How to Write a Blurb/Back Cover Copy

 Last night, SFWA did the big online show to announce our Nebula finalists. Killian got to play a special role in a guest appearance as a catterfly, a denizen of Planet Friend. Isn't he adorable?

But catterflys aren't our topic at the SFF Seven this week. Pity. Instead, we're discussing blurbs and how to write better ones.

Now, there's some confusion out there about exactly what a "blurb" is. In traditional publishing, a blurb is what one author says about another. Along the lines of "Golly gee whiz, this book was better than espresso brownies!" In indie circles, self-published authors tend to call the book description a blurb, whereas the trad community refers to it as the back cover copy or BCC.

Taking my cue from KAK yesterday, I'm going with the BCC definition. Except there's no freaking way I'm going to write that before I write the book. My writer brain doesn't work that way. However, I can give advice on how to write your BCC.

The Basics

The BCC structure is very simple and looks like this for a book with romance:

Paragraph 1: What the protagonist wants, why they want it, and why they can't have it. Should include both external and internal conflicts, if present.
Paragraph 2: What the other protagonist wants, why they want it, and why they can't have it. Should include both external and internal conflicts, if present.
Paragraph 3: How these two intersect, make each other's lives more difficult, and present a threat to them ever getting what they want.

Boom. Done.

 

Level Up

Once you have the basic stuff in there - and I just sketch it in to get the structure and dynamics - then I polish it up. Remember: while you want to give a sense of the story to the reader, you also want to entice. Exact details are less important than posing intriguing questions. Hint at secrets and drama. Resist naming too many names or places. Those aren't important at this stage. A sense of who the characters are and the challenges they face are what matter. Make sure the genre is clear. Choose vivid, active words. Make it sizzle and excite!

 

Advanced Tricks

Once you have it polished and seductive, see if you can slip in some keywords for the genre. Think what readers might search for. References tropes. (Then go back and polish so it sounds good.)

Somewhere in the Middle

I want something that combines the flexibility and speed of self-publishing with the power of a publisher. I mean, traditional publishing was fun while it lasted, but it was so danged slow. I realize I say that as someone who hasn't published anything in awhile. I still have aspirations, y'all. I'd like to pretend I could go faster and pour out a bunch of books. Traditional publishing is just too slow for my tastes. Not to mention that a hearty dose of imposter syndrome convinces me I'll never see another traditional deal again anyway. 

My problem is that I insist on hiring an editor. A good one. I have some bad habits as a writer - I know what I want to say, so what I write makes sense in my head - but it doesn't make sense to anyone else. I need someone objective enough to call me on it every single time. Of course a manuscript is never going to be perfect. Ask me how many typos, missing words, or repeated words I find immediately after a book gets published. I also fully acknowledge that I am not good at book covers. The cover artists I hire always ask for my ideas about covers, then spend the rest of our time telling me why my ideas won't work. This is exactly what I want - someone with far more experience with reader expectations around book covers than I have. It's just -- as a self-publisher who *does* no how to format electronic manuscripts for several different formats -- I've already spent more that $1k of my own cash. I'm also lacking that marketing team to help me focus a 100k word story down to a punchy, pithy sales pitch that helps readers understand at a glance what my stories are about.

As it happens, I've found the perfect for-me compromise. An e-first press. The press used to be called a small press, but Wild Rose Press isn't small. Not anymore. The press releases books across all genres. Their bread and butter is still romance - as it is for so many of us. But they've expanded into so many other markets. I get an editor, a cover artist, someone else handles the formatting, and I get a little much-needed marketing coaching. Are they slower than I could publish myself? Yes. But not by much. If I turn in a book, I'm usually holding a print copy in my hands within 8 months. The great thing is I'm not limited to one line or genre. I can write anything that takes my fancy. I hand it to my editor and she places the story - or tells me straight up that Wild Rose Press can't use the book and I'm free to self-publish it or sub it elsewhere. 

I like the flexibility and the assurance that I have people on my side - who want my books. So far, it's working for me.

Trad, Indie, or Hybrid?

Where the books are: traditional publishing, self-publishing, or a fusion of the two.
What works best for me?

