I decided to do an informal analysis of the blurb's word
choices and structure to tease out the various types of story action readers
can expect from ECHO 8. My fancy pants visuals are a bit small, so please enlarge your screen as necessary.
Clearly, a blurb can serve multiple purposes. In the case of
ECHO 8, it describes the science fiction romance aspect of the story without
using that exact label. Paranormal was possibly included not only because of
the story content, but also because of its strong association with the
well-known "paranormal romance."
The blurb plainly telegraphs the romance plot. But it also
communicates that ECHO 8 includes danger, action-adventure, strange phenomena, a
mystery, thriller/police procedural elements, and scientific experiments. Some
of those are genres and elements that weren't marketed to women for a long time,
and still aren't in many cases. But now, women authors fold such elements into
genres like sci-fi romance because it's a great way to serve under-served
readers. And blurbs like the one for ECHO 8 code the hybrid nature of SFR in
interesting, yet very strategic ways.
Kind of like a secret handshake. :D
Joyfully yours,
Heather