The Mastermind Behind the Book Blurbs

Today I met with my marketing manager, Mary, at my favorite coffee shop, Eighty-Two. We drank caffeinated things and essentially wrote some blurbs for the backs of future books. I'm in the process of rereleasing Just Whistle (this has been mentioned in previous blogs) and want to improve the synopsis. The most magical element of that novel is the old farmhouse, which has rooms that come and go at random, but that particular element isn't even mentioned on the novel's current back cover. Mary, in only about two hours' time, managed to not only write a better blurb for Just Whistle... she also wrote one for Kick It One More Time!

The girl has a gift.

Admittedly, she has a lot of gifts. Mary is a phenomenal teacher and a wonderful friend and an excellent mother and an asset to The Educated Friends (she's wicked smart; our trivia team is so lucky to have her!), but the gift that impresses me the most is that she can take an almost-200,000-word manuscript and condense it, succinctly, into about 300 words. Each time she does it, I am in awe. I mean... have you ever tried to do that? Probably not. Trust me when I say, "It's insanely difficult." But Mary makes it look easy! She puts her words together so well!

In addition to being a brilliant book-blurb writer, Mary has a mind for marketing. It was she who introduced me to the concept of "booktoks" and encouraged me to create a TikTok in order to promote The Way Back. She also shared some ideas for my website, so we'll be meeting about that in the next couple of weeks. If you notice some positive changes on my page in the near future, that'll be your indication that Mary is working her magic.

One final plug for Mary before I sign off and eat some spaghetti: If you are an author and you're struggling to write a blurb for the back of your book, contact me and I'll give you Mary's info. She'll make short work of that dilemma, thus eliminating your headache and improving your life.