Welp, I have eight books that I've self-published, so that's working best for me right now. I love that I'm in control of most aspects including my schedule (okay, I'm in control of 90% of my schedule), the art, and the content. I dislike the relentless marketing spend.

I don't eschew traditional publishing. I'm not in the Indie or Die! camp. My supply and major houses' demand haven't synced yet. With trad publishing, I think there are advantages in gaining reader reach. However, there are disadvantages not only in process but also in cash-in-hand. 

I imagine being hybrid published is ideal, but since I haven't walked that road, I'll defer to my fellow bloggers who have. 

Three Things I Did to Sustain a Full-time Writing Career

The audiobook of BRIGHT FAMILIAR is now available! And GREY MAGIC in audio will be out very soon!! 

This week at the SFF Seven our topic is: Being a full-time writer – is it your dream? How do you pay for life and write, too?

In this instance we're defining "full-time writer" as someone who doesn't have a day job or other paying occupation that competes with writing. Most of us - unless we marry money or inherit a trust fund - continue to work jobs even after our first books are published. Sometimes for a LONG time after that. For myself, I continued to have essentially two careers for just over twenty years after my first publication. 

I worked in environmental consulting while all the while carving out time and energy to write. I kept waiting for my writing income to match my day-job salary - even not figuring in benefits! - and it never got there. Eventually life made the decision for me: my primary project got axed, our team dissolved, and I was laid off with decent severance. 

And, as it was absolutely my dream and my goal, I made the decision to try to have only one career at that point. 

It hasn't been easy! KAK's post from yesterday about being exacting with a budget is super important. This is especially true if, like her, you have only yourself to count on for income. Or if, like me, you are the primary breadwinner for your family. When authors give advice on managing finances as a full-time writer, it behooves you to pay attention to what other financial help they have. It might not be a trust fund, but having a spouse with a steady salary (and benefits!) goes a long way. Other authors live on retirement income or other, similar sources. 

So, how have I done it? 

1) Meticulous budgeting. 

As much as I can, I budget a quarter at a time. Writing income is volatile and, unless you're making buckets of it, you can't count on being able to pay the bills with income from a single month as you can with a regular paycheck. As KAK mentions, you can't figure your disposable income by simply subtracting your expenses from that month's income. You may need that "leftover" money for next month, or the month after. The financial gymnastics require creativity and flexibility.

2) Tracking sales

Data is everything! You can't afford to be only a dreamy creative. You have to wear your business hat and crunch the data from your royalty reports. You have to be ready to be stern with yourself and pay attention to which efforts generate income and which don't. You may find you can't afford those passion projects if your writing is what puts food on the table. OR, that you can afford them only if other projects are paying the bills.

3) Self-Publishing

If writing income is volatile, then income from traditional publishing has the lowest evaporation temperature. It comes, it goes - often on an annual or semi-annual basis. Quarterly is likely the most frequently you'll get paid, and every royalty check is a surprise! Again, unless they're cutting you BIG checks, it likely won't be enough to live on. This is why so many trad-pubbed authors also teach or have other side gigs. Self-publishing provides monthly income. Yes, it fluctuates, but you can also track sales and predict how much money will arrive in two months. Taking the surprise out of the equation helps immensely! You're also not subject to the whims of traditional publishing on a number of levels.

Those are three practices that have helped me manage a career as a full-time writing with essentially no other income. The other, quite obvious step, would be to make buckets of money and never have to think about budgeting again. 

Maybe someday!

All the Options

Happy Beltane or May Day if you celebrate either. I hope you have a few minutes to enjoy the outdoors. At the very least.

Talking about publishing paths is a lot like Max standing outside my boat looking in. As Sinéad O'Connor liked to title an album, I do not want what I haven't got. Most of us come at publishing starry-eyed and with strong opinions about how we want to go. When I started, publishing really only had one option - traditional publishing. Self-publishing was still in its infancy and had the taint of desperation clinging to it. Dawn was beginning to break and there were a few outliers playing around with what might be possible. Shortly after I was first traditionally published, the ground totally shifted under self-publishing, fortunately.

These days, the options are legion.

Traditional
Self-publishing
Small press
Audio
Hybrid
I dunno. Triad?

