How to write a book summary for the back cover or get it written by a Pro!

How to guide on Book blurb writing for beginners

Sujeewa Tennakoon
8 min readJan 5, 2021

Are you an author looking to captivate readers with an irresistible book blurb? Crafting a compelling book summary / blurb is a crucial skill for any writer, and it can be the key to attracting readers, agents, and publishers alike.

Whether you’re an aspiring author seeking recognition or a self-published writer looking to stand out in a crowded market, learning how to write a good book summary for the back cover — blurb is essential.

Guide on How to write a book summary for the back cover

However, unfortunately, it’s not a secret that not only newcomers but also many established authors struggle when it comes to the subject of writing a good book summary that generates tons of sales.

You are a good Author but a bad book blurb writer!

Authors are naturally great at writing 1000-10000 words with ease in a single day but for many of them, writing 150-200 word book descriptions can still take a few weeks or even months to accomplish.

Of course, this can be such a mentally-exhausting task for many authors but what actually makes this so hard for them?

Book Publishing, Marketing and Blurbs

In fact, even if you’re a great author with brilliant writing skills, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a good book summary writer who is capable of writing the perfect blurb or the book description that your book deserves.

This is simply because, when it comes to writing a blurb that sells, in terms of the tone and the process of writing you should focus on, it does require specialized writing skills and expertise that are related to the marketing aspect of book publishing.

Blurb/book summary = Marketing

Best selling blurbs prove the fact that your creativity accompanied by a great marketing eye could be the key to become a good blurb writer!

Nevertheless, it’s essential to keep in mind that at all times the blurb is what actually sells your book.

The challenge with writing a catchy blurb

The blurb or the back cover book summary is the short description found at the back of your book and it doesn’t matter how long or how great the content of your book is, you actually have no more than 100–200 words to impress your audience and attract your target readers in order to generate sales.

Sometimes, you may need to make it sounds a bit like a movie teaser but still this can vary depending on the content and the genre. In general, it should introduce characters, arouse interest, and give an insight into your main conflict or the content.

How to write a book summary for the back cover — The HBBOC method

When it comes to sales focused marketing, the process of writing equally plays a crucial role in creating a catchy book description for your book.

  1. Hook — Grab the attention starting from the title
  2. Build Interest — Warm up the readers and make them curious about your book
  3. Best-Selling Bullet Points — Shock your readers with what your book can do for them
  4. Objection Handling — Solve the reader’s psychological resistance for making a purchase
  5. Call to Action — Call to action that makes people click on ‘Buy Now’!

Keep in mind that your primary goal is to make the reader want to know more

Should I keep googling for blurb writing guides?

When it comes to the author’s perspective, they know everything and truly live inside the story that they just created. They are too familiar with characters, story or the content inside. Unfortunately, this is probably what turns a great author into a terrible blurb writer!

In regard to creating a catchy blurb, you have to take the buyer’s point of view towards what triggers him/her to purchase your book into consideration. This is because psychological triggers are what actually runs the marketing world.

Keep in mind that just a personal recommendation given by a random reader of your book in a way that arouses interest for another reader can sometimes be a better triggering factor at generating more sales than your ordinary blurb. Hence, writing a killer blurb is crucial.

Should I hire someone to ghostwrite my book blurb?

In fact, authors can be too close to the story that makes many of them go blind at identifying the marketing hook that they should focus on when writing their blurb. Perhaps, the author may not always be the ideal person to write a book description or a blurb for his/her own book.

Due to many reasons hiring a ghostwriter to write everything for your book wouldn’t always be a wise idea for you to consider especially if you’re new to the scene.

However, it’s certainly not the case when it comes to hiring a professional to write a blurb for your book even though you have to be careful not to choose just a ghostwriter with ordinary ghostwriting skills.

Writing book blurbs, author bios are always specialized skills that are mostly based on experiential learnings in the book publishing industry.

Write the perfect book description —5 specialized author profiles/services on Fiverr

After some heavy research along with my own experience in working on few freelance sites, I was able to find the most experienced and highest-rated individual blurb writing freelance profiles on Fiverr who have been offering some life-saving author services including blurbs, author bios for quite a long time.

