Since You Asked
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 Question of the day: What are your thoughts on blurbs? I'm an unpublished author but the more I hear about blurbs, the more nervous they make me...I have to actually ask other authors to review my work for me?
Well, since you asked, I'll voice what is likely an unpopular opinion, but that's never stopped me before. :) And that is this: I HATE blurbs - hated asking for them, hate being on the receiving end of being asked (more on that below - it's not how it sounds), hate the nepotism that comes along with them, hate that the industry expects authors to round up blurbs and that these blurbs somehow make a book more worthy or lucrative.
Have I made that clear enough? :)
Before I'm accused of not being a team-player, let me explain my reasoning. To begin with, other than for a debut author, I'm not even sure how much blurbs matter. I don't really think that, for all the anxiety they cause, they sell books. (I'm sure others disagree.) I think they do help get your marketing team excited, and that may translate to getting the sales team excited, but at the end of the day...do they make or break anything? I say no...though again, others may say yes. I've posed this question here and to others in the past, and I really don't think the number of readers who buy a book due to a blurb equals anything more than a fraction of sales.
As an author who has asked for blurbs in the past, I can confirm that this process is excruciating. As if getting published and facing rejection after rejection isn't hard enough, you're still not done: you are then expected to go out to your peers and ask them to read your manuscript and pray that they don't reject you. You try not to have hard feelings if they do (or if they ignore you), and when they do, you may take it personally. When someone is kind enough to indeed blurb you, it feels like the greatest victory in the world. But that we need this validation, and that authors are expected to endure seeking this validation, kind of sucks. I truly think that asking for blurbs is almost humiliating for an author, for lack of a better word. Like Sally Field, begging to be liked. (Please note that this is my perspective from having gone through it, NOT because I think authors SHOULD feel humiliated for asking - very big difference.)
As an author who is often asked for blurbs, I can also confirm that the process on the other side of the equation is no more enjoyable. What I mean by that is that I'm THRILLED to help other authors - I hope that much is clear, and I'm THRILLED to take a look at someone's ARC. But then the pesky problems set in: what if you "know" this person (with Twitter, blogging, etc, these days, the networks are wide and tangled) and you don't like their work? What if you offend someone, unintentionally, by not having the time to get to his/her book? What if you're simply taxed from having a 10-book deep stack on your nightstand and want to be selfish for a few months and solely read for pleasure? What if you blurb one author who knows another author whom you didn't blurb? It's equally tricky - and exhausting - on the other side. Again, this isn't me saying I'm not happy to blurb or take a look at ARCs, it's just me saying that it's a complicated process and one that I wish none of us had to endure.
So to answer your question, unfortunately, I think that there is anxiety for ALL parties when it comes to blurbing, and no one really likes it any more than anyone else. I wish the industry could come up with some other way to distinguish one book from another (notice I didn't say one GOOD book from another, because half the time, I swear, people just blurb their friends' books, whether or not they're good), but since they haven't, I'll return to that 10-book stack on my nightstand and try to ensure that one debut author whom I really think deserves wild success gets my endorsement. Having been on both sides of the coin, I don't know what else to do.
I'd love to hear from you guys out there: blurbs, yay or nay? Anyone want to share his or her experience from whichever side of the process you're on?
Reader Comments (20)
You should check out John Scalzi's policy on blurbs: http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004871.html. One of his big points is that "blurb requests should come from the book's editor/publisher, not from the writer him/herself." I think this is a policy that all authors should consider adopting...
All I can say is that as a reader, a blurb has NEVER gotten me to consider (or not consider) a book. I hardly ever read them. So I kind of think they're a waste of time/paper... But you know, it is what it is. (And there are probably other readers/consumers who *do* consider blurbs?)
What a good post. I'm unpublished but the whole asking for blurb thing does cause me angst. It seems the angst never ends for writers.
Excellent post, Allison. I think your quick caveat about "other than for a debut author" is very important. My first novel is coming out this spring, and there's no doubt that blurbs did make the marketing department more excited about the book. The same blurbs seemed to intrigue some booksellers, book bloggers, and others, perhaps helping them give the novel a second glance.
Plus, there's the extraordinary boost to the author's self-confidence that a strong blurb can bring. As we all know, it's a lonely, scary time to be seeing your first novel (any novel) published, and discovering that a writer you admire likes your book helps you keep going.
GREAT POST! I've been on both ends, too, and I hate it. I was told that it's important for the sales dept and for booksellers, so at the moment I'm going through this heinous process for my new book (though thankfully they can use reviews from previous book so I don't have to get too many). It's a really hard thing, I do blurb almost everything I'm asked to do--one I didn't do became a huge bestseller so that should encourage people not to ask me. But getting HATE HATE HATE!
Uh oh. I think I am part of the problem. I admit it. I am more inclined to buy a book I haven't heard of if it has blurbs from authors I like and have read before.
LOL, Julie!! You should tell people that when asked.
Joe: I totally agree that for debut authors, they can make a difference. But what you said about the confidence issue is part of what bothers me about them. I do think they help boost an author's confidence, but frequently with blurbs, they can be just as demoralizing when they DON'T come through...and there are plenty of times when they don't come through for reasons having nothing to do with an author's book. But the author doesn't know this, and personalizes it, and ugh, it's just complicated. That said, for debut books, yes, I can see where the good outweighs the bad. Though..anecdotally, I had for more blurbs for my debut than I did my follow-up, and my follow-up has outsold my debut by, like, 10x. So...