Your choices are limited only by your wishes. Some of us NEED the validation that traditional publishing represents. Some of us hate playing by traditional publishing's timelines (which are glacial, especially if you're a high out-put author). They're also hard to break into. Generally you need an agent because the slush piles are towering door props. No lie, it took one editor three years to reject a book I'd sold someplace else.

Self-publishing lets you put books out at your pace and you need never suffer a suck-tastic cover again. Self-publishing is limited only by your budget. You get what you pay for in regard to cover work and editing. As mentioned last week, I'm currently priced out of this option.

A small press - or in my case- an e-first press with POD as an option, has trade offs just like the other options. Small presses can be risky. We've all seen presses go under. It's always sad when that happens. BUT. They're far more open minded about working with new authors and with authors who are in the position of having to start over. In my case, they were willing to republish books that had already been published once before just so they could complete the series. That's pretty flexible.

Some authors are writing specific content for audio books. I don't know much about it and I'm starting to hear that the shine is off that apple, but it is still an option. I don't do audio because there's not much call for it in my genre. Not a single one of my readers has asked for it .

Hybrid/mix of all the things - well, I suppose that's the most flexible of all, but it is a lot of balls to juggle. It means that you're published either traditionally or via a small press and you self-publish. You are still on the financial line for the books you self-pub, but if you're writing books that don't fit your traditionally published brand, self-publishing those can be a reasonable option. You'd control branding and messaging around the books that way.

The only thing I notice is that I feel a lot like poor Max. The publishing cash looks greener over there.

Red or Blue Pill

Recently we blogged about writer finances and I defined the various routes of publication here. But this week we’re talking about how we made the choice between them. 

Note that I said we and not you. Because choosing your publishing path is a bit like Neo having to pick between the red pill or the blue pill and I’m not going to say which color coincides with which. 

Traditional or Self Publishing; red or blue, blue or red… but red and blue makes violet: Hybrid Publishing. 

Before reaching for your water glass to swallow that pill, I suggest making a pro and con list. 

This could’ve been heavily influenced by my recent Gilmore Girls binge and love of all things Rory, but we’ll roll with it because it actually makes sense in this situation. 

For me, Trad Publishing Pros:

a fabulous agent to bounce ideas off

an Editor that comes with the package deal

a Marketing team

Trad Pub Cons:

sloooooooooooooooow

Self Publishing Pros:

ultimate cosmic powers! 

Self Publishing Cons:

itty bitty living space

See, YMMV. And I guarantee your pro con lists would look very different from mine as well as your definitions. But that’s great because nobody’s publishing path is the same! Even those on the same track, self-pub, indie, trad, or hybrid, no track will match up exactly. 

Even here, where I attempted to show two different book paths, they ended up domino-ing differently. I even enlisted the assistance of my twins to make sure the paths started the same! 

But you can’t control another’s finger nudge any more than you can control world events that slide colored lenses over people’s eyes. And there’s personal stressors for each reader that influence their reading enjoyment and there’s sudden waves of hot tropes or plots that are unpredictable and short lived. Basically, there’s a million things that influence how a book is received in the world and all of them are out of your hands. 

Maybe that’s why the author’s decision of which publishing path to take is such a weighty one? It’s the first important step that we actually control, the one step that every author actually controls. And by making a choice we determine our book’s trajectory, and also our career’s. 

Whew! Scary stuff huh? Well, it is just a tiny, little pill after all, right?

I’ve chosen the traditional publishing route. Red or blue, I’ll never telllll! Originally this track was most appealing because I had a thriving career in the medial field along with being a wife and mother, which left very little time for authoring. Life changed, but my writing trajectory didn’t, even though my pro con list altered slightly. 

I’m still on the trad route because my health is limiting and I know the added stress of being in control of every little piece of bringing a book into the world would be too much. I still value my health over any career. Who knows, someday it could change. I still see the Hybrid author track as the most profitable, you can have the best of both worlds and ensure the most stable income possible (which still isn’t stable, but closer anyway). 

What track have you chosen? Which colored pill is the most appetizing to you?

The Freedom of Being a Hybrid Author

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Choosing your freedom - Traditional or Self-Publishing?" We've been asked which freedom we picked: the freedom to write without getting into the business side or the freedom to control it all?