Most of them seem to be extremely well-known authors in the publishing industry and they seem to know exactly how to write a good book summary that can hook the reader and call them to action.

Apparently, many of them are offering their author services at a much affordable rate which has allowed a huge author community (over 10 000 blurb writing projects) to grow around these 5 stand out freelancer profiles on Fiverr.

Ava Mallory (avamallory) ‐ specialized blurb writer on fiverr

Ava is a US-based freelance copywriter who is offering a brilliant blurb writing service on Fiverr along with few other author services such as author bios, tagline/loglines, and sales copy for ads.

In fact, she seems to be a well-known author and also a brilliant writing consultant with many credits to her name. Also, her blurb writing gig has received over 2000 reviews of 5-star ratings from her clients that showcase her expertise in what she has been doing on Fiverr for more than 6 years.

Visit Ava’s profile

Pros

· Will provide you with a new blurb or a rewrite of your existing description.

· Extremely positive 2000+ client feedbacks

· Services at an affordable rate

· A level 2 seller on Fiverr

Cons

· No cons found

Cate Hogan — (A Fiverr pro profile) - the highest rated book editor

How to write a good book blurb— Cate Hogan

Cate Hogan is a development editor of Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon Chart best sellers. Among hundreds of freelancers in the field, her professionalism stands out from the rest for being the highest rated as well as the most experienced book editor on Fiverr with more than 9 years of experience in offering the services of the highest quality for thousands of authors across the world.

the best back cover book summary writer
Visit Cate’s Profile

Pros

· A Fiverr pro — the profile has been specifically vetted by Fiverr for the highest level of professional standards.

· Will provide you with a rewrite of your existing description or a new one

· Highest rated book editor on Fiverr

· 1000+ positive feedbacks

· A top-rated seller on Fiverr

Cons

· Fiverr pro services can be a bit expensive for many clients

Morganeditor1

Morgan is a New Zealand based copywriting expert with over 4 years of experience in the book publishing industry and 1000+ book descriptions under her belt.

She has been helping thousands of authors on Fiverr platform writing descriptions for books across countless genres, including self-help, how-to, memoirs and biographies, cookbooks and dieting, religious books, children’s books, fantasy & sci-fi, romance, mystery, thriller, crime fiction, and more

Book summary writing service
Visit Morgan’s Profile

Pros

· 1000+ positive feedbacks

· A new blurb/a rewrite of your existing description.

· Affordable pricings

· A top-rated seller on Fiverr

Cons

  • No cons found

Russ41burg

Russ is a UK based expert writing consultant with 4000+ overall reviews on his Fiverr profile for his excellent author services including book descriptions, author bios, proofreading, mentoring etc.

He has completed 3000+ projects with his blurb writing gig which has got a brilliant approval rating of 4.9 from his clients as well.

Pros

· A new blurb/a rewrite of your existing description

· 3000+ book descriptions written

· Affordable pricings

· Provides a range of author services

· Thousands of positive feedback

· A level 2 seller on Fiverr

Cons

  • No cons found

Snirz94 - book descriptions that sell on Amazon

Snirz94 is a team of individual copywriting talents with expertise in both book publishing and the digital marketing industry. Along with the experience of working on more than 1000 book descriptions on Fiverr Snirz94 is prepared to be hired by authors to write book descriptions for any type of book.

Visit Snirz’s Profile

Pros

· Over 1000 blurb writing projects completed

· knowledgeable about important marketing strategies

· A top-rated seller on Fiverr

· Assists with any question related to book publishing

· Affordable pricings

Cons

· Not an individual copywriter

In summary

There is no right or wrong way to approach writing a book summary /blurb, and it will likely depend on your experience. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that learning how to write a good book summary for your back cover is a fundamental part of the overall marketing strategy involved in book publishing. So, make sure, you get it right!

Note: all the book description writing services mentioned above may have their own pros and cons but it’s clear that these are arguably the top 5 freelancer profiles in providing essential author services on popular freelancing platforms that are trusted by thousands of established authors in the industry.

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Disclosure: The story may contain affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I’ll earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

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Sujeewa Tennakoon

Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, Brand strategist, Food Enthusiast, Writer. I write about Business intelligence, Brand Strategies and Freelancing