“(author’s name here) is awesome!”

[faustfatale]

I suck at blurbs. If I really love something, I feel woefully inadequate to say anything meaningful and if I don’t love it, well that’s a whole other world of suck. Unfortunately, blurbing is not optional in this business. We all need blurbs, and you can’t turn down other writers and expect to get any yourself. That being said, there have been

Comments

[talekyn]

I have to say, as much as I enjoy the book and short story reviews I post here (and on Amazon, and Facebook, etc), you hit on one of the reasons they also give me heartburn. I tend to write them off-the-cuff and try to give cogent thoughts without actually giving a synopsis or spoiling the twists and endings, but I always fear I'm rambling or being too vague, etc.

In answer to your question about blurbs, I have purchased books on the strength of blurbs from writers whose work I like. It doesn't account for anywhere near the majority of the books I purchase, but seeing a blurb from Neil Gaiman, for instance, makes me more likely to pick it up. Also, I look for blurbs from writers who don't blurb everything in creation. I love Stephen King, but his blurb on a cover is not the automatic selling point it is for others.

[vkeenan]

I have bought books based on them, and then on occasion wondered what those authors were thinking. There are also some authors who may give them out a little too freely.

Blurbs.

[anonymous]

I've never purchased a book based on blurbs. There seems be an economy of backslapping attached to it that's always made me ignore them completely. I usually know what I'm going to be getting when I get to the bookstore or I'll be ordering online where all I see of the book is a crappy cover JPEG and customer reviews.

(And really if there's one thing I find more worthless than a blurb, it's the asinine "reviews" you find at Amazon.com and other e-retailers. Alas, another rant.)

Recommendations from friends whose taste I trust usually push me to purchase. I'm also a sucker for good book design and have purchased many a book just because the typeface looked sexy on the spine.

Interesting how the books that usually look the best are ones more concerned conveying the themes of the book visually than making space for blurbs.

Edge

[anonymous]

I've had the pleasure of reading Frank Bill's DONNYBROOK and your thoughts here are spot on. He's one of the top up and coming writers around. A real edge to his prose.

Frank has another story called "Acting Out" in the upcoming BEAT to a PULP: Round 1 anthology that delivers a likewise punch.

-David Cranmer

[anonymous]

A blurb only means anything to me if I'm a fan of the writer doing the blurbing. Or sometimes, if the writer "over-blurbs"-- like Stephen King did a few years ago-- it doesn't have any value anymore.