The Battle of the Blurbs

 Apparently, there’s a dispute raging in the publishing industry right now: To Blurb or not to Blurb?

These days, the Big 5 (the traditional New York imprints like Simon & Schuster and Randon House) spend whatever limited marketing and PR funds they have for the handful of books that they expect to sell very, very well. Mostly, those written by previously published bestselling authors or huge celebrities like Prince Harry. 

That means close to zero funds left for the books that are expected to sell only okay. So, what’s a less-known author to do? Seek out blurbs from famous people. 

According to an article I read in MSN by author Constance Grady:

No one knows if blurbs are all that useful to the average reader, but they’re very useful to their true audience, which is people who read professionally and don’t have time to carefully evaluate each and every book that crosses their path before they winnow them down. Booksellers refer to blurbs to figure out which books are worth spotlighting in their stores. Prize juries refer to blurbs to decide which manuscripts will deserve special focus as they make their way through their overflowing piles. As a book critic, I receive dozens of pitches a year for literary novels about sad young women. It is physically impossible for me to read all of them. But if one of them comes with a note from Lauren Groff saying she thought the sentences were good, then I will make that book the one in its genre that I am sure to read.together for themselves when they aren’t sure they can rely on their publishers for marketing and promotional firepower.

So, why would S&S announce that it will no longer pursue blurbs? Because apparently the publisher feels it’s take too much time and too large a share of their already limited resources to pursue blurbs. What’s more, they consider blurbs to be classist, as people who attended prestigious universities or come from well-connected families tend to be able to secure blurbs from famous people, whereas others do not. That said, if authors come into S&S with their own serious firepower in terms of blurbs, that’s fine. 

My advice? If you can get a big name or two to blurb your book, do it. It certainly can’t hurt, and I’ve read that it can give you a big bump on Amazon in terms of credibility.

Writing Tip of the Week: Write Your Own Blurb

I’m a big fan of visualization as a way to achieve goals. Here’s a fun manifestation exercise: 

• Make a realistic list of the people you’d have blurb your book. 
• Now write down 2 that you have no known connections to, people you admire like Elizabeth Gilbert, for example.
• Now write out their fake blurbs as inspiration. 
• Print it out, post it to your wall, and enjoy the motivation it provides – real or not. 

Aloha,

MeiMei

Quote of the Week

Asking for blurbs is a really rough process. I don’t know if they help in any way in terms of sales, but in the long slog that is writing and promoting a book, blurbs offer an opportunity to remember to breathe and remind ourselves we’re writers who get to write, and that’s a beautiful thing that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

~Author Johnny Diamond