Writing a blurb is hard. Everyone knows this. These days, you might be tempted to use generative AI to write it for you, but as an artist, you know this is fundamentally wrong and that people will laugh at you. You don't want that. You want to be taken seriously, and so instead of surrendering to the siren song of AI, you throw down three hard-earned Benjamins to have a professional team of people write your blurb for you.

You wait patiently until the finished product arrives. You hold your breath as you read. Tears roll down your cheeks. What is this, you ask, to no one, for you are alone in your pain. You think of all the sugar and carbs you could have spent with that $300. The self-loathing takes over, and you stash the results in an unnamed folder because you can't bear to show them to anyone.

Later, you change your mind and write a blog post about it, presenting the results without comment.

This is that post.

The Blurb

When a soft-hearted innovator gets caught in corporate crosshairs, will tech he’s devoted his life to become his guardian angel or a vengeful spirit?

Austin, Texas, 1997. Ken Barnes believes strongly in right and wrong. So the resourceful engineer is furious that his profit-focused employer is trying to cut him out of his invention of a biochip that could save lives. And after a gunshot puts him in a coma, he’s thrilled to see his virtual construct for viewing memories has kicked in… but horrified that it isn’t working correctly.

Patrick Quinn woke up to a nightmare. With his best friend barely clinging to life, the diligent programmer has nowhere to turn for support as their company’s network is attacked by an unstoppable tapeworm. And when he realizes how precisely the sabotage aligns with his coworker’s attempted murder, he worries tracking down a solution will expose his pal as the man behind the breach.

Aware that death is inescapable, Ken is shocked when his VR assistant turns hostile and forces him to view terrible memories he’d suppressed. And as Patrick defies orders and looks into how the inventor ended up catching a bullet, he faces disturbing run-ins with teen hackers and a tight-lipped FBI agent.

Are the dangerous answers to everyone’s questions doomed to die with one brilliant man’s mind?

House of Nepenthe is a standalone dystopian science fiction novel set in the Vinestead Universe. If you like complex relationships, fast-paced mysteries, and cool technology, then you’ll love Daniel Verastiqui’s nuanced adventure.

Buy House of Nepenthe to hack into thrills today!

The Facebook Ad Copy

When a soft-hearted innovator gets caught in corporate crosshairs, will tech he’s devoted his life to become his guardian angel or a vengeful spirit? If you like complex relationships, fast-paced mysteries, and cool technology, then you’ll love Daniel Verastiqui’s nuanced adventure. Tap the link to buy the book today!

Headline: Tap the Link to Buy the Book

Alternative Headline: Start reading this dystopian science fiction right away!

The Amazon Ad Headlines

1. When a soft-hearted innovator gets caught in corporate crosshairs, will tech he’s devoted his life to become his guardian angel or a vengeful spirit?
2. If you like complex relationships, fast-paced mysteries, and cool technology, then you’ll love Daniel Verastiqui’s nuanced adventure.
3. If you like complex relationships, fast-paced mysteries, and cool technology, then you’ll love this dystopian science fiction.
4. House of Nepenthe is a standalone dystopian science fiction novel set in the Vinestead Universe.
5. Are the dangerous answers to everyone’s questions doomed to die with one brilliant man’s mind?
6. When a brilliant inventor gets trapped in his own VR construct, can he escape the walls of his mind before death closes in?
7. A gunshot victim. A network-devouring anomaly. Can a rogue inventor, a disgraced FBI agent, and an out-of-her-depth hacker track down the dark truth?
8. He’s being guided through his final moments by a virtual personal assistant. When the construct twists out of control, will he confront a dark past?
9. When an attempted murder and corporate sabotage collide, will trying to track down answers in a cold VR get everyone involved killed?
10. His mysterious construct wasn’t meant to play by the rules. But when it starts ignoring its own inventor’s orders, it could destroy his future…

Hack into Thrills Today

Honestly, you should have known better. When it comes to self-publishing and being an indie author, you do the best you can with what you have. Write your own blurb, share it with friends, tweak it, and then just let it be. Or keep throwing money at it; I'm not the boss of you. But before you lob cash in the general direction of book marketing, make sure you know what you're buying, and search the World Wide Web for examples that weren't cherry-picked for the website.

You've been warned.

What Say You, Windows Copilot?

In the sprawling neon-lit city of Austin, Texas, where reality and virtuality blur, software engineer Kenneth Barnes faces a grim diagnosis: terminal neural decay. His mind, once a brilliant code architect, now glitches like corrupted data. Desperate for a cure, he turns to the enigmatic VR clinic known as “The House of Nepenthe.”

But when Ken steps into the virtual construct, he discovers it’s no ordinary treatment facility. The House is a labyrinth of fractured memories, a place where time loops and identities fracture. As Ken navigates its shifting corridors, he encounters echoes of his past: a lost love, a betrayal, and a gunshot that should have killed him.

Trapped within the construct, Ken must unravel the mystery of his own attempted murder. Was it corporate rivals seeking his groundbreaking biochip? Or something deeper, a conspiracy that reaches beyond the digital realm? As the construct collapses around him, Ken races against time, reliving pivotal moments, chasing shadows, and questioning his own sanity.

In “House of Nepenthe,” reality bends, memories glitch, and the line between human and AI blurs. Ken's survival hinges on piecing together the fractured shards of his past, all while the city pulses with neon secrets and deadly intrigue. But as the countdown to collapse ticks away, he realizes that the truth lies not only in the code but also within himself—a truth that could rewrite the fate of the House of Nepenthe.

House of Nepenthe is a pulse-pounding cyberpunk thriller that explores identity, memory, and the boundaries of consciousness. Dive into a world where neon flickers and shadows hide more than they reveal, and where the past holds the key to survival in a collapsing construct. 

Who did it better?

Between the $300 service and a few sentences in Windows Copilot's generative AI, who do you think wrote the better blurb?

Ultimately, you're going to write the blurb yourself. It may not be the best, but it's yours, and it's much cheaper.