Book hooks and blurbs – Can you catch a reader? #Mondayblogs

As an indie author there are many aspects to publishing that are important, hell, all of them are, you’re in charge afterall. But for selling purposes, your cover and book hook are THE most important.

You slave over a book for weeks, months… possibly even years. Sweat, blood, tears and probably a number of other bodily fluids go into the masterpiece that is your glorious book-baby.

But then what?

You wrap it in a shiny cover, then throw it lovingly onto a number of retailers websites and wait…

and wait…

and wait some more.

There’s a problem. No one’s buying your book.

There are a thousand reasons why someone might not buy your book, but two you can do something about quickly.

First impressions count

Here’s my psychology background coming into play, but first impressions take seconds, not minutes to form. Between 7 and 12 of them to be exact. But that’s when you meet people. Browsing on Amazon or Kobo you have even less time to make an impression.

In marketing terms, books are what we call impulse purchases. They’re low cost enough a shopper will make a snap decision to buy because the consequence of buying a book is low financially. Which means you can pick them up just as easily as you can lose them.

So what can you do to ensure you pick them up rather than drop them?

Do a book cover scan

Covers along with edits are the mortgage of publishing. You don’t want to change them unless you absolutely have to. But, if you’re advertising your book and it’s still not selling then I’d suggest doing a scan of the covers in your genre. Is your cover similar to the ones in your genre that are selling? Or is it displaying flowers when the others are showing tanks?

Now, I know you might be screaming “but mine needs to stand out,” but hear ye, hear ye little writer bees… That’s exactly what you don’t want it to do.

I know, I know. But you want them to spot yours, you want to be ‘seen’ in the crowded book forest. But you stand out by standing in.

And yes, I know how insane that sounds. What you want is a reader to walk into a shop and spot your genre area. Your cover needs to stand out ‘within’ the parameters of your genre. More on that

Ask yourself the following:

• What similar elements can you see in the popular covers in your genre?
• Are there colour schemes that keep cropping up?
• Are there patterns or styles of font you see frequently?

Edit your book hook

Editing your book’s blurb or tagline is where the real money can be made. It’s also significantly faster and not just cheaper than changing your cover, it’s FREE.

I recently took a short course in an endeavour to learn how to craft better hooks and blurbs. I’ve written about synopses before (see the links at the bottom of the post). But I wanted to focus on grabbing readers at the first opportunity possible.

So I took Adam Croft’s Writing Killer Blurbs and Hooks mini course. Boy was it awesome.

Before I share some of the things I learned, let me tell you, not only is it jam-packed full of information, it’s only $29. AND once you buy the course, you get it FOR LIFE. Interested? Click the button below.

I want the book hook course

Of course, it’s a paid course, so I won’t give away ALL the details, but here’s a few highlights:

What is a book hook?

Your book’s hook or tagline is a single sentence placed at the top of your book’s sale page. It’s purpose is to be eyecatching, and draw the reader in.

Quick Tip: hooks that ask a question work extremely well because our brains are biologically wired to answer them.

Which means if your hook is a question you’re almost guaranteed to drive a reader on to read the rest of your blurb, if not purchase your book.

Your blurb isn’t a summary of your plot. In fact, most of your plot isn’t even relevant to your blurb. Your blurb should capture the heart of your reader. You want to actively avoid telling them the whole plot otherwise what’s the point of them reading your book?

I also learned how to beautify my book blurb. You know when you go to Amazon and an author had bold bits and stars and italics and your blurb is all plain text and boring? Yeh, well. Now I know how to make them pretty too. And before you panic about HTML coding, there’s a cheat but you gotta take the course to find out what it is!

Okay, I’ll stop spilling secrets. Just go take the course and learn in one hour how to master your hooks and blurbs.

Please note this is an affiliate link and I will earn a small commission if you purchase the course, however, as I mentioned previously, I’ve personally taken this course and found it very useful which is why I’m recommending it. 

I want the book hook course

For selling purposes, your cover and #book blurb are THE most important part of #bookmarketing Learn how to craft the perfect blurb #indieauthor #selfpublishing #IARTG #ASMRG #writingcommunity Share on X

If you enjoyed this post, you might find this useful too:

5 Things to Remember When Designing Your Book Cover With @AuthorhelenJ

https://sachablack.co.uk/2016/01/04/how-to-snag-a-publisher-first-time-with-your-synopsis/