How can such a little thing as the blurb affect how my book is reviewed?

It seems a lot of writers on wattpad underestimate the power of a blurb and I feel like smacking one in the face whenever I see a blurbless blurb. There are also the crayfishes who write an incredibly long monologue or conversation between characters that reveal little to nothing about the plot. They also include a simple sentence or literally nothing at all except a; “Read to find out.”

What else do you expect your readers to do? Drink the book to find out?

Of course, we all understand that writing a blurb is very difficult. I even required help to write mine and it still needs some work on my part.

But there are some who don’t even put in the effort to write one. I agree there are readers who add books to their library or reading lists simply because of the cover, but it seems you are forgetting about the large percentage who focus on the blurb!

Now this is where the reviewing part comes in.

A reviewer obviously has a list of books they need to review, and with the authors waiting in line for their reviews, I don’t think the reviewer has the time to read the whole book or a large number of chapters; especially if the book kind of sucks.

Yes, your book might probably suck at specific points in time, and one of those times, it must have been left in the hands of a poor reviewer who has to go through what you already know is crap that you would eventually edit even if it wasn’t reviewed.

Why give yourself the heartache of reading a bad review and waste the reviewer’s time?

In my opinion, I believe you should ask for a review if you are not sure of what you’ve written. What do you think?

Now, when a reviewer is to sometimes judge the plot of a story, the blurb plays an extremely important role. Who on Earth would simply know at least 50% of your whole story from simply reading the first few chapters? You guessed it right, no one except you . . . or your co-writer(s).

Even if you don’t want to let your readers know what the story is about until they start reading, at least do this for your judges and reviewers; pretty please?

The blurb also plays an important role in drawing in a reader. If you have grammatical errors in your blurb, your reviewer is going to shiver for what they will find in the book (and the terrifying thing is that they haven’t even started reading).

Not a good sign for what is to come.

Without the blurb or a bad one, your reviewer or judge cannot properly judge the;

• Blurb itself

• The title (even if a few chapters have been read with no correlation to your title, your blurb should be able to at least give a hint of it)

• Your PLOT

• Do you know the blurb can sometimes affect the overall impression of your story; especially if the book is saddening and the reviewer is trying to squeeze out some brownie points for you?

There are other reasons apart from what I listed above, so don’t act like your blurb has nothing to do with how good (or bad) your story is. The same way you won’t buy a book online if you know nothing about what it entails is the same way many readers would not read your book if they are uncertain about it . . . Your cover can only take you so far.

Now for those whose stories start slowly or doesn’t start with the action but is necessarily important to the plot, do you know your blurb can be a major boost?

The first few chapters could be a bit slow but an exciting or good blurb can create expectations for your readers as they would know things are going to get messy (in a good way) as the story progresses. But without a blurb . . . meh;

“I don’t know what this story is about and as the first chapter or following chapters are not helping. I think I’ll just drop this.”

The only exception to this are the extremely patient or incredibly bored people (who have nothing to do at the moment but entertain themselves with what they have), and these people are very (0.0001%) rare.

With that in mind, if you feel your book wasn’t reviewed properly, especially when it comes to the plot. Blame your blurb; or lack of one and not your reviewer.

Now, the lengthy blurb is another problem.

Imagine a random stranger suddenly approached you and started telling you about the private matters of their life, especially something that doesn’t make sense or concern you. What is going to go through that head of yours except the thought that the person might be crazy?

For the most part “How is that any of your business?!”

Hello? Why would you write your whole story or 50% percent of the details in the blurb when a cultured person can simply open and read the whole damn thing in the book? The book has a reason for being there and the blurb has a reason for supporting the book, you know.

Not to worry, almost everyone has made this mistake . . . but not everyone has bothered to care about it enough to correct it. 😑

Even if a reviewer points it out for them they become salty bitches instead of correcting a simple mistake. Behave yourself, you humans.

A blurb is a short summary you use to entice your reader into reading your book. It’s not there to let the reader know of what would happen in great detail inside the book. That’s unfair to the readers and also to you.

I am not an expert but the internet certainly has some helpful tips on that. Google isn’t going to scrawl out of your screen and bite your fingers off if you do research! Or you can also get the help of someone or a trusted friend when writing, but research is a must. Another wonderful guide is by reading blurb examples of published books in your genre.

Your reviewers are not going to read the whole book just so they can judge the plot. Even if the story is amazing, they still won’t have the time to read it all at once. So please, if your blurb is inaccurate or bad, your plot is going to be affected by that when it is being judged. Unless, the story is predictable or unique right from the get go.