You all know me: I'm the both gal. As with everything, I'm pretty much in the Venn Diagram overlap of both worlds. I'm a hybrid author, with a foot equally in each camp. My income for the past three years has been 60/40% from trad/indie or indie/trad. It goes back and forth depending on the year, but I figure it evens out to 50/50.

I like both routes! Being able to control my covers and pricing is great, but I mostly love the freedom of being able to move my self-publishing deadlines around. I particularly love the monthly income. I also really love being part of a team. The St. Martins team working with my on my Forgotten Empires trilogy - and the release of THE FIERY CROWN in one month! - is beyond awesome. Having a high-quality group of people loving my book, cheering it on and pouring their own energy into making it succeed is really wonderful.

All the freedoms belong to me!

What She Said

So for my post, can I just link to Jeffe's post and nod vigorously? No? Rats. Okay. Let's come at this another way, then.

Sometimes, mes amis, the world of publishing leaves you very few options. When what you write isn't necessarily the flavor du jour, most trad publishing houses won't look at you cross eyed. If they do, but your sales don't hit a particular benchmark, you may rapidly find yourself unpublished by traditional houses. If that happens, and if you have the self-confidence and spite to pick up your stories, you can go home and learn to become your own publisher.

Or say you've been writing one genre and you want to dip your toes into another - one you aren't necessarily certain you want to immerse yourself into. You write that book and rather than subbing it to agents and editors, you put it up yourself as an experiment. To test the genre waters, so to speak.

Or, maybe, after an eternity of waiting, you recover the rights to a group of stories that were orphaned when your cherished editor left the business (get used to that one, cupcake, it happens on a daily) you finally have the opportunity to finish out the series and relaunch the whole thing at what you consider a much friendlier price point - or with the cover of your dreams. Whatever your entre into DIYing it is.

Just know this. Everything about self-publishing is learnable. Scads of people have been through this wilderness and will gladly point the way. Some people will charge admittance. Many more won't. Author loops are crazy generous with how-to information, software suggestions, cover designer, editor, and copy editor referrals, too. Most of them will discuss the nuanced differences between launching wide versus targeted, too. Here. Let me pass you an aspirin. Author loops are a fire hose. You might need the pain killer.

All of this said, there's no right or wrong answer to the question of going indie or trad or both. There's only what's right for you and your work. If you're a security seeker, go trad. If you're a risk taker and a control freak, go indie. If you see the merits of both, then do all the things. There's really no math to do that will make clear which path is 'best'. It's all judgement call and what sounds like the most fun. Sure. You need a career strategy at some point. Tons of people will coach you through that, too, but as far as I can tell, you end up with a mirror of THEIR strategy rather than one of your own. So you may as well be guided by your own sense of what sounds easy versus hard. If having to format your own book sounds like the third circle of hell because you're a technophobe, you can hire someone to do that work, or you can choose to stick with the trad houses. They'll handle all that fiddly stuff, at the price, however, of having complete control over how your book is presented to the world.

So. Yeah. What Jeffe said. It's all about tradeoffs. You get to choose which ones you'll accept.

Quiz: Should I go indie or trad?

I'm brand new to this publishing thing--I only have two books out right now, and both went the traditional publishing route. So it's not like I have a whole bunch of wisdom to drop on this topic of whether folks should keep keep banging manuscripts against the query wall or take the also terrifying leap off the indie cliff.

Here's what seems clear, though: not everyone is going to succeed in the same path. I suspect that choosing what's right for you comes down to your personality and what you want from this writing adventure.

Also, I've made a quiz. Because I love quizzes. Jot your answers on a separate sheet (or write them on your forearm in Sharpie; not judging). Here goes:

1. Having a cover that looks exactly like the character and setting from the story is

A. Not as important as having a cover that conveys tone and genre, so readers aren't surprised.

B. Nice but not really my focus. I'm about writing the stories.

C. The most important thing.

2. If you absolutely had to reduce costs in the production of your book, you'd skip

A. Starbucks for a month. Or gym membership. All's I know is nothing about this book is gonna get skipped. This baby is gonna shine.

