An excessively pessimistic view of marriage here, but great story fodder in this list of 100 marriages of different social classes (followed by 12 more in depth). Via The Public Domain Review. 

When I review books, the ones that earn five stars have both fresh, interesting ideas and excellent execution. One or the other gets four stars, unless the weaker one is especially weak.

This is basically what Rachel Aaron is talking about, from a writer’s perspective, in this post, using the metaphor of the Great British Bakeoff.

Originally shared by Rachel Aaron

Writing Wednesday: Flavor vs. Bake

First up, if you’re at all interested in the self publishing business, go and check out the latest Author Earnings Report . It’s one of their better ones and paints an amazing picture of the current Amazon book market (which is pretty much the #1 most impor…

From standoutbooks, a simple formula for effective blurb writing:

1. Hook (context; why this story is interesting, usually because of a setting or character).

2. Conflict (what goes wrong).

3. Teaser of how the story might develop, the possibilities for triumph and disaster. 

4. An indication of how the story might make the reader feel.

5. Involve the reader with the word “you”. 

The post makes the point that structuring a blurb this way gives the potential buyer the experience of already reading the book and wanting to read more. 

I would warn, though, especially for indie books, if you praise your own book too much in step 4 (“a stunning triumph of literature such as you’ve never read before”), it’s more likely to repel readers than attract them. Use that step like a restaurant sign: this is the kind of experience the book offers. In other words, give genre clues, so the potential purchaser can decide whether that’s the experience they want today.