Writers use blurbs, taglines, loglines, descriptions, and synopses. Are they the same thing? Are they useful? Should you use one or more of them?
A blurb, as defined by Wikipedia, is a short promotional piece praising the book. It may be written by the author, some well-known writer, a reviewer, or another source. Print versions of books often have one or more pages of blurbs in the front of the book. Sometimes they appear on the back of the jacket.
A logline is the book’s premise or concept summarized in a sentence or two.
A tagline is a short clever, statement of a few words. It usually doesn’t tell you anything about the book’s plot but piques your interest. Think about the tagline for Jaws: “Don’t go in the water.”
A book description, along with the title and the cover, is one of the three critical elements in making a book stand out from all the books competing for the reader’s dollar. As such, it’s an ad not a summary. It may be the most difficult aspect of writing a book because it must be short—150 to 200 words, so you can’t summarize the plot, subplots, various characters’ involvements, etc. Open with a killer first sentence then sell the reader on why they want to read this book.
A synopsis, unlike most of the foregoing which are designed to appeal to potential readers, is created to interest literary agents in offering to represent you. It generally runs 500 to 800 words. The agent’s website or response to your query letter should indicate the limitations. Its principal purpose is to convey the narrative arc, to show the agent that you have constructed a complete story.