Writing Back Cover Copy

I have a hard time writing the description of the book that would show on the back cover (known as the blurb). I think writing the blurb is harder than writing the the book. You're taking a 350 page novel (about 87,500 words) and summarizing it down to two, maybe three paragraphs consisting of no more than 200 words and trying to include enough information to make a reader want to buy the book. (The 200 word limit is the rule of thumb, or so I'm told.)

The funny thing about my struggle with writing a blurb is that I have no problem writing a description of my book(s) in a single sentence (sometimes know as an elevator pitch). You would think that would be harder than writing a description consisting of a few paragraphs.

I took a free webinar last Thursday given by Bryan Cohen on writing book descriptions that was very informative. He discussed setting up a process and then gave an example going through each step in the process. While I don't think I'll be able to whip off a blurb in no time flat, I do feel like I have the tools to make writing one a bit easier.