Have you ever gotten that glassy-eyed look from people when they ask you, "So what's your book about?" It's like looking at a slow death. No one wants a long drawn out explanation.
I can't tell you how many times it's happened to me, all they really want is the short version. The Who, What, and What about your story. That's where the Logline can help.
What's a logline? It's 'the pitch' of your story. Script writers live and die everyday from “the pitch”. There’s a big difference between a logline used to explain your novel and the one used to “sell” a script.
Logline, if used properly, can be a marketing tool for your book. It should include three simple elements:
WHO is the protagonist of your story.
WHAT goal are he/she striving for?
WHAT obstacle is in his/her path?
You should stay simple and incredibly enticing. You should also be direct, with no hinting. Be brief, under 25 words if possible so refined and refine again, only the high points should shine.
You can also use this to write your Blurb, using the finer points to stimulate interest and curiosity to wets the reader's appetite. While setting up a series of questions that the reader will want to find the answers to.
This is my Logline for Believe
Foster child, Sara Wilkin distrusts everyone except one man from her past. Yet in order to survive the night she must trust someone she doubts the most, her father.
Blurb:
They gave her the name Sara Wilkin; it wasn't the name she was born with. In fact, she doesn't know her real name. Abandon at the age of five, she's lived through the Foster Care system to emerge a harden fourteen year-old. Now with the murders of her foster parents, it's placed Sara in the spotlight and on the radar of some very dangerous people.
Dr. Tyrell Rogers spent years searching for his daughter in the system. After watching the report of the brutal murders on the news, his services as a child advocate are needed. Surprised to find his daughter, Tyrell sets out to protect Sara by any means necessary. But even the impending threat of the Freemasons doesn't scare him half as much as the mistrust he sees in his child's eyes.
Clyde Barton lost her once; he doesn't plan on doing it again. He's spent half a decade searching for a girl, using the vast resources at his disposal. Now that he's found Sara Wilkin, he isn't going to let her go this time so easily.
Can Sara trust a father she barely knows or will she trust the one man she shouldn't?
Blurb:
They gave her the name Sara Wilkin; it wasn't the name she was born with. In fact, she doesn't know her real name. Abandon at the age of five, she's lived through the Foster Care system to emerge a harden fourteen year-old. Now with the murders of her foster parents, it's placed Sara in the spotlight and on the radar of some very dangerous people.
Dr. Tyrell Rogers spent years searching for his daughter in the system. After watching the report of the brutal murders on the news, his services as a child advocate are needed. Surprised to find his daughter, Tyrell sets out to protect Sara by any means necessary. But even the impending threat of the Freemasons doesn't scare him half as much as the mistrust he sees in his child's eyes.
Clyde Barton lost her once; he doesn't plan on doing it again. He's spent half a decade searching for a girl, using the vast resources at his disposal. Now that he's found Sara Wilkin, he isn't going to let her go this time so easily.
Can Sara trust a father she barely knows or will she trust the one man she shouldn't?
Now that you have your Logline, you got a streamline answer to whoever asks the next time. "So What's your book about.
Copyright © 2013 Glynis Rankin
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