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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/34409
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

My story is set in a sci-fi universe but it is less about genre tropes and more about the kinds of grown-up complicated characters I'd want to find in any story. I'm not bragging or trying to be highbrow, it's more like I don't want to promise a rip-roaring adventure and then bait-and-switch to my philosophical, unsatisfying ending.

I guess, like a lot of people, I'm not very good at marketing my own work.

The online advice tends to be:

1. "Read the back of your favorite book. Copy what they did."
2. "Keep the hype in hyperbole!"

I understand blurbs are totally subjective, and there's another question that talks about [What are the elements of a good blurb?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/17391/what-are-the-elements-of-a-good-blurb) So I wrote a blurb that cherrypicked one character and made her opening situation sound saucy:

> Alex earned a mentorship under the legendary robot general. Tracking him across the Gap proved her skill, her body bared evidence of her commitment, and she needed answers to her family’s past…. But she didn’t expect the first lesson would be to survive.

It could use polish, but you get the idea. It's trying to be all hook.

So my problem is while this blurb is _true_ it's more a sub-plot and just the set-up for her character. It's not the tone of the story which is more political intrigue with some action. There are dozens of detours and also other main characters whose stories are perhaps better resolved. The situation I cherrypicked is just the first chapter. She is not "battling the robot general to survive" for the rest of the book.

When I try to summarize the story it is a very different description. Am I being dishonest or am I marketing?

Original score: 17