The secret life of blurbs
Blurbs, the quotes from famous people that appear on books, are curious things. They've been around forever, and show no sign of going away.
Most people assume these arrive through magic. Since they appear prominently on every book in the bookstore, its easy to forget there is work required to make them happen.
The work involved goes something like this:
Publishers and authors want to sell books
Endorsements from famous people, in theory, help sell books
To get a blurb, authors reach out to everyone famous they know
They ask for a blurb or an endorsement, based on a draft of the book
Some of those people agree to look at it, many decline or don't respond
Some of the people who agree, actually look at the book
Of those people, some offer a blurb, many decline here too
Of those that offer a blurb, some are good enough to use
It's a long, nag-filled process. Reading a book takes time, as does writing a short quotable summation of it. As is often the case in writing, there are many more rejections than approvals.
My first 3 books have many great blurbs from famous people, and I'm grateful for them. But for such a small piece of copy, people have very strong opinions about what they do or do not imply.
Some famous people never give blurbs (I know because I've asked them, and they told me). Other famous people love to blurb as many things as they can (It'd be interesting for someone with google-fu to see which famous people give the most blurbs). There is definite evidence some people give blurbs without even skimming the book (quid-pro-quo blurbing is not uncommon), whereas others insist on reading the entire thing before considering anything.
I've been asked about the singular blurb for my new book, Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds. It's unusual because unlike every other blurb I've seen, I, the author, wrote it myself.
This is unusual. I hope you find it amusing, or at least clever. Here's why I did it:
Most blurbs sound the same. I figured a more interesting and honest blurb may earn more attention than a famous person you don't really know saying "I love this. It was better than Cats" or "Amazing read" or another thing much like what others have said about other books.
As a self-published book, I'd rather invest time in making the book awesome. If I could skip the laborious and unavoidable steps listed above for hunting blurbs, I could focus more energy on making the book itself worthy of attention. Was it a mistake? I'm not sure.
Given a chance, people can evaluate things themselves. I decided to give 1/3rd of the book away, for free, as a Preview (PDF). I think most people know how to skim a book and decide if it's interesting or not, all on their own.
Did I make a mistake? Do blurbs make a big difference in your book purchasing decisions? If not, what does?
Related posts:Book Review: Where Good Ideas Come From
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