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Originally Posted by elemenoP
These blurbs are very valuable, and all authors should be forced to write their own blurbs. No editors allowed. If you can't put together one good paragraph, then I know I don't need to read the book!
eP
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The problem is blurb writing is a specialized *marketting* skill, as opposed to long form *narrative* skill. It is closer to writing jingles and catch-phrases than novel-writing. (Now summaries and "back-cover" material is a different, ahem, story.
Check this:
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=7385
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Openings of stories and novels tend to get better after a million words of writing practice (with focus). But only after the writer starts understanding how to relay character and setting. Covers tend to get better after a few dozen covers as long as the indie publisher is paying a lot of attention to learning cover design and font layout and blurb use. But I have watched really, really talented storytellers produce dull and off-putting blurbs that actually turn buyers away from their wonderful novels.
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Blurb-writing is about as indicative of a writer's ability to spin a tale as their ability to draw a cover. Some might be able to do it naturally, some would need a *lot* of practice, and some will likely never master it.
That those blurbs are as bad as they are is a clear indication that the authors never gave it much thought beforehand, much less actually did it before filling out the metadata page at Smashwords.
Inexperienced, yes; bad writers? Not necessarily.