How To Blurb
How to Ask and How to Answer
Friends!
I’ve gotten several requests to talk about blurbs, and today is the day! We’re going to talk about the who and the what, and most importantly, the whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
What’s a blurb?
A blurb is the praise from other authors you see on the back of books. It looks like:
“The Ancient Ruins of Greater Hattiesburg is a tour de force. A novel that kept me up at night. A treatise on the vagaries of small town living.” — Pookie Writerton, author of the New York Times best selling An Apple A Day.
Obviously, I made all that stuff up. But you’ve read hundreds of blurbs, even if you didn’t realize it.
Who does blurbs?
Writers! Writers who’ve gained some name recognition in their genre and who editors, agents, and authors think readers will see and think hey I’ve heard of that person!
How do blurbs…happen?
The writer, editor, marketing team, and the agent usually all pitch in to come up with a list of names of people to ask for blurbs. The lists usually comprise of some big name omg it would be amazing if this person blurbed this book writers and some other oh yeah this is my BFF and we write in the same genre names. Both are great! Both are needed! Not everyone will or can say yes to providing a blurb, so the list is always more people than any one book needs. You have to cast a wide net.
It’s very hard to ask for blurbs! We all know it (us publishing people, too!) and every writer who is asked to blurb has surely done the asking themselves. If you’re asking for blurbs for your first (or fifteenth) book, remember that. We all hate asking for blurbs! It’s ok. Just ask. It’s the other person’s responsibility to say yes or no. Just ask kindly and politely, and try not to melt between the keys of your keyboard from embarrassment.
The asker sends the potential blurber an email about the book (kinda like a query letter!), offers an electronic or print manuscript/galley, and indicates when they need the blurb. This last part is the most important! Tell people when you need the blurb! There are often two dates: one so that the blurb can be printed on the book cover, usually six months before pub-ish, and another date…after that where it’s too late to use it on the cover, but the marketing team can use it in ads and online and lots of useful places. INCLUDE DATES WITH YOUR BLURB ASKS.
How in the WORLD do I come up with a list of blurbers?
As a writer, you’ll be asked to come up with a list of names, and it can feel very daunting! Like, how are you ever going to ask Pookie Writerton to read your book????? For free???? In her spare time????? We all understand the process here, so try not to feel like this is an imposition. (It is an imposition, but that’s not your fault. It’s the system’s fault.)
In the blurb name gathering phase, put anyone you can think of on the list. There are no wrong answers. You’ve likely read a lot in your genre, so scan your bookshelves and write down the names of writers you like. It’s most helpful if they’re in your genre, but if you want to ask Obama and Oprah and Drew Barrymore for a blurb, go right ahead. They probably won’t blurb your book (unless you know them personally) and the publisher will probably have you email them, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ you never know. The worst that can happen is they say no.
Some people ask my clients directly, and some come through me or their editors. The more exposure you get as an author, the more you will be asked to blurb (and the less time you will have to do it, which is a whole ‘nother issue).
How do you write a blurb?
If you are asked to write a blurb, don’t panic. It sounds much harder than it is! First, you read the book. That’s it! Sometimes it’s very cool that you get to read a book before everyone else does. And hopefully, it’ll be a book you really like! Take some notes etc as you read, and when you’re done, craft a few sentences about why you liked the book. It’s not a book report. It’s not literary criticism. You are talking to potential buyers (READERS AND BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS), as they scroll online or flip to the back cover copy. Tell them why they should buy it. Tell them about the vibes. Tell them what they will get out of reading that book, whatever you got out of reading it. It’s not a test. Your blurb will not be rejected and you won’t get an F. Be honest and positive. Because if you don’t have anything nice to say…
What if you hate the book?
