Last December, I had a Blurb Writing 1:1 session with Bradley Charbonneau. One of his books, Every Single Day, sold well already, but he couldn’t help but wonder whether it could do even better.
As it turns out, it could. Looking at the numbers, Bradley was able to see a real uptick since he replaced his old blurb with the one we came up with together.
Admittedly, he started playing around with pricing soon after that, which makes it hard to truly estimate how much better the book has been selling just because of our revision. Generally, though, he did sell far more copies since we last talked about his blurb, and the fact remains that it’s not just the blurb that sells. It’s the whole package, which includes a great cover and blurb and a price that matches the type of book it is.
Getting these three aligned properly is what will improve your book sales.
So, let’s have a look at Bradley’s original blurb to see how we arrived at the blurb that he has on Amazon today.
Original blurb
Brendan Burchard said, “You need, more than anything else, daily momentum. It’s the secret of all life happiness.”
“Secret of all life happiness?” Whoa. Sounds pretty good to me. Just a little “daily momentum”? No problem, right?
But what if you’re stuck? Maybe you’ve been trying to break through but just can’t seem to get ahead. Every day seems like groundhog day: the same disappointment as yesterday. Or worse: one step forward and two steps back. Ugh.
In his new book, “Every Single Day,” Bradley Charbonneau offers a simple prescription for building daily momentum that leads to true and, if you really, really want it, lasting and powerful change.
HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE? HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT SUCCESS?
“Every Single Day” has become a practical mantra worth repeating for anyone with dreams hidden in the attic, cellar or heart. He has gathered his best work in this wonderful, conversational book. Bradley writes the way he speaks, with warmth, passion and possibility. He is living proof that a little every single day takes you a long way.” — Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
“I love how you handle deep subjects in such a light-hearted way.” — Kay Bolden, Author ★★★★★
“If you’re ready to live your dream (as compared with simply dreaming your dream), this book will help you do it.” — L. King ★★★★★
PRACTICE DOESN’T MAKE PERFECT. PRACTICE IS PERFECT.
From the foreword by John Muldoon, “I want you to know that it is possible to change. It is possible to do things you can’t imagine right now.”
“The result is daily improvement (even if doesn’t feel that way when you’re in the middle of it all).” — R. Robinson ★★★★★
“You woke something up in my system.” — H. Baltes ★★★★★
“Every Single Day provides encouragement for writers who are facing the mountain.” — A. Ford ★★★★
“He lights a path that you can choose to walk down.” — R. Simon ★★★★★
THIS ISN’T FOR THE FAINT OF HEART — THIS IS FOR THE HEART.
Bradley Charbonneau’s life drastically changed when on Nov. 1, 2012, he accepted a challenge to Write Every Day for a month. He was familiar with monthly challenges like weight loss or waking up early, but the difference this time was that this one was close to his heart. What happened next changed his life in ways he could have never imagined.
The book, “Every Single Day” tells his story–and teaches you how to achieve what you’re after.
Because you are after something. I know it. You know it.
Our revision
Here’s what we came up with during our Zoom session.
“Bradley is an inspiration and a leader. He reminds each of us that we too can become consistent and unstoppable.” — Deanne Welsh
Brendan Burchard said, “You need, more than anything else, daily momentum. It’s the secret of all life happiness.”
“Secret of all life happiness?” Whoa. Sounds pretty good to me. Just a little “daily momentum”? No problem, right?
But what if you’re stuck? Maybe you’ve been trying to break through but just can’t seem to get ahead. Every day seems like Groundhog Day: the same disappointment as yesterday. Or worse: one step forward and two steps back. Ugh.
“Every Single Day” offers a simple prescription for building daily momentum that leads to true and powerful change that lasts. If you really want it, that is.
HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE? HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT SUCCESS?
Bradley Charbonneau’s life drastically changed when, on Nov. 1, 2012, he accepted a challenge to Write Every Day for a month. What happened next changed his life in ways he could have never imagined.
“Every Single Day” tells his story–and teaches you how to achieve what you’re after.
If you’re ready to do the same, get your copy of “Every Single Day” now. Because you are after something. You know it. We all know it.
Here’s what we did, and why
Put everything where it belongs
After pointing out the obvious—with 428 words, Bradley’s original blurb was much longer than it should be—I quickly realised that, aside from an explicit call to action, Bradley’s blurb actually included all necessary parts. It was just a bit all over the place.
One of the reasons the blurb was 428 words was because Bradley had added some so-called editorial reviews in between the selling paragraphs. Usually, these reviews go at the very end. In fact, when you go to one of your books on Amazon’s Author Central, you’ll see that there’s a separate section for ‘Review’. While the blurb itself goes under ‘Product Description’, any reviews you want to add to your product page belong under ‘Review’.
Here, I’ve highlighted all editorial reviews to give you an idea where Bradley put them:
Brendan Burchard said, “You need, more than anything else, daily momentum. It’s the secret of all life happiness.”
“Secret of all life happiness?” Whoa. Sounds pretty good to me. Just a little “daily momentum”? No problem, right?
But what if you’re stuck? Maybe you’ve been trying to break through but just can’t seem to get ahead. Every day seems like groundhog day: the same disappointment as yesterday. Or worse: one step forward and two steps back. Ugh.