B. Editing. I know how to use commas and write clean. Plus I ran this thing through Autocrit, so it's good enough.

C. Celebratory vino for release day. Possibly the Amazon ad.

3. A line edit is

A. Close enough to a copy edit that one contractor could probably do both.

B. A what-what?

C. In my budget, and I have a great service scheduled to do it.

4. My primary goal for my writing career is to

A. Make enough money at writing to quit the day job.

B. Earn accolades, awards, and starry trade reviews.

C. Turn out the best-quality story I can, every time.

5. I consider myself a risk-taker

A. Heck yeah and bring on the sky-diving.

B. No. And I think I'm getting sick just at the thought.

C. Um, is that thing safe? If it is, sure, why not just one jump.

6. It's release day for your very first book. What's the worst thing that can happen today?

A. Seller's web site doesn't have the buy links active until after noon, meaning I'm on the phone and annoyed and losing money, but we WILL get this sorted.

B. No one even knows the book is out. No one sees it. No one reviews it or mentions it on social media. No one buys it. Holy wibblefest, am I even a real writer?!

C. Just...today? Like, one day? Man, I'm in this for the long haul. Tell me the numbers in six weeks or so, and then we'll see if we need to panic or change things up. Today, I'm just going to sip some celebratory vino and plot out my next opus.

For items 1 - 3, count 1 point for As, 2 points for Bs, and 0 points for Cs. For items 4-6, tally 0 points for As, 3 points for Bs, and 1 point for Cs. Total your points.

If you got...

0-5 -- You got this and would probably rock the indie path.
6-10 -- Consider branching out and building a career as a hybrid author. Indie first or trad first: do what works best for you, just realize that you can have the best of both worlds.
11-15 -- Keep querying. You will probably be most comfortable with a publisher at your back, at least at the beginning.

So, how'd you do? Is the quiz bunk? All your thoughts, I'm ready to hear 'em.

Self vs Trad Publishing: 5 Reasons to Continue a Failing Series

Since Jeffe's post hits all the big differences between traditional and self-publishing, I'm going to focus on one segment of it: Writing a Series

Disclaimer: I'm not traditionally published, I'm not a hybrid. I'm fully in the self-published camp.

In my genre of Fantasy, readers have a Big Thing about series being completed. They get quite peeved when the series doesn't wrap up in a timely manner. Don't get me wrong, some are willing to wait the 18-24 months trad publishing requires to get the next book; hell they'll even forgive a date slip. One slip. But boy, oh boy, oh boy do they get pissed when the series just...stops. There are many who won't start a series until it's completed because they've been burned so often.

From the creative perspective, the author usually knows whether they're writing a series or a standalone. Whether the series is a duology, trilogy, or the neverending story, the author usually has an idea. That idea is not always shared by the publisher.

Thing is, many new-author trad-publisher contracts are for two books. Sink or swim. 30 days (or really a mere two weeks) to show ROI for the publisher. If the books don't sell well out of the gate, there will be no third book. The contract determines whether the author has the right to continue the series on their own. 

Why would an author continue a series that a publisher deemed a bust?

Same reasons a self-published author continues a series that hasn't paid off yet. Here are my Top 5:

1. We love the series. We personally love the world, the characters, the plots. We know where the story is going and can't wait to get there. Books of the heart, as some would call it.
2. We know finding an audience takes time, a lot more time than a publisher is willing to give. It's not uncommon to hear of series that didn't take off for three to five years after release.
3. We control our backlists, so our books never have to go out of "print." We also control our marketing cycles, so we know when to push and when to throttle back. We have our hands on sales and marketing data, so again, we know what to push and when.
4. Our business models aren't built around shelflife. We don't assume that once we lose the endcap at Target, that our sales are done. (Hell, most of us don't get placement in any brick and mortar store ever.) Sure, grabbing the Top 10 slot on Amazon or B&N is amazing, but it's not a business model. It's simply a marker.
5. Our fans demand closure. The last thing we want to do is piss off our loyal readership. We rely on them to come with us from book to book, series to series, genre to genre. We're constantly looking to gain readers, not lose them. The fastest way to lose them is to leave them hanging. 

Now, the theoretical benefit of trad publishing a series is eyeballs and accolades. The risk is getting to finish that series.

Seven Pros and Cons of Trad vs Indie

The last of the light on the longest day of the year - on a hot and still summer evening.

