Journal Entry
On blurbing
John Scalzi and Justine Larbalestier talk about blurbs.
I like John’s procedure of not having the writer directly contact him. It takes a great deal of the social awkwardness out of the equation, and it also gives a nice protection buffer for the potential blurber, because, the blurber should really have the option of not blurbing if circumstances permit (either because they didn’t have time, or the work didn’t fit, or they didn’t think it fit with them, or so on). And Justine’s point about not bugging the blurber, that’s fantastic, because authors get enough rejection in life as it is with their work (editors, agents, readers, critics), having to turn down a fellow colleague is awkward.
I’m trying to think of all the blurb requests I’ve gotten the past few years. I know this year alone a couple were just books that were alright, but didn’t really jazz me up, partially/mainly because they were in subgenres that just don’t do anything for me. Felix Gilman’s Thunderer was pretty damn cool, so I gave that a blurb. I couldn’t put the book down, I started reading it over dinner and before I knew it it was late into the night and I was bleary-eyed, so I got up and wrote down a blurb. Another two blurbs were not anything to do with my not liking the book, I just had thought I had time to read the books in question, but with rewrites and deadlines I just had shelve non-essential stuff.
I already have 4 or so blurb requests from for this year (which really, you know, amazes me, because I wouldn’t think my name on a book would be that important at this early a stage in my career). And I’ll happily do my damn best to read each one. I do that hoping that I’ll like them and get to give a positive line. Because I remember what it was like, going hat in hand to authors I somewhat knew, to beg for a word. You totally feel like like a little Oliver Twist, shoved up to the front of the room to ask for more porridge, praying you don’t piss off some author you admire or who’s an acquaintance.
Heck, when the ARCs of Sly Mongoose come out in a couple weeks I know they’ll be going out for blurbs to a handful of writers, so I’ll be in the same position.
It be a strange business.
Filed under the topic Journal on February 9th 2008 at 7:40 pm. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for this entry to keep track of comments. You can also use to trackback.
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1. Steve Buchheit on Feb 10th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
“because I wouldn’t think my name on a book would be that important at this early a stage in my career”
Um, yeah. Tobias, I hate to the the one that breaks this to you, but you’re a force of nature, dude.
2. Mark Terry on Feb 11th, 2008 at 8:02 am
My first publisher felt–correctly, probably–that it was classier and more professional for the editor to make the blurb request on behalf of the author (moi). It seemed very effective.
My second publisher felt, largely (as far as I can tell) that everything having to do with promotion was essentially the job of the author (including, apparently, getting book reviews). So I contacted some authors and got blurbs: Gayle Lynds, Tess Gerritsen, John Ramsey Miller, Joe Moore, Jay MacLarty. In the case of Gayle and Joe and John, I knew them or had interviewed them for profiles I wrote over the years. I had met John, but I don’t think he remembered. It was at a conference. Anyway, we had corresponded a bit because I liked his books and e-mailed to tell him so, and I had reviewed his books on my blog and he had e-mailed to thank me.
Tess Gerritsen was a big surprise, frankly. I hadn’t met her or interviewed her, although I’d e-mailed her a couple times over the years to compliment her on her books or comment about something she said on her blog. I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask her, as a result, but my publisher’s publicist was all ga-ga over asking her, and told me to ask her, so I did. She said I could send it, but she couldn’t guarantee she’d get to it. As it turned out, she did, which I’ve very much appreciated. Other authors have said they’d take a look at them, but didn’t get to it or didn’t like it enough to blurb. In a lot of cases, the bigger authors probably have a hundred blurb requests or more, which is why I was so surprised by Tess and Gayle’s positive responses.
I’m inclined to agree with something Joe Konrath suggested, which was that being asked out of the blue to blurb isn’t so cool–he preferred to be wined and dined a bit, e-mails, a little bit of contact, etc. Makes sense to me.
Oh, and I always make sure I ask them and I always make sure to send them a signed copy after publication.
3. Felix Gilman on Feb 12th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
And the blurb was much appreciated, Tobias.
My editor — very wisely — not only didn’t tell me who she was reaching out to for blurbs, but even that she was doing it at all. I just got an email from her one morning that said: “hey look, we’ve got these blurbs!” Very nice, no stress.