Writing blurbs or (more accurately) book descriptions is not the most enjoyable thing in the world for me. I don’t hate is much as some writers, but it is something I need to practice and like the writing itself make a continuous improvement exercise.
Yesterday, Jill and I hit one of our local used bookstores, and just because I’ve had blurbs on my mind I thought I’d share the blurbs for a couple of my purchases. (Comedic relief to follow).
See it Again, Sam Carter Brown
“An Eye for an Eye
Former film superstar Samantha Dane’s career had been viciously curtailed when some unknown person threw acid in her beautiful face during a luxurious Caribbean cruise.
Sam hired Rick Holman to track down the other members of the party, among whom were a power-mad tycoon, a bi-sexual hooker, a nymphomaniac fortune teller, and a sadistic gangster. Each of them had good reason to hate Samantha’s guts, and one would gladly kill to keep Rick from finding out the truth!”
Ha, ha, ha. I collect Carter Brown books because while they are seldom great, they are usually fun… and I respect the man’s prolific output. So, I decided on this purchase before ever reading the blurb.
Death Dives Deep Michael Avallone
“Lovely Ladies and Lethal Love in a Kingdom Under the Sea”
Ed Noon couldn’t believe his ears when the President gave him the facts. Somewhere off the Florida coast was an underwater empire run by a band of man-eating females — and the only way to save America from catastrophe was to beat them at their own game of seduce-and-destroy.
Enemies who made war by making love were a new challenge for Ed Noon, but orders were orders — and he plunged deep into the wildest caper of his career!”
Are you kidding me? Seriously? I hope all of my writing friends out there who are dealing with fear of rejection (either as an independently published writer or through traditional publishing), will read this blurb. Seriously. This book was traditionally published. A different age, but still. There is NOTHING to fear.
I looked at the Avallone book, because the keyword Michael Avallone has actually delivered a couple of sales for me through Amazon Ads, and I was interested. I’m ashamed to admit that the blurb I quoted actually did lead to a sale.
No real point to this post. I’m just easily amused.
–TD
Michael Avallone readers cannot be wrong…check out the books they’ve purchased:
Everything is Broken. First in the Fuzzy Koella Mystery series.
North Country Girl. Fuzzy’s return.
Tony D. Writes Pulp Fiction 
> I hope all of my writing friends out there who are dealing with fear of rejection (either as an independently published writer or through traditional publishing), will read this blurb. Seriously. This book was traditionally published. A different age, but still. There is NOTHING to fear.
That was my main takeaway. I agree, but I wonder if there are publishers who would still publish books with those blurbs from unknown authors. I suspect the times have changed in most trad publisher’s appetites for that particular type of pulp.
LikeLike
There is nothing to fear. If I submitted a manuscript about the plight of lycanthropic cocker spaniels, maybe someone will buy it, maybe they won’t…but nothing bad will come of it. That is the only point I tried to make with the above quote. Similarly, if you’re a beginning “unknown” writer (like you and I), the only thing that guarantees that your story won’t be bought is leaving it at home.
It is far worse to leave it at home, than to submit a manuscript that you fear may not be good enough. (Caveat – if you are interested in selling your work)
BTW, there are a number of small presses publishing pulp today. I don’t necessarily think they’d be interested in man-eating female stories, but then even for a 60’s story I can’t believe someone said, “Yes, this is worth publishing.”
LikeLike