluffy blurb, and there's no hint of any of the heavier themes that are, that are in the book. And there was a fantasy book a while ago that had a blurb. I actually bought the book and I was about to read it, and a friend of mine was like, Oh, that one's full of, like, gore and whatever else. And I was like, Oh, my God, the blurb sounded like it was not that at all, and I'm not going to be able to deal with that so. And there was a controversy about that one. They had to put trigger warnings up on their website and everything afterwards, because people complained.
Jessie Cunniffe 46:40
So I completely understand why people are concerned about it two things. One, in terms of the blurb tone, even without specifically saying, oh there's racism, oh there's sexual harassment, we can be using vocabulary that indicates like a heaviness or a grit or whatever it is that the atmosphere is around that particular situation. It does get tricky when those things happen deeper into the book, and they're technically spoilers and we can't talk about them.
Jessie Cunniffe 47:07
However, I do find that it's rare that a book doesn't have any hint of heaviness earlier on, like there's usually some kind of thread through it, whether it's, I don't know, deep insecurity in the character that then makes them feel less than and then they find themselves in this compromising situation, and it's even harder for them to get out because they have, like, no sense of self worth.
Jessie Cunniffe 47:26
Like, there are threads often that you can kind of pull on in the blurb. To give a hint of, like, I say it's like showing them the path, but just like, not what's at the end of it, you can give them a hint of what the tone is. So tone is so, so important in blurbs. And most of the time when I've read a book and the blurb has been wildly different. It's that the blurb sounds happy or fluffy and the book is gritty and dark, right, or the opposite. But that's not as, not as common.
Jessie Cunniffe 47:49
So that's, that's the first thing we want to make sure we're doing the blurb is that it's really aligning with the tone and themes of your book in terms of trigger warnings. I have very mixed feelings about them. Personally. I think they are, and a burden that is placed quite heavily on the shoulders of indie authors almost exclusively. Like, I say, the book that I referred to previously was tried published, and the publishers did end up putting trigger warnings on the website and such and such. But that was after, like, a lot of complaints.
Jessie Cunniffe 48:17
Obviously, there's been a lot of complaints about Colleen Hoover, and people just kind of know it's Colleen Hoover now. So that's the that's the that's the trigger warning, right? Is that it's Colleen Hoover. But I do feel for indie authors, because, I think, because you have this direct line with your readers, I think this is where trigger warnings are sort of coming from, is that you actually bear the brunt of people sending you like me with my email list, someone can hit reply to any of my emails and be like You're an idiot. Stop emailing me like that happens. Sometimes, most people are very nice, but sometimes people are mean.
Jessie Cunniffe 48:44
And so it can be confronting to have that direct line to your audience. And therefore I completely understand that, you know, trigger warnings can really protect you as an author in a large way. On the flip side, I think a lot of things to do with trigger warnings are very subjective. There are very, very very obvious ones, like, you know, sexual assault, for example, whatever. But there are, there's, I've seen trigger warnings for a broken arm, right? Like, they're like, that's genuinely, genuinely so for some, for somebody, that's a trigger, for somebody, it's not right, and then for somebody else, it's a spoiler. And then they're like, peeved, right, that you've told them there's a broken arm in there. You've told them, like, there's, yeah, there's a whole sort of conversation around it.
Lainey Cameron 49:23
So,because it depends how many pages it takes to break the arm, I guess 10 pages of breaking someone's arm, that's pretty horrific torture.
Unknown Speaker 49:37
This is true. And, I mean, it's funny for me, because, I mean, unlike I suppose you guys relate to this too. Is like I grew up before trigger warnings were a thing. I read books where suddenly something awful happens on like the last page, and you're like, oh, okay, I didn't expect that. And I think I tend to be of the opinion that for me personally, it was character building. And I'm not somebody who has triggers. And so trigger warnings aren't necessarily relevant, particularly to me.
Jessie Cunniffe 50:00
Except I would kind of like to know, I guess if a book had loads of gore, but I think I'd be fine to come across in the book and be like, not throwing this one out. I'm not, you know, I'd be okay. I think with the growing awareness of like mental health and all that kind of stuff, I think we're being more sensitive towards these things and acknowledging that people might be in a vulnerable state and want to feel safe picking up books, right? Which is completely fair enough as well.
Jessie Cunniffe 50:18
My issue is more that I feel sorry for the Indies who like so much is expected like, well, you should have put this in, and smoking is a trigger now, and all this kind of thing that you may or may not think of. And there's no definitive list. It gets very tricky, and I think so much of that blame and stress comes on Indies in a way that that tried published authors don't necessarily have to deal with, right? Yeah, so in terms of the way trigger warnings are related to the blurb, it can get tricky putting trigger warnings in your like online book description, because then there could be, like, a whole bunch of words in there that trigger Amazon to be like, Whoa. Okay. We're not putting, you know, we're not putting this, this online.
