Blurbs can be an extremely helpful tool for helping sell books to potential readers whom may be unaware of the author. For this article I’m not talking about that cute little summary that fits on the back of the book, but instead those that showcase the opinion of other authors and critics who have had kind and insightful words to say about the book. This often can be very helpful for small press writers, such as the wonderfully talented Jeremy Robert Johnson, who was called “a dazzling writer” by none other than Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, or even going as far as to defeat the stigma of celebrity when James Franco had positive references from writers such as Amy Hempel and Gary Shteyngart. When my book came out I didn’t really seek blurbs, except for from two people, one of whom politely declined, the other gave me a nice quote to grace one of the opening pages (thanks, Noah Cicero).
Yet, sometimes these guest words can transcend helpfulness. They can take on a life of their own, becoming outdated, irrelevant or just failing their original job of helping a potential reader pick up a book that they may not be familiar with.
1 – The Blurb from a family or friend
Like that one person who always repeats the same story, this is the kind of blurb that is funny the first time you hear it, but quickly becomes repetitive and an annoyance due to it not realising that in itself, it is now a cliché.
These can take the form of:
“I can’t believe I raised a child who wrote this” – Author’s Mother
“What stupid shit” – Random Reddit User
I’ve seen this appear from brilliant small press books to New York Times Best Sellers. Individually, they aren’t a problem. For some of the books, due to their themes or absurd nature, it can be relevant. It’s just that most attempts fail to be, and that joke people think they’re coming up with has been heard before.
2 – The Blurb that Blurbs Everything Except the Text Itself
These are the kind of blurbs that exist on the book, but could exist just about anywhere else. They read as if the author requested reviews from other authors, but they didn’t actually like the work, so they just described something else instead.
For example:
“Such amazing cover art”.
“This author has the most unique fans!”
I’m not sure what the cure is for this, or if there even is one other than not doing it. These blurbs seem more ego stroking than showcasing a unique selling point, and are more often than not found on badly self-published books than works that have been through the editorial grinder. I’m not saying this is necessarily wrong all the time, Bizarro fiction prides itself on its outlandishness and pushing into the surreal just as well as it does on its good writing, so often a remark about how crazy a title is isn’t out of place in their world. Outside of that though, in other forms of literature, that excuse does not hold.
3 – The Blurb from the Author Themselves.
Like the first point, this is something that is often done to humorous effect, but unless the text is a self-aware piece, or something else resembling post modernism or metafiction, it often seems more try hard than an adult at a school dance.
“Author Y wrote the best thing I’ve read” – Author Y
“Author Y achieves both vanity and great prose in one novel” – Author Y.
These blurbs are often strange, and not in the Lynchian way that I love, but instead they sit there on the page, almost mocking me; making me wonder what else could have existed in that space instead.
A bad blurb can have a negative effect on a book, there is no doubt there. But it’s a fine line to cross, because they can be a world of recommendation, a gateway for a reader to enter into the world that has been written for them. Please, dear writers, if you have a small window of opportunity to catch my attention, make it count. I don’t care about your cats opinion about this book, but I damn well do care about someone who knows what they’re talking about.
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