In his new book, “Every Single Day,” Bradley Charbonneau offers a simple prescription for building daily momentum that leads to true and, if you really, really want it, lasting and powerful change.
HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE? HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT SUCCESS?
“Every Single Day” has become a practical mantra worth repeating for anyone with dreams hidden in the attic, cellar or heart. He has gathered his best work in this wonderful, conversational book. Bradley writes the way he speaks, with warmth, passion and possibility. He is living proof that a little every single day takes you a long way.” — Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
“I love how you handle deep subjects in such a light-hearted way.” — Kay Bolden, Author ★★★★★
“If you’re ready to live your dream (as compared with simply dreaming your dream), this book will help you do it.” — L. King ★★★★★
PRACTICE DOESN’T MAKE PERFECT. PRACTICE IS PERFECT.
From the foreword by John Muldoon, “I want you to know that it is possible to change. It is possible to do things you can’t imagine right now.”
“The result is daily improvement (even if doesn’t feel that way when you’re in the middle of it all).” — R. Robinson ★★★★★
“You woke something up in my system.” — H. Baltes ★★★★★
“Every Single Day provides encouragement for writers who are facing the mountain.” — A. Ford ★★★★
“He lights a path that you can choose to walk down.” — R. Simon ★★★★★
THIS ISN’T FOR THE FAINT OF HEART — THIS IS FOR THE HEART.
Bradley Charbonneau’s life drastically changed when on Nov. 1, 2012, he accepted a challenge to Write Every Day for a month. He was familiar with monthly challenges like weight loss or waking up early, but the difference this time was that this one was close to his heart. What happened next changed his life in ways he could have never imagined.
The book, “Every Single Day” tells his story–and teaches you how to achieve what you’re after.
Because you are after something. I know it. You know it.
Of course it makes sense to want for people to see your stellar reviews, but putting them between your selling paragraphs makes for a scattered read. Remember, if people are interested in what you’re trying to sell them, they’ll go looking for these reviews anyway. And if you put them where they belong, which is at the very end, you’ll be offering them to the reader exactly at the right time.
But put your best review at the top, if you have one
You caught us. We did put a snippet of one of Bradley’s reviews at the very top, one that wasn’t included in the original blurb. In the end, hearsay is still the best seller. Showing off your brilliant reviews will help sell your books. The only thing Bradley did ‘wrong’ here was mixing them up with his selling paragraphs.
If you have a great snippet like this, the best thing to do is put it at the top. Put it in bold or italics (or both), give it a bigger font, go crazy. Let it be the first thing people see when arriving on your book’s page, the thing they see even before, when they are on Amazon, having to click ‘Read more’.
Just remember to keep it short, because no one will take the time to read long recommendations (for more on avoiding text blocks, check out this example). One, maybe two sentences is the max.
Keep it concise
Even after removing all of the editorial reviews, we were still left with 259 words. Better, but not good enough.
In the original blurb, Bradley used some capitalised phrases to distinguish between his actual blurb and the editorial reviews. After cutting those reviews, we no longer needed them, so I asked Bradley whether he wanted to keep any of them. If ‘Yes’, I wanted to know which one spoke most to his audience. As soon as we were clear on who his audience actually was, what kind of mindset he was looking for in his readers, we were able to delete two out of three. That was another twenty words gone.
We also got rid of the bit about the foreword since, after not so careful consideration, we reached the conclusion it 1) didn’t fit anywhere and 2) didn’t add anything to what was already there.
Focus on the essential
While Bradley did ‘establish expertise’, a vital part of every nonfiction blurb that is often left out, what we did next was shorten his biography by focusing on the essential. He had a whole sentence in there that didn’t actually add anything. By cutting it, we were able to zoom in on the core of the book while simultaneously bringing more tension to his hook, and the promise that follows right after.
Be consistent when talking to your audience
This might seem like a minor issue, but the original blurb first talked about Bradley in the third person, about how this book will tell ‘his story’. At the very end, it switched to ‘I’—Because you are after something. I know it. You know it.
I get the wish for that personal touch, so my solution was in fact quite simple: We replaced the ‘I know it’ with ‘We know it’. Not only did that get rid of any inconsistencies, it also created a sense of community—you are not alone in this and if you would just join our club, we’ll have your back.
Since joining that ‘club’ means buying the book, it actually works like a subtle call to action.
Call to action
Speaking of which, Bradley’s original blurb did not include an actual call to action. In the end, we simply added an explicit CTA to the subtle one we had just created. This allowed us to create a direct, explicit call to action that still sounded very much like Bradley.
Composition, clarity, and conciseness
Aside the missing CTA, Bradley’s original blurb didn’t lack any important information. However, it included information that simply doesn’t belong in a blurb. Simply by removing the editorial reviews made for a much clearer read. All we did next was make the text as concise and concrete as possible by removing all the ‘frilly’ bits.
Yes, the blurb we ended up with is still 215 words. But, if we look at just the blurb, which excludes the quote at the top and the call to action at the bottom, we are left with only 166 words. Not bad for a blurb that was, without the reviews, 259 words to begin with.
How about you? How long is your nonfiction blurb? And what could you do to improve it?