I discovered whilst formulating the synopsis for my latest novel, that writing a few snappy lines and succinct notions in the image of a back cover blurb proved useful on several levels. This got me thinking about the concept more thoroughly, so I gathered novels that were littered around the house – in my chosen genre – and began reading the back covers.

I noticed that the blurb often had a fast-paced rhythm, with a couple of paragraphs solely focused on the protagonist and the plot. The major conflicts were highlighted in order to entice the reader into wanting to follow the protagonist’s journey. Once I began to loosely follow the  pattern, I realised that the blurb was also going to prove useful not only in formulating my synopsis, but also in my query letters. It also gave me a succinct way to describe my novel should anyone ask.

The blurb needs to make the story sound compelling, and with a lot of polishing, it could hopefully prove to be dynamite in the eyes of an agent or reader – hopefully both.