Colin the Copywriter
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colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Colin the Copywriter
@colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
140 followers 340 following 240 posts
A quarter of a century writing UK publishing jacket copy | 5,000+ blurbs | Talking the cover stories that persuade readers to buy | A few mine, mostly others' | Author of debut SF novel, Exo, available in November | Also find me here colinthecopywriter.com
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colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/11/argh...
Radiant Sculptures by Arghavan Khosravi Meditate on Subconscious Terrain
Iranian artist Arghavan Khosravi makes an inward turn in her new body of sculptural paintings that radiate light.
www.thisiscolossal.com
November 15, 2025 at 6:01 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Mario, eat your heart out . . .
www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/06/rain...
Vivid Rainbow Roads Trace Illuminated Pathways Across Forests and Beaches
Daniel Mercadante has a slate of unique films under his belt, made in partnership with his wife Katina, as The Mercadantes, including Ball and Breathe. More recently, Daniel has been exploring the sti...
www.thisiscolossal.com
November 15, 2025 at 5:56 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Thanks to @booktrib.bsky.social for the chance to talk about five books dealing with change in the world & how we live with that change, each of which changed how I wrote my own novel, Exo.
booktrib.com/2025/11/12/f...
@tadethompson.bsky.social
@sannewman.bsky.social
@catamaroon.bsky.social
A hand holding the Earth with the title 'Books to Hold Close As the World Turns', featuring 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson, The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman, Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley, Rosewater by Tade Thompson and The Coral Bones by EJ Swift
November 14, 2025 at 9:43 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Thanks to @writersdigest.bsky.social for letting me explore the differences between my publishing copywriter day job & writing my first novel, #Exo. Spoiler: it's not just word count.
www.writersdigest.com/shifting-fro...
@diversionbooks.bsky.social
@zenoagency.bsky.social
@awfulagent.bsky.social
Shifting From Publishing Copywriter to Published Novelist
Author Colin Brush shares how he went from writing reductive copy for novels to expanding copy into a novel.
www.writersdigest.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:46 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Blurbs in the wild (1/2): Follow where the title leads. For @cornerstone_press & Ernest Cline's Ready Player One the super-short blurb is all tell and no show, leaning heavily on gaming tropes.

WORLD AT STAKE. GOOD AND EVIL.

QUEST. FATE OF HUMANITY.

And, lastly . . .
Ernest Cline's Ready Player One Blurb: Imagine the WORLD AT STAKE. An EPIC STRUGGLE between good and evil. The GREATEST QUEST in history. The FATE OF HUMANITY resting in your hands. ARE YOU READY?
November 13, 2025 at 9:01 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
I've read it from top to bottom twice and, while I accept I've got a vested interest, I do think you might have missed one . . .

