Writing teasers

Typing “The End” to your manuscript is a major milestone – now all you have to do is promote your book.


Start by reducing your 65-thousand words (or so) into three paragraphs. WHAT? It’s called a blurb. Start by picking the highlights of your story, preferably without including any spoilers, and summarize it. Practice writing this summary a few times until you know it sounds captivating. This is the beginning of a blurb which will be used to sell your book to a publisher, as a description on an online book retailer website or a back-cover summary.

The blurb has to be as interesting as your story, it has to make the reader want to read your book. A prospective publisher will use this sample of your work to see that you know how to write before they will take the time to read a few hundred pages of a manuscript If the blurb is used as a description on an online site or on the back cover of a print book, readers will gauge how interested they are in what you have to say before they make an investment of money or time. The blurb is a tease and should leave the reader wanting to know more.

If you can, take the time to read the blurbs for other books that you’ve read. How much of the story is actually included in those blurbs? Did any of those other blurbs form a question such as “What would you do it…?” even if the actual question wasn’t asked. Did you feel that the blurb was misleading or did it give you a fairly accurate idea of the book’s content? Study the styles or formats these other authors used, did you like one more than the other? How did the blurb leave you wanting to know the outcome of the story.

Briefly introduce the main players of your story; in a romance genre, include the attraction and tension between the two characters. Are there any peculiarities to any of the major characters? What is the main conflict or hurdle that the characters need to overcome? How does the antagonist fit into the story? If the setting is relevant, for instance a war-time romance during the Civil War, make reference to it – if the setting is crucial to the storyline, open your blurb with it.


The second paragraph should concentrate on the plot. The third paragraph should being your reader on the uphill climb to the climax and should leave the reader wanting. This is just a rough step-by-step, make it work for you.


Don’t worry if your first, or second, attempt to write this teaser is longer than two or three paragraphs. Write what you feel is necessary and then “redline” your writing and cut words out. If it isn’t vital, cut.

Some publishers or online markets will demand even shorter blurbs. Prepare a one-paragraph blurb before hand before you are pressured into it. And finally practice a few “Tweets” (140-characters or less) promoting the story such as “How far would you go to protect the one you love? How much would you be willing to give up?” Questions are easy and work well as tag lines, but direct sentences can also work. “He’s a man who lost everything and now he is determined to get it back – at any cost.”

If you prepare three-paragraph, one-paragraph and one-sentence blurbs, teasers and tag-lines now, you can easily use them without delay.



Writing exercise: Practice writing “Tweets” for every TV show you watched tonight; or the last three movies you went out to see. Make sure that each “Tweet” can stand independently.




Writing Prompt: Finish these sentences – 1) If that were me, I would_____. 2) Yesterday I thought _____. 3) Tomorrow I plan to _____. 4) I will never (do) _____ again. 5) I would have preferred if you _____.