If you hated the book, don’t blurb it. The publisher isn’t going to put something like “Eh, this was just so-so.” on the back of the book. This isn’t a peer review. If you got a quarter of the way in and can’t bring yourself to finish it, just say you can’t blurb it. If do not want your name associated with it (it happens!) just pass your kind regrets to the person who contacted you about it and say that you’re not able to offer a blurb after all and you wish them the best of luck. You do not (SHOULD NOT) tell them you hated it. Just decline your RSVP as kindly as possible and move on. A lukewarm blurb doesn’t help anyone, so just set aside. It’ll be ok. If you don’t know how to politely decline this, ask your editor or agent and they can do it for you. We’re experts at politely declining things.
Do you have to blurb?
If you are asked to blurb, do you have to say yes? Absolutely not! You can decline for any reason. You may be too busy at work. You may not love the book idea or whatever. You might be knee deep in revisions and can’t add anything else to your plate. Reading books for blurbs takes a lot of—UNPAID—time and you can say no whenever and whyever you want! It’s ok!
And do you have to ask other people for blurbs? Well, yes. I mean, the publisher is not going to cancel your contract if you refuse, but refusing can hurt your book. You don’t have to ask 28 people to blurb, but you should do your best to think up 4 or 5. Asking for blurbs is not a neutral act. But it is part of how we do book promotion, and it’s in the best interests of your book and career if you figure out a way to make peace with this part. Everyone you ask will likely have been asked before. Trust they know how they want to respond. All you can do is ask. What happens after is not in your control.
(If someone on your blurb list is going through a really rough time, either because you know them personally or because they said someone online, you might want to skip them this time around. Use your best judgement.)
Don’t forget to thank the person who blurbs your book!
What do blurbs do?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry to be glib, but there isn’t any data on what blurbs do, if they affect sales, or if we can or can’t live without them. Anecdotally, as a reader, when I see blurbs on the back cover of the book, I usually glean vibes from them. Do the writers think this book is scary? Thrilling? Swoony? Un-put-down-able? Are the blurbs about plot or feelings? And who wrote the blurbs? Are they names I know? Other writers I’ve read? And then I…..probably buy the book regardless of what I read in the blurbs, if I was already going to buy it. It’s rare blurbs sway me against buying or reading a book unless the blurbs are like THIS BOOK WILL SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF YOU and I’m not in the mood for horror, and then I probably wouldn’t have bought it right then anyway. So yeah, as I said: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
BUT, from my cursory and unscientific research about blurbs, where they matter the most and have the most impact is with booksellers. The buyers at bookstores (and I don’t know exactly how this figures in at Amazon and B&N, etc.) read all the sales materials sent by publishers and/or meet with the publisher’s sales people and the blurbs can indicate to them how excited other people are about a book. Rave blurbs from big names? That could indicate it will be a big book. I don’t know if the absence of blurbs alone makes a huge difference, but I think the presence helps a lot. Your book is not going to be in every store. It’s better, of course, if it gets in more stores. Blurbs can help that.
I could probably write another thousand words about blurbs and why they suck and why they’re necessary and how we can and can’t live without them, but I’ll stop here. Maybe I’ll tell you what I really think about them on Thursday. But I hope this helps demystify blurbs, whether you’re reading them, writing them, or asking others for them.
Good luck!
OXOXOXOXX,
Kate
As someone who is in the midst of this right now for my second book, asking for blurbs is the worst part of the writing process, IMHO. But if you don't have any, it looks strange, so it seems to be a necessary evil. But as a writer who is also a reader, I take them with a grain of salt. Many I read are for writers by writers that I know are good friends so I discount their remarks quite a bit. I'm always disappointed when I read a glowing blurb and the book actually is fairly so-so.
I would add three things:
1. As in a query letter, make your blurb request personal. Why do you want the author to blurb your book (beyond trading on their name and trying to appeal to their audience)? What personally do you like about their books such that they (and their audience) will like your book.
2. The blurbers should have he same readership as your book because that's what you want.
3. The reason blurbs matter to booksellers, I think, is not in what they say but in that they show someone at the publisher cares about the books. If the publisher put in the time and effort to get the blurbs, they presumably will put in the time and effort to do other things that will help sales. No blurbs = no one cares, so why should the retailer take copies? In other words, blurbs are the missing brown M&Ms of publishing.