First, a few points about book blurbs:

You have only a few seconds to intrigue a reader when they look at the back of your book. If you give them a lengthy synopsis (a plot-point by plot-point description), you can easily lose them in the detail. Synopses are for agents, editors, and publishers who want to know each step of the storyline, including the ending. A synopsis is an informative piece.



Blurbs need to be relatively short—just a couple of paragraphs, if possible—hitting the compelling highlights of the characters’ and the story’s arcs, but not giving away the ending. It serves as a teaser to interest readers enough to open the book to learn more, or to buy it. A book blurb is a marketing piece.



“Real estate” on the back of a book is valuable. It needs to include compelling words to entice readers to look inside and buy. That includes the blurb, testimonials, perhaps a tagline, maybe some author info/photo; not to mention the business and purchasing items like the publishing info and barcode. A long blurb takes up too much space to allow easy readability of the other detail on the back cover.



Authors almost always use the book blurb on their Amazon book page listing, too. Readers don’t spend a lot of time checking out a book online. Here’s how it goes…If a reader likes the thumbnail, they click to see the details.If they like the cover, up-close, they scroll down to the description.If the description is too long, or doesn’t have an immediate hook, they leave your page and start searching for something else and you’ve lost them.If the description grabs them quickly, they scroll back up to the “Look Inside” feature to learn more.If they like what they see inside, they buy.Readers holding a physical book follow the same process (obviously, without all the clicking and scrolling).