reactormag.com/new-science-...
@reactorsff.bsky.social
@diversionbooks.bsky.social
@awfulagent.bsky.social
@zenoagency.bsky.social
#ColinBrush #Exo #sciencefiction
Reactor's November 2025 science fiction publications with my novel Exo making an oversized and uninvited-to-the-party entrance.
November 12, 2025 at 7:42 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Blurbs in the wild (1/3): Classic book, classic copy shape. @gollancz.bsky.social edition of Frank Herbert's Dune features copy with an inverted triangle shape. We start big and wide with awards & movie affirmation, followed by landmark works of SF that followed Dune. Says: this book matters . . .
Frank Herbert's Dune Blurb: WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD. 
WINNER OF THE NEBULA AWARD.
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE. Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender's Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written. Melange, or 'spice', is the most valuable - and rarest - element in the universe. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world Arrakis. Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe. When stewardship of Arrakis is transferred to his house, Paul Atreides must travel to the planet's dangerous surface to ensure the future of his family and his people. But as malevolent forces explode into conflict around him, Paul is thrust into a great destiny beyond his understanding. And in this game of power, only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
November 12, 2025 at 6:53 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Perspective is everything. Plus, this reminds me strongly of the ladders I am wobblingly and swayingly at the top of in my dreams/nightmares. The base of the ladder is usually in a moving vehicle to add to the fun . . .
www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/11/stri...
A 'Staircase to Heaven' Installation Ascends into the Sky as a Trippy Optical Illusion
South African artist Strijdom van der Merwe’s deceptive “Staircase to Heaven” sculpture is designed to make you wonder. When viewed straight on, the towering optical illusion appears to ascend into th...
www.thisiscolossal.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:54 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Thanks to @elenataylorauthor.bsky.social for the spotlight on me (with hair) and my novel Exo (without hair). Seven days to go!
Exo: a Sci-Fi Mystery - The Mystery of Writing www.themysteryofwriting.com/2025/11/08/e...
@diversionbooks.bsky.social
@awfulagent.bsky.social
@zenoagency.bsky.social
Exo: a Sci-Fi Mystery - The Mystery of Writing
Exo, a science fiction mystery by Colin Brush. Book and author information along with praise for the novel.
www.themysteryofwriting.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:52 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Lovers of Dungeness: click below to discover how this curious corner of Kent coastline was the seed for Exo, my SF murder mystery set at the end of the world. Thanks to Michael Golding for asking me to write about his home & not minding my hubris at playing nemesis.
dungeness.org.uk/info/exo-a-n...
Homepage for Dungeness.org with view of the beach and ruined shacks.
November 11, 2025 at 4:44 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Thanks to reading twins Alexis and Anna for the solid review of Exo. The end of the world really isn't long now . . .
@diversionbooks.bsky.social
takestwotobookreview.com/2025/11/08/r...
Review: Exo by Colin Brush
Alexis: Exo comes out on November 18th, 2025! A debut sci-fi mystery set on an abandoned future Earth, featuring a twisty mystery straight out of a John le Carré novel, a group of larger-than-life …
takestwotobookreview.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:58 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Blurbs in the wild (1/2): This old warhorse! After all these years @gollancz.bsky.social & @lordgrimdark.bsky.social The Blade Itself is still sporting its original cover and blurb. But this blurb knows something legions of Grim Dark fantasy imitators often forget: it's all about the characters ...
Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself Blurb: Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught up in one feud too many he's about to become a dead barbarian, leaving nothing behind but bad songs and dead friends. Jezal dan Luthar, paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than winning glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules. Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer. would like little more than seeing Jezal come home in a box. But then he hates everyone. Cutting treason out of the heart of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendships - and his latest trail of corpses could lead straight to the rotten heart of government if he can just stay alive long enough to follow it.
November 7, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Colin the Copywriter
zenoagency.bsky.social
EXO by Colin Brush is out in two weeks!
zenoagency.com/news/exo-by-...

Due to be published by @diversionbooks.bsky.social (print and eBook) and @dreamscape-media.bsky.social (audio) on November 18th.
Cover for Colin Brush's EXO - a man runs away along a road, thick clouds roil before hum. Big title, running down the middle of the image, author's name along the bottom of the cover. Audiobook cover for Colin Brush's EXO - a man runs away along a road, thick clouds roil before hum. Big title, running down the middle of the image, author's name along the bottom of the cover.
November 7, 2025 at 4:53 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Blurbs in the wild (1/2): The secret here is in the middle. Most blurb writers (myself included?) would pitch @harpercollins.bsky.social and @robinhobb.bsky.social Assassin's Apprentice with just paragraphs 1 and 3 of this blurb. Pitch the set up, the character's situation and the story direction...
Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice Blurb: The kingdom of the Six Duchies is on the brink of civil war when news breaks that the crown prince has fathered a bastard son and is shamed into abdication. The child’s name is Fitz, and he is despised. Raised in the castle stables, only the company of the king’s fool, the ragged children of the lower city, and his unusual affinity with animals provide Fitz with any comfort. To be useful to the crown, Fitz is trained as an assassin; and to use the traditional magic of the Farseer family. But his tutor, allied to another political faction, is determined to discredit, even kill him. Fitz must survive: for he may be destined to save the kingdom.
November 5, 2025 at 8:09 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Blurbs in the wild (1/2): Avoiding spoilers. Sometimes pitching the book’s plot would spoil the read. But how do you find an intriguing way of pitching the little you can say?

In Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, we’re given a problem – the coming death of humankind – and . . .
Andy Weir's novel Project Hail Mary Blurb: A LONE ASTRONAUT. AN IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. AN ALLY HE NEVER IMAGINED. Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. But right now, he doesn't know that. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time, and he's just woken to find himself hurtling through space, millions of miles from home. It's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery, and he's got to do it all alone... Or does he?
November 3, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Colin the Copywriter
zenoagency.bsky.social
Audiobook edition of EXO by Colin Brush is available for request on @netgalley.bsky.social!

