Antonio Carlos asked L.E. Modesitt Jr.:

I follow your blog and always liked the way you handle ARC books: you mention the ones that you loved, point out the issues if they are only good enough, and make no mentions to the ones that could be called a waste of paper. I recently fell into a trap due to a cover blurb by some author, in a very poorly edited and composed work. How do you handle the 'pressure' to promote "bad" books from friends or publishers?

L.E. Modesitt Jr. A number of years ago I was heavily pressured by my editor and publisher to blurb a book I was less than thrilled with. Finally, I gave in. I wrote a blurb that said, as I recall, " XXXX has everything" and then listed all the worn-out tropes in the book in question. The publisher initially printed the entire blurb. Then someone realized what I'd done, and it was shortened to "XXXX has everything," which was more than I wanted to say, but it was worth it, because while I'm still asked to blurb, no one pressures me to say what they want. And I'm now very careful to consider how what I write in a blurb might be shortened.

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