With fiction, back cover copy is absolutely essential to book sales—even in today’s online marketplace, where only a small percentage of books are in a position to be physically picked up and paged through before purchase.

Kick-ass back cover copy is crucial—and sometimes, hiring a professional is best.

On the surface, it may seem that authors are the perfect choice to write their own back cover copy—after all, who knows a book best but the person who wrote it?

However, an experienced back cover copy writer can have important insight into what attracts publishers and readers, which can drastically reduce sales.

Of course, a professionally written back cover copy costs money. For authors going it alone, here are four ideas for boosting your back cover copy.

1. Think like a blog.

Look at a popular blog post and what do you see? Probably not dense, boring blocks of text, right?

Visually, blog aesthetic principles and ideal back cover copy have a lot in common: the goal is for it easy to scan and fun to read, and encourage the reader’s engagement—in this case, engaged enough to buy your book.

Don’t go overboard, of course. But there are a few tricks you might use to catch a potential reader’s eye:

• Break up long paragraphs into shorter ones
• Use bullet points
• Make sure there’s some white space

Now isn’t that bulleted list visually appealing?

2. Decide what’s really important.

Consider this fragment of a back cover copy:

“When Timothy and his best friend Benjamin graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, they were eager to make plans for the next stages of their lives. Ever since they meet one
sunny day in Organic Chemistry . . . ”

It just doesn’t add to the story (not that we have any idea what the story is at this point), and these details aren’t what’s going to stir my passions.

I don’t care where they met or what the weather was like. What I want to know is: what happens to Timothy and Benjamin now? Was their friendship tested? Do they drift apart, or come back together, or fall in love with the same girl? With twins? With each other?

Don’t give endless details. Give readers enough to make them crave more details.

3. Run it by an editor.

You’ve spent good money editing your book (right?), and every penny was money well spent.

Don’t throw it away by leaving one of the most important part of your book unedited. Your text may be spotless, but if your cover copy isn’t, potential readers may not stick around long enough to find out.

Of course, only a small percentage of independently published authors are fortunate enough to have books with a physical bookstore presence, unless you pull a Mitch Hedberg and put them on the shelves yourself.

But the major online retailers make it just as simple for readers to see the back cover as it would be in a bookstore. And while reader reviews and sample downloads are certainly a strong factor in the decision to purchase or not purchase, many of us do still look to the back cover (me! I do!) for the short version.

Frankly, as a reader, if the cover doesn’t look good—front and  back—I’ll probably pass. Call me old-fashioned, but I just assume the rest of the book is in a similar condition. It’s harsh, but it’s reality, and I assure you I’m not alone.

4. End with a question.

Television series, Hollywood blockbusters, and back covers alike use open questions to heighten suspense to their advantage.

“Will humanity survive to colonize another world—or will they destroy themselves first?” 

“Can the Prince Regent find the perfect pair of acting trousers—or will his posture doom him to an heirless future?”

If you can present all of the most interesting and intriguing facts and then wrap it up with a question that makes casual browsers think, “Hey, I do want to know the answer to that!” you’ll be in great shape.

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What tips, tricks, and tactics do you use to write your back cover copy?