Jessie Cunniffe 50:54
So I do tend to advise that trigger warnings go in the front matter, so that people can see them with the like, see more right on Kindle. It's not somewhere in the back. And I also advise, like, if it is really significant triggers, or like, you know, content warnings, I do put at the bottom of the blurb, content warnings on you know, page three of the book, like, click, look inside to see, just to kind of direct people there. Yeah. Because the other thing is, if they buy the book directly, Kindle very often skips just to page one. So very often people are reading an ebook, it just skips the front matter anyway. So you're not actually guaranteed for them to see those trigger warnings and then look, they're going to find some way to blame you for that as well, right?
Jessie Cunniffe 51:30
So putting that little thing at the bottom of the blurb to just say full content, you know, trigger warnings on page three, then people can actually click read more, have a little look and go, yeah, it's for me, or not.
Lainey Cameron 51:41
Clever.
Paulette Stout 51:45
Anyone who formats Atticus, you can choose where your page will start on the look inside. So that's cool. So know that you know, so if you have a freebie or if you have a trigger warning, you put that in. Yeah, I think that's a fantastic idea. I recently bought a book in a bookstore because I usually read digitally. So buying a book for me is, like, a really big deal. And then I read the back blurb, and then when I started looking at the front, it had lots of things about school shootings and all kinds of and I was like, this wasn't anywhere my daughter returned the book, you know. So I think you just want to give readers a good experience. So I think the way you're talking about to Natalie put putting the in the front matter, like hinting, I think those are all really good solutions. Yeah.
Jessie Cunniffe 52:28
And it's like, I say I understand the frustration, because there's, I've got so many tried examples of blurbs that really give no heads up as to what's happening inside of the book. It is something like, I just, like, my heart goes out in these because I know it's a lot, but I also really appreciate that you're trying to, like, really look up. Trying to, like, really look after your readers.
Jessie Cunniffe 52:43
And I think your readers should know how lucky they are to have authors who are actually, like, going to, you know, author slash publishers, right? Because you're doing everything are going to these lengths to make sure that people can feel safe. I would say, in terms of choosing which page Your book goes to automatically, like you were saying in Atticus Paulette, I'd be wary of making it jump straight to the trigger warnings, only because I know only because I know some people get annoyed of them being spoilers, and they want to skip the trigger warnings.
Jessie Cunniffe 53:07
So, like, that's just another consideration. You know, if you have some really, really serious triggers, maybe it's a good idea to go straight there so no one can miss it. But I have seen people whinge that it's it's also a spoiler, so you can't please everyone.
Paulette Stout 53:18
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Lainey Cameron 53:21
And then Lancy McCall is pointing out that some people also say trigger warnings are on their website, which is another way to do it.
Jessie Cunniffe 53:27
Yeah, the only annoying thing about that, as far as Amazon is concerned, is that you can't put URLs in your Amazon description. So then how do you tell them where your website? It's like a journey for you, and they might go, I can't be bothered to find your website, right? If it's in the front matter, and they can click read more and see it, I feel like it's less of a barrier for them. But look, I know authors who it also works for, so have both if you want, as well. That's the other option.
Lainey Cameron 53:49
Well, I know we're getting towards the end of our time here, so I'm going to skip to a wonderfully polarizing, contentious question that I actually was going to have asked, but I'm going to ask it now, which is, what about using AI to write a book blurb. I mean, I'm best friends with Claude. Claude has done some wonderful things for me recently. So like...
Jessie Cunniffe 54:04
Jessie has left the chat. Look, I'm trying not to be a Luddite, so I'm definitely not an AI expert. I'm sort of coming around to it as a an assistive thing. I know that's doing great assistive things for people. My concern is this, right? Is AI is only as good as as what it's fed. And there are so many more rubbish book blurbs out there than there are good ones. So if we assume, I don't know whether you know, chatgpt is even trained on book blurbs at all, from what I've seen, it really isn't.
Jessie Cunniffe 54:39
But like I say, I acknowledge that I don't know all the fancy prompts, but if it's just going to be bad blurb compost of the really, really and chat GPT in particular, does some very, very specific things with book blurbs. I've used it in my emails before to teach people like chat GPT makes all the same mistakes beginning authors do in their blurb so they're.
Jessie Cunniffe 55:00
And I don't want it. I don't want bad blurb compost. I don't want a whole mishmash of the terrible blurbs that are out there infecting my blurb. I've put my blurbs through improvers. Like to, like, put it through AI and, like, make this, make this better, and it's always made it worse. So that's my experience of it. I will share, though, that a student of mine who did the book blurb, magic, course, was still sort of struggling a little bit with, you know, his story, to get it down to under 200 words.