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is the pros and cons of traditional publishing versus self-publishing. I feel pretty well positioned to compare and contrast the two methods (broadly – there are a lot of subsets and gray areas) of publishing books because I’m solidly hybrid. In 2016, my income was 40%/60% traditional/self-publishing; in 2017, it was the reverse proportion. So here’s a handy table to consider the pros and cons of the two approaches and I’ll discuss below.

	Traditional	Self-Publishing
Money	Handled for you	Handle it all yourself
Cover Design	No control	Have to decide
Team	Lots of people invested	Build your own
Publication Schedule	No control	Much more control
Quality	Lots of help (theoretically)	On your own
Marketing	Crapshoot	Expensive
Validation	Built in	Active community

Money

The first and most obvious difference between traditional and self-publishing is that with the latter you have to front your own money. And believe me, to self-publish well, you must invest in it. Doing it on the cheap is possible, but it always shows. If nothing else, pay for editing.

But there are other aspects to the money that aren’t so obvious. With traditional publishing, the house does all the accounting and cuts you a check (or, more likely, direct deposit). Depending on their system, payments can range from monthly to annual. With self-publishing, most retailers pay monthly, but it’s up to you to track and verify the financials. On the plus side, you get a bigger cut (which helps counter-balance that investment) and you can see all the numbers. On the con side, keeping accurate track of the financials can take a lot of time. Basically you become your own accounting department.

Cover Design

Another obvious difference with self-publishing is that you “get” to choose your own cover. With traditional publishing there’s vanishingly small opportunity for input. Some authors love this aspect. Me, not so much. I’m better at it now, as I have a better idea of what I like, but I can’t afford the cover artists my publishers can. While sometimes I don’t like the trad covers they give me, there is something restful about not having to angst over that aspect.

Team

A considerable pro to traditional publishing is having a whole team of people invested in your book. This is really wonderful to have. From your agent to your editor to the production and marketing team to the librarians and booksellers, all of these people make a living by loving your books and selling them. That’s an amazing support network. With self-publishing, you can build your own team. That takes time so it can feel like being a lone ranger. Also, with many of the folks on your self-publishing team being essentially contract workers—paid by the job—there’s less long-term investment in the process.

Publication Schedule

For me this is one of the biggest drawbacks of traditional publishing: not being able to control my release schedule. I end up having to work around those dates. In some ways they provide external structure, but when it’s a terrible release date, that can be frustrating.

Quality

With self-publishing, the quality of the final product is entirely up to you. The people you hire, and how much you pay them, are critical to that quality. It used to be that traditional publishing came with a guarantee of quality. Theoretically only the best books made it through the filters to be pitched and bought, then professional editors worked on the books. With cutbacks in traditional publishing, I’m seeing a lot of editors only acquiring books and spending minimal time on giving content feedback. This is one of the biggest value-adds of traditional publishing, working with a career editor to make the story the very best it can be. Copy editing is pretty straightforward and you can hire people to make sure word choice, grammar and punctuation are correct. Finding an editor who can refine a story is priceless. I’ve been disappointed to see some editors at traditional houses punting on this aspect and to me it’s one of the biggest reasons to go indie. If my books aren’t being edited, I might as well pay an editor.

Marketing

Either way, you’re going to have to do your own promo. The question is how much. With traditional publishing, how much they put into marketing varies on dozens if not hundreds of factors. A lot depends on the publicist you draw. I’ve had books receive a lot of marketing and others receive practically nil. With self-publishing, you’ll find lots of people swearing by various ads—pretty much all of which you can do as a traditional author, too, if you’re so inclined—but how much you’re willing to do, and spend, is a personal choice.

Validation

There are active communities and networks that support self-publishing authors. Many readers will read only self-published books. Of course, many readers refuse to read self-published books. While this is changing over time, traditional publishing still has most of the cachet. Publishing a book with a house, especially one of the Big Five, brings a network of validation that can be amazing. (Though it’s not guaranteed.) The house might get Big Name Authors to blurb the book and give it buzz. There’s a more direct pipeline to review notices, awards nominations, bookstores, and venues like book festivals. With self-publishing this can feel like an uphill battle still.

Any questions? Thoughts? Stuff I missed???