Pitches, Blurbs & Taglines
Jul. 13th, 2011 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuThat's the name of the writing workshop I returned from yesterday afternoon. I spent a long weekend--from 7 p.m. Saturday to about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday--at the Historic Anchor Inn in Lincoln City with a dozen other writers learning the delicate art of selling our work to potential readers via...pitches, blurbs, and taglines.
Unlike a previous workshop I'd attended, which had to do with busting myths about writing, and explaining how you can make a living at it and which was mostly lecture, this one involved writing. We got together first early Saturday evening. Dean Wesley Smith, the instructor, talked about the topic and what a good blurb involved. Then we were given two stories (one by Dean, one by Kristine Rusch) to read, with instructions to write blurbs and back cover copy about them for the next session at 11 a.m. Sunday.
I sweated over that project, as did we all. Sunday morning we got together and distributed copies of our efforts and then we read them, each of noting down whether or not we'd buy* the story based solely on each blurb. Nothing more. No critique, no commentary, just a binary decision like a reader in a bookstore (or cruising Amazon): buy or don't buy.
After that, we went over each one as a group, led by Dean, discussing what worked and what didn't, and why. The ultimate no-no was using passive constructions ("to be" in any form). That was an automatic re-do: you had to revise that project for Dean in addition to the new assignments. Then we were given three more stories to read and write blurbs and cover copy for. Oh--and we had to do a blurb for one of our own stories.
That's how it went all weekend. We got reading and writing assignments, then went over them together, then got more for the next session. We ended by doing blurbs and cover copy for THREE of our own stories, as well an exercise in writing taglines, and a requirement to write our own author bios.
We didn't distribute the bios, or even show them to Dean. The point was to get us to write them, since a lot of writers (being introverts) tend to resist doing them--but they're as much a sales tool as anything else. Readers (or editors) who have something in common with you, or who can see that you have experience that applies to a story you're promoting, will be favorably inclined toward you.
It was good practice. Seeing how a dozen other people approached the same story and generated wildly different results (both good and bad), really highlighted what sort of things worked and which didn't. I learned a lot, and I'll be putting it to use. I'll be revising most of my online book pages, adding taglines to covers, modifying blurbs, and adding author info.
It was a good weekend. About half the class was staying for a follow-up workshop on being your own publisher. I'll be taking that class in October.
*"Buy" in this context means, would you open the book and look at the story opening? The point of a blurb or of cover copy is to get you interested enough to investigate further. Whether the writing itself sells you on the story is another issue and not relevant to this workshop.
Unlike a previous workshop I'd attended, which had to do with busting myths about writing, and explaining how you can make a living at it and which was mostly lecture, this one involved writing. We got together first early Saturday evening. Dean Wesley Smith, the instructor, talked about the topic and what a good blurb involved. Then we were given two stories (one by Dean, one by Kristine Rusch) to read, with instructions to write blurbs and back cover copy about them for the next session at 11 a.m. Sunday.
I sweated over that project, as did we all. Sunday morning we got together and distributed copies of our efforts and then we read them, each of noting down whether or not we'd buy* the story based solely on each blurb. Nothing more. No critique, no commentary, just a binary decision like a reader in a bookstore (or cruising Amazon): buy or don't buy.
After that, we went over each one as a group, led by Dean, discussing what worked and what didn't, and why. The ultimate no-no was using passive constructions ("to be" in any form). That was an automatic re-do: you had to revise that project for Dean in addition to the new assignments. Then we were given three more stories to read and write blurbs and cover copy for. Oh--and we had to do a blurb for one of our own stories.
That's how it went all weekend. We got reading and writing assignments, then went over them together, then got more for the next session. We ended by doing blurbs and cover copy for THREE of our own stories, as well an exercise in writing taglines, and a requirement to write our own author bios.
We didn't distribute the bios, or even show them to Dean. The point was to get us to write them, since a lot of writers (being introverts) tend to resist doing them--but they're as much a sales tool as anything else. Readers (or editors) who have something in common with you, or who can see that you have experience that applies to a story you're promoting, will be favorably inclined toward you.
It was good practice. Seeing how a dozen other people approached the same story and generated wildly different results (both good and bad), really highlighted what sort of things worked and which didn't. I learned a lot, and I'll be putting it to use. I'll be revising most of my online book pages, adding taglines to covers, modifying blurbs, and adding author info.
It was a good weekend. About half the class was staying for a follow-up workshop on being your own publisher. I'll be taking that class in October.
*"Buy" in this context means, would you open the book and look at the story opening? The point of a blurb or of cover copy is to get you interested enough to investigate further. Whether the writing itself sells you on the story is another issue and not relevant to this workshop.