Jessie Cunniffe 55:27
So I think he maybe had, like, I don't know, 300 or 250 words. And he did use AI. He asked AI to help him, like, cut it down. And while he didn't agree with all of the changes, and it didn't do like, a perfect job, it helped him to see which bits might be less relevant to the blurb. So he used that as like, help to edit down his blurb. And I think that's a really smart way to use it. I think if you remember that AI is never the finished product, like it can it can help you, but it's never the finished product.
Jessie Cunniffe 55:53
You can't just be like, write me a blurb and it's done, then it can absolutely help. All book blurb magic blurbs are 100% AI free. I don't even use chat GPT to brainstorm. It's like I like everything to come from up here. I guess you could say I like doing everything the hard way, but to me, it's really important, because I I want to connect with the book, and I feel like throwing it into AI pulls me away from my, like, instinctive connection with the material that the author has given me. For me, it's a very, very personal, personal thing. So I think if you are struggling to get your book blurb down to 180 words, let's say yeah, chuck it into chat, G, P, T, and see if you can get it shorter and see what it suggests.
Jessie Cunniffe 56:36
Very often I found that it makes things wordier, so just be careful. But it could be, you know, an interesting signpost, basically, of what needs to go in your blurb. I just am very unconvinced by what I've seen of it so far.
Paulette Stout 56:52
Yeah. And I think one of like, I use, you know, we use AI a lot of my job. And I think there are a few things that people need to keep in mind if they are using it to kind of re humanize it afterwards. Make sure that you're varying your sentence lengths, like short and long. Make sure that you're using evocative language. Make sure that you're varying your sentence structure. And you know, so there are some things that you can overlay on top of it if you want to use it as a foundation. But to Jessie's point, it should never be the end product. You need to go back and add the tone, add the flavor, add the mood, make sure you're doing all the things that Jessie has spoken about for the last hour. And you know, maybe it can be a help for some people, but it won't be as much as a help as Jessie. And you know, I'm going to be camping on your front
Lainey Cameron 57:41
step, like I would mention. I'm using AI to help with the social media posts for the podcast, social media and some things it does really well as I point it towards the public transcript. And I'll say, like, Give me 10 interesting things Jessie said in the last hour. And it does very good with that. It'll pull quotes that, you know, would it take me ages to go through and go, what's the most interesting piece of this? And then, you know, in one minute, it pulls 20 options, but then you're using your own savvy to say, and I always ask it to give you, like, 30 options, then you're using your own savvy to say, okay, of those 30, that's the one I think people will be interested in, yeah. You're still not, you're still not handing it over, right? You're just using find things for you, yeah,
Jessie Cunniffe 58:16
yeah. And I think, like, that's a really great example of, yeah, great assistive AI, my concern with using it to write blurbs is, of course, you then have a whole copyright minefield as well. Is it your work? Is it not? And that's another reason why I stay well clear of it, obviously, providing blurbs to people. It's just, I don't want to open that can of worms.
Paulette Stout 58:17
I think the other piece is, remember that Amazon and all these they are algorithms, and they can tell, you know, there's you, there are ways, there are structures that they look for in language to kind of sense, whether it is AI generated or if it's human generated. And I have to think that the algorithms are going to favor or put more authority behind book verbs that you know are written better because they have the human overlay, so you may not be helping yourself in terms of the algorithmic benefits.
Jessie Cunniffe 59:08
Also remember, yeah, also remember that if, if readers even suspect that your blurb is AI, you will be publicly crucified, like, that's just where we're at right now. And I mean, like it, they'll assume that your book is all AI, they'll assume that your covers all AI because, and I know that some people are being very unfairly accused. It's getting a little bit wild out there, but, you know, yeah, if you can steer clear of it, steer clear of it, right? Because it's just gonna give your book a bad name, potentially.
Jessie Cunniffe 59:33
And very interestingly, I was reading a study the other day about they they tested, like university professors looking at, you know, student assignments and stuff like that, to see if they could detect AI. They reckon that ordinary people can detect AI writing 60 to 70% of the time, which to me is like, what? Like, that's so much more than I thought it would be. And yes, it's at this current stage of AI. Maybe it's going to get freakishly good. Who knows? Like, I might be jobless next year. But, like. Yeah, at the moment, it's not there. At the moment, it's not there. And and people do know people can feel it.
Paulette Stout 1:00:06
Yeah. So Jessie, talk to us through, how can people connect with you, to have you help them? And by when I say people, I mean me.
