What is it about?

Last week in class I spoke about a blurb being the book description you find on the back of a book to describe a book's contents. I included my professional stint at Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/ in New York http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York as a temp and how I'd see a pile of books amassed in a corner waiting for someone's endorsement. 
 

Blurbs similar to a jacket are an important selling tool for a book; written as a review by either a newspaper, or someone well-known aimed at grabbing the reader's attention.

During my short tenure at the magazine, when the book “Bridges of Madison County” came in, it had been scoffed at by the publishing elite in New York City, like a stray cat it sat on the windowsill.

The story is about two people, one is married the other is not, who find the promise of perfect personal happiness, and understand, with sadness and acceptance, that the most important things in life are not always about making yourself happy.

I asked to take it home to read and offered to report back on it. One person noticed my literary enthusiasm; an influential columnist, and we became friendly. She trusted me and eventually offered me a job working from her home in Westchester County. Although I appreciated the offer; remaining honest with myself, I turned it down, since it was in an area that wasn't in the arts which would have a better fit for me.

So how can you condense all that important information?

Here's what I did.

Introduce the hero and heroine, giving a simple plot set up or conflict. Next what is the exterior conflict of the novel? What must both achieve or defeat and what do they have to lose?

Reread paragraph four–and there you have it!