A sound bite is a few sentences that capture the essence of a story and entice the reader to want more.  It should take about 15 seconds to recite. Basically, it adds more information to your story in a sentence.

Visit Your Favorite Book Store

A good exercise, to help you write your sound bite, is to go to your favorite book store and read the back copy of books similar to yours. Write down the back copy of ten books that made you want to read them. Using these as a guide, sit down and write three paragraphs about your book.  Then condense it down to one paragraph.

Examples

Below is my sound bite for my biography of “Thomas Nast: Political Cartoonist.”

Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, believed that right was right and wrong was wrong.   He took it upon himself to bring down the notoriously corrupt “Boss” William Tweed, who ran New York City after the Civil War.   His drawings unnerved Tweed and he wanted those damn pictures stopped.  Tweed tried to bribe, threaten and scarce Nast.  But nothing worked.  Nast was determined to put him behind bars. And he did.

Below is another example. The sound bite I wrote for my picture book biography of Amelia Earhart focusing on her flight across the United States.

While on a flying vacation in 1928, Amelia Earhart flew into a storm. Her small plane had an open cockpit and cold air blew in her face and rain soaked her clothes.  Frightened, Amelia worked hard to maintain control of her plane.  Finally, the storm ended. Relieved, Amelia flew down close to the ground to look around.  Nothing looked familiar.  She was lost!

Favorite Sound Bite

My favorite sound bite is the prelude to the TV series Battlestar Galactica. It consists of fifteen words.  The Cylons were created by Man. They rebelled. They evolved.  There are many copies.  And they have a plan.