{"id":2907,"date":"2021-11-03T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/?p=2907"},"modified":"2021-10-30T11:40:28","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T18:40:28","slug":"blurbs-pitches-loglines-and-other-book-marketing-necessities-i-suck-at-iwsg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2021\/11\/03\/blurbs-pitches-loglines-and-other-book-marketing-necessities-i-suck-at-iwsg\/","title":{"rendered":"Blurbs, pitches, loglines, and other book marketing necessities I suck at (#IWSG)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For those of you who aren’t masochists<\/s> don’t write fiction, here’s something about the writing world that you may not know: authors have to be marketers. Yes, even traditionally-published authors, because apparently even the big publishers don’t invest a lot in marketing authors unless they are big names. I’m going to admit 2 things up front that will color the rest of this post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. I find this fact frustrating. With a family and a day job, I barely have enough time to write, let alone learn how to market my writing. When I first started writing, I thought that’s what publishers got paid to do, seeing as how they have marketing departments and all.<\/li>
  2. I suck at marketing.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    But before we get into my complaining about marketing: This post is part of the\u00a0Insecure Writers Support Group monthly blog hop<\/a>. On the first Wednesday of each month, I and my fellow insecure writers post something related to writing, and then we visit the blogs of our fellow members and read and comment on their IWSG posts. This month\u2019s optional question is, What’s harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?<\/strong> Thanks to this month’s IWSG co-hosts, Kim Lajevardi,<\/a>\u00a0Victoria Marie Lees,<\/a>\u00a0Joylene Nowell Butler,<\/a>\u00a0Erika Beebe,<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Lee Lowery<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As you can probably guess from my opening whine, I find blurbs (and any other marketing copy) much more difficult than titles. My books and short stories tend to title themselves, at least most of the time, and usually during the first or second draft. I had to dig a little deeper for a horror story I recently finished. It stubbornly refused to title itself, so it ended up getting a title about 2 days before I submitted it. Thankfully, most of my stories are more cooperative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Blurbs–and pitches and log lines and queries and comp titles–on the other hand, are excruciating. I have no flippin’ idea how to sell books. (I’m a librarian. We lend books for free.) But I’m supposed to tell a potential agent or editor how to position my book in the literary marketplace? Seriously? Apparently I’m also supposed to read new titles in my genre (a challenging and expensive proposition since I write in at least 3 genres) and identify titles similar to mine. I get the need for pitches and queries to pique an agent’s interest, but the rest feels like too much, like we as authors are being expected to do work for which we are entirely unqualified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yeah, I know, I’m whining again. But it’s just not fair! [stamps foot]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Anyway. Fair or not, it’s the reality for everyone who isn’t named Stephen King, so I need to quit whining and get over it, especially since I’m about to jump back into the querying trenches to try to find an agent for my first novel, Vanishing, Inc.<\/em> Fortunately, there are tons of great resources online, as well as classes from writing organizations to help non-marketers like me improve our skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, here are a few of the best resources I’ve found for writing pitches and loglines: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to write a one-sentence pitch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n