I've been busy lately working on my tagline, blurb, and excerpt for Michaela's Gift. For any of you who may not be writers, or familiar with the terms, I'll explain as best and as simply as I can.
A tagline is a one-sentence hook that is designed to tempt a potential reader into pick up your book and begin reading. The goal is for them to continue reading, so a tagline takes a lot of thought.
A blurb is a short synopsis of your book, but doesn't give away the ending. Again, you want to hook your reader to want to take an interest in the tale, or the characters, or both, and keep reading.
An excerpt is a snippet from your book. You want something interesting, and usually from the first half of the book, and hopefully with enough of a cliffhanger to once again keep the reader interested enough to continue reading.
Three separate tools, but with a common goal. And they seem pretty simple, but they take lots of thought and in my case, at least, lots of work. I think the reason I feel so pressured about them is because they are so necessary. The pressure is severe. I mean, no one pressured me to write the book. I did it on my own and at my leisure. I know this doesn't always happen, because top selling authors eventually get to the point where they have deadlines for the next manuscript. I'm nowhere near there yet, and may never be, so I'm not sweating it at this point.
I didn't have to query my novel, either, which means I never had any pressure to write the dreaded query letter. Queries are the bane of my existence as a writer. Some people seem to find them effortless, probably because they are much better writers than I am. And I've also heard from a writer who claimed to love writing query letters. (shudder) I just don't get it. But the writers over at Absolute Write are brilliant with helping out with query letter woes. I highly recommend them to anyone struggling.
But now I have a deadline to get my act together and be prepared for release day. The pressure is building daily. I think the anxiety is all probably a waste of time, because everyone on the staff over at Musa Publishing has been amazing to work with. I cannot compare them with any other publishers yet, except for a small picture book publisher who I have communicated with to some extent and who are also amazing, but I hope our relationship is long and productive, and that they are as pleased with me as I am with them.
I am participating in a blog hop to help promote another author. In a couple of days I will feature an interview with author R.K. Ryals. I hope you'll stop by and join the fun. I have a couple of more interviews coming up in the next few weeks, too. Until then, I hope everyone is enjoying their spring. I did take the time to plant some flowers today, and then my young granddaughter helped me "wash" them. It's nice to know my blooms are clean.
Happy Writing!
Cordelia
Sunday, April 22, 2012
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2 comments:
I think the excerpt was the hardest part for me because of the length we're allowed and the guidelines for choosing one.
My book, though, had an excellent query by some miracle that included the perfect tagline, so except for some tweaking for length, I had an easier time creating the blurb.
well, all i can say is, your tagline cracks me up.
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