www.netgalley.com/catalog/book...
@colinthecopywriter.bsky.social

Due to be pub’d by @dreamscape-media.bsky.social on Nov. 18th; read by Gildart Jackson.
Exo
NetGalley helps publishers and authors promote digital review copies to book advocates and industry professionals. Publishers make digital review copies and audiobooks available for the NetGalley comm...
www.netgalley.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:52 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Look! The smallest room in the house in our house turns out to be a library. Here I talk about one shelf in particular, some books on it and their blurbs, and how it all relates to writing and copywriting. Thanks, Jared and @lavietidhar.bsky.social
shelfies.beehiiv.com/p/shelfies-5...
Shelfies #59: Colin Brush
I cannot pick up a book, hoping to be enticed into reading it, without also critically examining the blurb.
shelfies.beehiiv.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:27 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Some blurbs hint (1/2) Originally published by @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social the @michaeljbooks.bsky.social edition of Lauren Beukes' @clarkeaward.bsky.social winning Zoo City features the original cover & blurb. The book's big weird involves criminals being magically attached to animal familiars ...
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes and Lemur Blurbs: Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheque, she's forced to take on her least favourite kind of job - missing persons. Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions reside. Instead it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she'll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives - including her own.
October 24, 2025 at 12:12 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Prick up your ears! Astounding news! My debut novel Exo will also be available as an audiobook from Dreamscape, narrated by the inestimable Gildart Jackson. @zenoagency.bsky.social @diversionbooks.bsky.social @awfulagent.bsky.social @rbmediaco.bsky.social
rbmediaglobal.com/audiobook/97...
RBmedia | Exo
Listen to the audiobook Exo, written by Colin Brush, narrated by Gildart Jackson.
rbmediaglobal.com
October 22, 2025 at 2:32 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Not everyone can make a living doing the thing they love. But there are many ways of cleaving close to what it is you love and still making a living from it.
naomialderman.substack.com/p/the-best-a...
making a living vs making a life
or "can you earn money from your art?" (and is that even the right question?)
naomialderman.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 7:46 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Lonely buildings in an uncaring countryside.
www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/10/lee-...
Sinister Skies Set the Scene for Derelict Buildings in Lee Madgwick's Surreal Paintings
Beneath ominous skies and set within flat, green parkland, Lee Madgwick’s uncanny folly-like buildings strike an unsettling note.
www.thisiscolossal.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Blurbs in the wild: Start small, end big. Kate Summerscale's The Peepshow blurb starts with a grisly find, details bringing it to life. Then it expands, the horrors within beguiling a nation. Finally, the last para offers a grand promise: closure. Show with little details. Tell with the big themes.
Kate Summerscale's The Peepshow Blurb: In 1953, the bodies of three young women are found by a tenant in the walls of a Notting Hill house. He tells the police that he chanced upon them while trying to put up a shelf for his transistor radio. As a series of further horrors are discovered, the eyes of a nation turn to 10 Rillington Place. In this riveting tale of violence, misogyny and tabloid frenzy, Kate Summerscale lifts the veil on what really happened inside the house - and suggests a new solution to one of the twentieth century's most notorious crimes.
October 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Blurbs in the wild: Classic 3-line pitch blurb for Annie Jacobsen & @transworldbooks.bsky.social NW:
Nuclear war begins with a blip on a radar screen.
This is a minute-by-minute account of what comes next.
It has to be read to be believed.

Or:
What is it?
How does it work?
Why should you read it?
Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War Blurb: Nuclear war begins with a blip on a radar screen. This is a minute-by-minute account of what comes next. It has to be read to be believed.
October 17, 2025 at 8:21 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
'A twisty mystery, unusual science . . . Will find fans among both sf and mystery readers.'
Thank you, @ala-booklist.bsky.social & John Faria for the Exo review. Thanks as ever to:
@diversionbooks.bsky.social
@awfulagent.bsky.social
@zenoagency.bsky.social
www.booklistonline.com/products/981...
Booklist review of Exo by Colin Brush (me!).
October 15, 2025 at 6:17 AM
colinthecopywriter.bsky.social
Blurbs in the office (1/3): Penguin @michaeljbooks.bsky.social Mermaid Collection brings unjustly neglected 20th-century works back into print. Pitching Margaret Kennedy's Lucy Carmichael – the story of a jilted but sensible, happy-go-lucky woman’s attempts to remake her life – it felt right to . .
Penguin Michael Joseph Mermaid: Lucy Carmichael by Margarey Kennedy Blurb: ‘People seem to get over things, don’t they? I don’t know how, but they do – ordinary people. I’m very ordinary, so I expect I shall do what they do.’ Lucy Carmichael is jilted at the altar. But no matter. Her loving and kind family never liked her explorer fiancé anyway. Instead of moping or falling into her supportive family’s arms, however, Lucy abandons their suburban home. Heading for the country, she takes up a teaching position in the industrial town of Ravonsbridge. There, she finds solace in her work, in her new (rather gossipy) colleagues – and rediscovers her sensible young self. But if Lucy has, despite everything, kept her head – where lies her heart?
October 14, 2025 at 1:00 PM