I will be catching up on notifs as soon as I can. I'm so behind it's insane. I wake up to 99+ notifs every day, and I absolutely love interacting with everyone in comments and pms, but please be patient. I'm still a full-time employee recovering from surgery. I would really appreciate your patience. I'm not going to see every comment and pm at once, sometimes I reply to a couple at a time then get offline to go back to work. So, I promise I'm not ignoring you, I'm just very busy. Please be patient!

While judging for multiple contests, I discovered how many authors use vague blurbs as blurbs, or just a few lines of dialogue from the story.

That's not very engaging.

Sometimes, it can work. For example, it worked for that popular fanfic Dr. Jagiya (but not on me, I never read it, y'all stay safe tho 💀). So yes, in theory, it can work. However, it's typically the safer route to have a summary too.

I normally include quotes in my blurbs, but I always have a summary as well. Let's face it Wattpad readers, you guys are hard to hook in and even harder to make engaged readers. Silent readers make up a majority of Wattpad readers, especially on 18+ books because we all know why you're reading it.

And I'll admit, as a writer, it's very discouraging when my blurb advertising my book as 18+ with sexual content gets almost 50k reads, but my other books that are objectively and subjectively better get a few hundred, maybe a few thousand reads, and they still have interesting blurbs.

So, all of this is to say: know your audience.

I believe the best blurbs on Wattpad are the ones that incorporate both quotes and summaries. Here's the thing: if you use just one line of dialogue, it might hook readers in, but they're less likely to stay because they have no idea what the story is about.

If you give just a summary, some readers might say "I ain't reading all that 💀" and leave.

So that's why I try to do a mix of both. A quote to hook people in, then a summary to make them stay.

Blurbs should give readers a good idea of what they're about to read. They shouldn't be complicated, there shouldn't be any spelling/grammar errors, and they should end with a reason for the reader to click on your story.

Admittedly, I'm not the best at blurbs. My blurbs aren't bad by any means, but they're not the best thing in the universe, y'know? So this chapter might be shorter than others because I'm less confident with blurbs than I am with other things, like character writing (oh boy will we get into that later-).

Still, I can offer some general tips that might help.

I'm not saying you should use all these tips. These tips are not going to fit every story since every story is different. So, just pick and choose what you think will work for you:

- Add dramatic phrasing to amp up the tension (are there betrayals in the story? Lies? Heartbreak?)

- Give minor spoilers to make the audience interested

- Add a question to the end of the blurb

- End on a cliffhanger

- Introduce characters and their traits

- Mention the tropes of the story

- Use a quote (not a long one) from the text to catch a reader's eye

Here are a couple of my blurbs just for reference:

The Cop From Busan (will be published soon)

Park Jimin is a prestigious police officer who transferred from Busan all the way to New York City to challenge himself. However, his biggest challenge turns out to be his new partner: a promising female cadet with more sass than Jimin. With crime rates rising, gang wars threatening to break out, and the police department having internal issues, Jimin and his new partner need to put their differences aside for the better of NYC. But can they do it?

~

The techniques I use here are: using a question at the end to draw potential readers in, giving a breakdown of the plot including minor spoilers about what it entails, and revealing character traits.

~

Spiderkook in the Multiverse of Madness (MOM)

Several years after surviving a spider bite, Jeon Jungkook is Spiderman: a man with superpowers similar to a spider's abilities. However, after uncovering a conspiracy that could reshape the world as they know it, Jungkook is sucked into a different universe. This universe is vastly different from his own, but the largest difference is the presence of the boyband BTS... and another Jeon Jungkook is a part of it...

~

This book is a sequel, so I get a little more wiggle room since I'm trying to appeal to past audiences instead of new ones. Still, the blurb ends on a cliffhanger and gives a look at who Jungkook is and what the plot entails.

~

Plastic World (will be published soon)

"Is my d.ck made of plastic too?" (not censored in the real blurb)

• • • 

Mean girl Jimin ff inspired by the Barbie movie

• • •

In a world where glitz and glam matter most, Park Jimin is the new kid on the block. The world's hierarchy has already been established, and Jimin is the lowest on the list. But Jimin is much too petty, sassy, and stubborn to back down from a challenge. His opponent is Kim Seokjin and his five minions, who rule over the Plastic World. Tricks and deceit wait around every corner, betrayal is common practice, and Jimin can never be sure if his "allies" are friends or foes. But Jimin will do anything to bring down King Jin. Anything.

~

I use a quote this time, which will hopefully catch the reader's attention due to shock factor. And hopefully the actual dramatic description will keep viewers around. 

I'm very aware these blurbs are far from the best they could be, but at the very least, they're not vague. Even if they aren't the most unique things on the planet, you know what you're reading.

Moral of the story: try not to be vague.

~End~

Remember to follow for more tips like this. Vote and comment, leave requests for future topics if you'd like!