I hate asking a person for a favor, especially one that would take a fair amount of time for the other person and involve me ultimately being judged! I'm nowhere near asking for blurbs and already feel anxiety over it. But as awful as the process sounds on both sides, I have to say that I have seen a blurb work: I recently ordered a book based on your blurb. It was Sarah Pekkanen's Opposite of Me. I'm hoping it'll be in my mailbox today.
Allison, we don't know each other, but you sure know ME! ;-) Four of the five authors who agreed to read the ms came through with blurbs I couldn't have dreamed up...yet I found myself thinking, "What's wrong with the other guy? Or maybe it's my book!" Sigh. So I take your point very well indeed.
Congratulations on the blurb-to-sales ratio! I'll take that too (duh) and hang the ego-boost.
The question to ask yourself is what you want from these blurbs. Let's be honest: the publishing model needs rethinking front to back. Do the blurbs serve the writer? In other words, do they sell the book? If not, what might? It's ad space, and you are the creative one. What do you think might work? For my upcoming book, I solicited comments from students to put in the first two pages on the ms, as well as on the back cover. Not about the book (which is about writing memoir) their quotes are about my teaching style, and how effective it has been for them. I then identify them by what they've published. It's another way to do it. What's yours?
Here's an idea - hire an intern to read ARCs and ghost write your blurbs. There are so many students hungry to get into the publishing industry, and the chance to work with an author would be a dream come true. I’m sure many of them would be happy to do it for free. Plus, editorial assistants do a similar function when they review manuscripts to determine whether or not their supervisors should even bother reading them. So this kind of internship would be a useful experience for those hoping to become an editor someday.
It may be scary to trust someone else to do this for you and it wouldn't solve the dilemma of hurt feelings etc. - but it could free up some of your time.
As a reader, I pay zero attention to author blurbs. However, I DO read newspaper reviews and sometimes base my decision to buy on that.
Sometimes I'll take a peek at a book if a blurb is written by a *top* favorite author. Not a guaranteed buy, mind you, but I will check the cover or flap copy and the first few pages to see if something else grabs me. But the blurb means nothing if I know that the author shares an editor, publisher or agent with the person who received the blurb. (You just know what that's about.)
If I know the authors are buddies or travel in the same pack--on or offline, again we know what that blurb is about. Not always about a super-fantastic read, but an author helping a friend. I keep up with who's who and what's going on in the biz ,but I'm thinking the average reader doesn't do this.
Interesting post, particularly because it's something I never even thought about! Blurbs! So many things to learn about the publishing biz- I'm finding out so many things every day.
Neil - I forgot to say thanks for sharing that. I think while in theory, this is a great idea, it's just too hard to put into practice these days with writers knowing all of their peers. I'm trying to draw the line at DEBUT authors, and even that feels hard - to go back to a friend and say, "Well, you know, I can't read because I'm trying to just help new authors." I don't know, it's tricky.
Sarah - I can't speak for others, but I really wouldn't be comfortable having someone else blurb for me. That's just me: certainly, there are people out there who barely read a book before blurbing it, but given that it's my name and my endorsement, I just wouldn't be okay with putting it out there under false circumstances. JMO, of course!
Hey, Allison -
As someone who is working hard to become a debut author, your post really got me thinking. Then, I started reading the replies and, boy, to blurb or not to blurb (asking for them, anyway) really seems like a complicated issue.
How many publishers really expect authors to get their own blurbs, especially when they're newbies?
Wonderful post. Wish I had the answers. Like Joe (and you) I was thrilled beyond belief with the blurbs I received (writing letter to them after that made me sound VERY much like Sally Field) and then immediately wondered why the non-repliers hated me so much.
One lovely author (who did blurb me, making her, of course, super-extra-lovely) wrote this when I asked her for a blurb: "If your publisher is willing to send me the book, knowing I simply may not have time to read it, please feel free to send it along."
Great line. I am stealing it--because it's usually true and most certainly polite.
Most of my blurbs were gathered by my dear editor--those, of course, were wonderful fun. The ones I went after were fraught with the worst sort of sturm un drang. How dare I ask people for hours and hours of their time?
I am a yet-to-be-published author on submission with publishers right now. I have a blurb from a fairly well known writer of the same genre. I don't think it's done a thing for me with editors, at least-- as a matter of fact, we sent it to the exact same editor this author is published under, and she didn't like my ms. one bit. So I think blurbs are hit or miss. . .
Such a great post!
I was very lucky in that my editor did something thoughtful: She asked a well-known author (Jennifer Weiner) to read my manuscript without telling me. That way Jen could decline to blurb if she wanted, with no hurt feelings - luckily she liked it, but I never would've known about it if she hadn't. I was incredibly grateful to receive blurbs from authors like Allison, who were gracious and kind about the request, but I did feel terrible asking. I know everyone is so busy these days, and asking people to take hours and hours out of their workday or time with their families felt like a huge imposition. And yet... the wisdom seems to be that a book needs blurbs! It is a tough situation for everyone.
I've been asked to blurb a few books, and one I didn't love - but I could see its merits, and I felt others would enjoy it. So I didn't rave about it, but wrote honestly about what I enjoyed in the book.
I read blurbs on the back covers, but they don't influence me at all. No one puts a bad blurb on a book and the reader has no idea which authors said no, or read and didn't like the book.
If blurbs give weight to the book on the publishing side, then its worthwhile to find a way to get them.
First things first. I'll worry about that when it's time.