Jessie Cunniffe 1:00:17
I love it. Okay, I've got, I've got a I've got a few options. So you can go to book blurb magic.com to see like, all of the options. But essentially, we've got the book blurb Magic Course. Remember, you can get that for just $37 when you go and download my free cheat sheet. I also have the spicy blurb playbook, which is my course specifically for romance authors, and that delves into how to write first person, dual first person as well as third person romance blurbs specifically. So again, that's on book blurb magic.com. As well. I
Jessie Cunniffe 1:00:45
f you want to work specifically with me, I have two main services. So one is my custom book blurb service, which is totally done for you. It's also booked out until June. At this stage, I've actually closed the page at the moment, but you can email me if you would like to go on the wait list, or you can jump on a one to one blurb audit with me, which there are still spots available for. From May, April just booked out, but from May onwards, there are spots. Essentially. That's where you hop on a one to one like Google, meet call with me. We have your blurb in front of us. You do have to have a blurb draft to bring it. Can be it can be a rubbish one like you don't have to be in love with it, just just your working blurb that you've got at the moment. And essentially, we spend up to an hour working on it, and it's, it's kind of like, I'm your assistive AI, right? I'm like, yep, yep, no, no, right? As we go through and like, 99% of the time the entire blurb is done within that hour. Sometimes it's done in 20 or 30 minutes, like, sometimes it's a few tweaks, and all of a sudden the whole thing opens up. And we're like, yeah, rewrite this. Rewrite. This. Rewrite this. This is perfect. Whole new hook. It's very exciting. I love how fast paced it is. I kind of love being put on the spot with that sort of thing.
Jessie Cunniffe 1:01:49
And then, regardless of how the call goes, you still have access to me for two weeks afterwards, inside a shared Google Docs, you can make as many tweaks, you can ask as many questions as you like. It's one of my most popular services, because you just get so much one help. There are strictly only nine per month, though. So they do book out pretty quick. Um, but there are a lot of fun. So I'd love to see you on one, Paulette, and of course, anyone listening, you know,
Paulette Stout 1:02:11
Go add one for April. Like, I'm desperate here. Like, you, like, you need to add me in April. Like, I need to make space for me. Y'all,
Jessie Cunniffe 1:02:20
I'll put you on the cancelation list. I'll put you on the cancelation
Paulette Stout 1:02:22
Thank you. Thank you. I mean, come on, let's have a little love over here.
Lainey Cameron 1:02:28
For those who are not lucky enough to be on your newsletter. And I'm in awe of your newsletter. I read it like I'm in a lot of people's newsletters, and I don't read them like I every so often I check in because of people I want to stay in contact with, but I can't read everything. But your newsletter is so fun, and I don't know how you find new topics to write about every single freaking day, but you do, and you can smile and you make me giggle, and that's why I open it. How the heck and how do people find it and sign up?
Jessie Cunniffe 1:02:53
Oh, thank you. Um, yeah. Well, if you go to book web magic.com you'll get a nice little pop up that says, hey, this is where to sign up. Once you download my free cheat sheet, though, you're, you're on the list, like, that's, that's the main way that people, that people get onto my list. And then, yeah, you have five days a week of blurb tips.
Jessie Cunniffe 1:03:09
And I do, once a year, teach my email technique as well. So if you're on my list, I only sell it to my list. I think I'm going to be promoting that in October, November. So if you're interested, if you love newsletters and writing emails and you get stuck for things to say, I can teach you. I can teach you my ways. It's emails like my second. Love the side blurbs, they compete, but I love, I love email marketing.
Lainey Cameron 1:03:34
I know, I know a lot of people are sitting here going like, Oh, love..?
Jessie Cunniffe 1:03:40
It's the best. I love it more than social media, more engagement, more genuine relationships, more fun. Like, it's just the best. And it can be fun for you too. I promise come work with me in October, November.
Lainey Cameron 1:03:53
I think it's worth it just to learn how to make it fun. Like, yeah, I want to know that. So we're at the end. We at the end of our time here.
Lainey Cameron 1:03:59
And I just want to point out that we have some phenomenal topics coming up soon. I'm really excited that Paulette is bringing in a phenomenal expert on Facebook ads. It's been actually, other than book blurbs, our most requested topic so far. People want to learn about advertising. I am not quite sure how we're going to reach advertising on a podcast, but we're going to give it our darn best try. And so that's coming up.
Lainey Cameron 1:04:19
We're also going to be talking about controversial topics and writing controversial topics, and how to do book marketing around controversial topics, which is something that palette feels very familiar with. But we're going to bring in some guest authors to kind of share how they did it, too. And if you have ideas for us, please send us ideas of what would help you.
Lainey Cameron 1:04:36
We're really good at going out, as you saw today, and finding the people that we think are the best expert on a topic. That's why we invited Jessie, and we are so grateful that you joined us. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 1:04:46
I was so fun. Thank you so much for having me
Lainey Cameron 1:04:49
Enjoy the rest of the day in Australia.
Jessie Cunniffe 1:04:51
Thank you. Bye.