Folks, it’s time to talk about blurbs.
You know blurbs, the choice little quotations from other writers or public figures touting the excellence of the book you are considering purchasing. They are often effusive, sometimes unbelievably so, and coming from august persons whose names are known, are meant to make the book at hand impossible to pass up.
In the publishing industry, blurbs are somehow both incredibly important and also meaningless, given that most blurbs come through a system that connects the blurber and the book’s author, rather than being an independent, uncompromised judgment.
Many years ago when I published a parody of writing advice books (“Fondling Your Muse: Infallible Advice from a Published Author to the Writerly Aspirant”), I decided to firmly straddle the fence by getting real blurbs from actual prominent people (Patton Oswalt, Michael Ian Black and Dave Eggers), while also inventing blurbs (with a disclaimer that they weren’t real) from very famous writers, Tom Clancy, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Anne Lamott. Maya Angelou’s invented blurb read, “After reading this book, I know what the caged bird will be crapping on.”
I thought it was sort of fun, but I was having my cake and eating it too.
We’re talking about blurbs because Sean Manning, publisher of one of the nation’s premier legacy imprints, Simon & Schuster, wrote recently in Publishers Weekly about his decision to end the practice of requiring blurbs on the books he publishes.
In the piece, Manning observes several things that have gone into his decision. In reviewing the full past catalog of Simon & Schuster books, he saw that “many of the biggest-selling, prize-winning, most artistically revered titles in the flagship’s history did not use blurbs for their first printings.”
The list of the un-blurbed includes “Psycho,” “Catch-22,” “All the President’s Men” and “Lonesome Dove,” among numerous others.
Manning also observed that the blurbing industrial complex seems to have gotten out of control, something I’ve seen for myself where some writers say they’re being asked to secure blurbs prior to selling the book to a publisher. This hunger for blurbs has put a significant strain on the capacities of the writers whose blurbs carry weight with readers, many of whom are (reluctantly) having to opt out so they can do their real work of writing books, not blurbs.
Manning says he’s not going to turn down a blurb if it comes in organically, but he’s no longer going to put stock in the blurbs as a determiner of which books are worthy of being backed by his publishing imprint.
I think by and large this is a worthy and even brave step. As both a blurber, and blurbee, these things are often fraught, and particularly when it comes to fiction, I think they’re largely not necessary. Just let me know enough to see if the book is for me, and I’m set. I don’t need to know if a bestselling author calls the book “astonishing.”
I find blurbs somewhat more useful for non-fiction books where a good blurb can help contextualize what’s inside. On the other hand, I’m too far inside the machinery to know if blurbs are a real reader service.
Tell me, faithful readers, should we blurb or not blurb?
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Conquistador” by S.M. Stirling
2. “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead
3. “The Affair” by Lee Child
4. “Locked On” by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney
5. “Embassytown” by China Mieville
— Mike C., Itasca
I’ve got a hunch that Mike will enjoy tackling this long, unrestrained, semi-autobiographical classic, “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts.
1. “In a Lonely Place” by Dorothy B. Hughes
2. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
3. “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean
4. “Night Boat to Tangier” by Kevin Barry
5. “Someone” by Alice McDermott
— Marianne B. (on behalf of her book club), Evanston
Marianne says they generally pick books under 350 pages, which makes sense if you want to have everyone read the book. At 313 pages, “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi fits that requirement, while also giving the gang much discussion fodder.
1. “And No Birds Sang” by Farley Mowat
2. “Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic” by Jennifer Niven
3. “The Last Voyage of the Karluk” by William Laird McKinlay
4. “Undertones of War” by Edmund Blunden
5. “The Expanse” series by James S. A. Corey
— Susan C., Chicago
I see an interest in stories about the wilds, be it on Earth or in space. “North Woods” by Daniel Mason feels like a good fit here.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
