I've spent a lot of time considering the same question. What answers did I come up with? Not many...

Some people might say that present tense has a greater sense of immediacy. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. They could make the same argument for fiction as a whole, but past tense doesn't seem to hurt it much - it's the prevailing form.

I suspect, like so many other things with blurbs, it's just a convention. It's been done that way since the beginning, and (nearly) everyone follows suite.

There are best selling books out there with first person blurbs - when the book isn't even in first person. If you can break that "rule" you can break any of them. But it takes guts to do that. Also, I wouldn't be doing it unless I saw a clear cut advantage.

The only other thing I ever thought of was this: it's easier to stay in present tense where the main events are really in the character's future (despite the blurb being in the present tense) because blurbs usually start with the the first part of he book and project suspense forward, if that makes sense.

Not that that's the only way a blurb can work; its just the most common.

But who's looking for "easier"? I'd rather take "most effective".

 

Sure, you can break the "present tense for blurbs" rule -- but you'd better do it with panache. Otherwise, potential readers may suspect that you're not a pro, that you don't know how to write a blurb... so perhaps your book's not well-written, either. (JMHO)

I think of the blurb as showing what's happening in this book right now! Hurry! Don't miss it!

(But I'm nuts. )

 

My rule of thumb is - past tense for info that happened before the book begins, present tense for stuff that happens in the book itself.

 

My rule of thumb is - past tense for info that happened before the book begins, present tense for stuff that happens in the book itself.

I think that's the norm. Good to spell it out, though.

 

Somewhere, some time, some marketing professional at a traditional publisher decided that present tense was the best for blurbs to get people excited about a book. I trust that, in this instance at least, traditional publishing has it right. Present tense blurbs have been successful for lots of years.

 

Blurbs are written in an "active" voice to make them seem exciting. Hence the use of the present tense.

Your example is not written in active voice, even the present tense one. You have used three passive words: two "to be" verbs (is and are) and one use of the word that. An active example would be:

On a dying Earth, Bob believes zombies hide in the shadows.

An even better verb than "believes" would be "fears", but maybe Bob is not afraid of them.

Of course, I added "in the shadows", but you could equally have "...zombies hide undetected" or, my favourite, "...zombies hide: waiting."

Blurbs are hellish, it takes a lot of effort to get into the mindset. Good luck!

 

Jane, thanks for that!

I think I need to go back to my blurbs now. 

 

Do what you think feels best for your book.

"He was on of the greatest heroes of his time..." gives a very different feeling from what "He is one of the greatest heroes of his time."
The tense can create a certain atmosphere.