Diary of a Cranky Bookworm Blurb

[osprey_archer]

I am ever so slowly creaking toward publication of Diary of a Cranky Bookworm. Title still in progress, but I do at long last have a draft of a blurb! Which I have shared below, so please feel free to share comments, questions, scathing critiques, etc.

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May 12, 2012

Dear Diary,

DISASTER. I have to write a summary of my diary, and it’s as bad as college application essays and AP calculus all rolled into one. What am I supposed to write? It’s not like I’m hunting zombies or slipping through magical gateways into a portal fantasy. I’m just a high school senior in small town Minnesota, getting up to hijinks with my friends Georgie and Hilary and Arielle, retreating to my Treehouse to read every book I can get my hands on, attempting to write a novel of my own (the heroine is psychokinetic! Why can’t I write a blurb for that?), and discovering to my horror that one of my long term nemeses is maybe, possibly, actually a delight.

And I might be a little bit in love with her.

Which is an unwelcome Realization, as it is sure to cut disgracefully into my reading time. And that’s already in short supply, because Arielle who always thinks she’s in crisis is maybe actually in crisis for real…

Is that enough of a summary? I sure hope so, because it’s time to meet Georgie for our weekly trip to the library!

Sage Perrault

Comments

[asakiyume]

Excellent! I'd be tempted to cut from "And I might be a little bit in love with her" to "Is that enough of a summary?"

ETA: Just because the "And I might be a little bit in love with her" is so powerful--it's hard to come down from that. But either way: excellent!

[osprey_archer]

My big concern about cutting directly from "And I might be a little bit in love with her" to the last para is that it might make readers expect the romance to be more prominent than it is. It's a friendship book with some romance in rather than the other way around and I want to clue people into that as much as possible (although people being people, some people won't get it no matter what).

[asakiyume]

Fair fair!

[grrlpup]

cannot wait to read this book, based on the blurb! :D

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[troisoiseaux]

Cute!!! I like how this really gives the tone of the book.

[osprey_archer]

Thank you! It's a book that I think readers will love or hate based on the voice, so it's probably good if the blurb gives a good sample of that.

[landofnowhere]

This feels a little bit *too* on the nose :-) Like, I have been a cranky teenage bookworm, and I'm not sure that I want to read about another one. Cranky teenage me would have loved the blurb, though! (I remember enjoying Absolutely Normal Chaos!)

[osprey_archer]

It's as important for a blurb to clue readers in that the book is not for them as it is for them to draw in readers who will like it!

[minutia_r]

Awww, that's cute and clever.

[osprey_archer]

Thank you! I was agonizing and then I thought, the book is pretty voice-heavy, so probably it's best if the blurb is too.