New to skills? A skill is a saved set of instructions your AI assistant reads whenever the job comes up, so you set it up once and it works the same way every time. AI Skills for Teams explains how they work.
What it does
The blurb is working copy. It decides whether someone reads the first page, and it lives on your back cover, your website, Amazon, and everywhere else your book might be found.
Most authors write a blurb by describing the book. A blurb that works describes what changes for the reader instead.
The Book Blurb Writer asks you five questions: who this book is for, what problem they're trying to solve, what transformation the book offers, what makes your approach different, and why they should trust you on this. Then it writes to the format's job and length - back cover blurbs read differently from Amazon descriptions, which read differently again from the 50-word version you'll paste into a podcast directory.
The three formats and what they do
| Format | Length | Its job |
|---|---|---|
| Back cover blurb | 200-250 words | For printed books, sometimes your website. Easy to scan. Shows the reader why they need this book now. |
| Short blurb | 40-70 words | For websites, catalogues, social media and podcast directories. One or two tight sentences: who it's for and what they'll gain. |
| Ebook description | 300-500 words | For Amazon KDP, Apple Books and other stores. Room to expand: benefits, outcomes, key insights, an author bio and keywords. |
A worked example
Here's a made-up business book and what the blurb looks like across formats. The author has 15 years leading analytics teams at two global banks and a fintech.
Back cover, first three paragraphs
You build dashboards. You pull reports. Your leadership team asks three new questions a week. And somehow the data still doesn't tell anyone what they need to know.
Most analytics teams build reports from requests without asking what decision each one is meant to support. You end up with dashboards that answer the wrong questions, and every new request spawns another report.
Quiet Data gives you the question framework the author built over 15 years leading analytics teams at two global banks and a fintech. [Add a result you can stand behind, such as how far the reporting load fell.]
The author didn't give a result, so the skill left a bracket where one belongs. It won't make one up. The full back cover runs on to what the reader will learn and a closing line, inside the 200 to 250 words the format allows.
Short blurb (46 words)
Most analytics teams build the dashboard before anyone asks what decision it's for. Quiet Data gives you the questions to ask first, from someone who spent 15 years leading analytics teams at two global banks and a fintech. For data leads drowning in ad hoc reports.
When to use it
- You've finished your manuscript and need to write copy that sells it
- You're pitching your book to agents or publishers
- You're self-publishing and need copy for your website and Amazon page
- You're repackaging a book for a new audience and want different blurbs
What to know about its limits
The skill won't invent endorsements, reviews, or testimonials. You supply those yourself if you have them. It also won't claim credentials you don't have. If you need a placeholder for a detail you haven't worked out yet - like a credential or a number - you'll see it marked in the blurb so you can fill it in yourself.
Treat the blurb as a first draft that you'll refine. Like any tool it can miss a detail or misread what you meant. You make the final call on what your book promises.
I've written several business books myself, and this is the skill I built for my own.
How to install it
Download it. The zip below holds the skill as a single folder. Upload it wherever your AI assistant takes skills. In Claude, Skills are on the free plan. In ChatGPT, they're on Business, Enterprise, Healthcare and Edu plans only.
Or copy it. Paste the whole block below into any AI assistant. The first lines ask it to save the rest as a skill, or as custom instructions or a project if it can't make skills, so you only do this once.
Read it first. The skill is one plain-text file with no scripts, so you can read every line before you install it. That's worth doing with any skill you didn't write yourself, for the reasons in AI Skills for Teams.
Then ask it to write a blurb. Tell it which format you need - back cover, short blurb, or ebook description - and give it your book in a sentence or two. It'll ask you the rest.
More free skills
The Hell Yeah Idea Validator tests whether your book concept has the clarity and momentum to sell. The Text Shortener cuts your blurb to the length a platform needs without losing impact. The full set is on the Resources page.
