Blurbs that Don't Work

[Rick]

Man, if this is the level of stuff that really bothers you folks, you really need to get out more.

Blurbs are trying to sell the book, that's it. If they compare the author to another, well-known one it's the blurb equivalent of the recommendations Amazon does - "if you like X, you might like this since they're similar."

They're not synopses, they're not going to please everyone, they're basically *ads*.

[Tamahome]

"Younger writers are always looking for "blurbs", one of the few words that sound exactly as awful as the crime it's describing." – Brian K. Vaughan (Saga Volume 3)

[Andrew]

Pickle wrote: "11/22/63 is a great example of a blurb that doesnt work.

The title, front cover and blurb all insinuate that the main point of the book is the assassination when in reality that's ..."

This is what I most hate in blurbs too. That blurb is setting my expectations and so affects my reading experience. If it doesn't match what's inside it's building in almost certain disappointment.

[Darren]

Does anyone buy books off of blurbs, anyhow? I usually buy based on name recognition, recommendations from friends, or cover art. And not necessarily in that order.

[Michael]

Rick wrote: "Man, if this is the level of stuff that really bothers you folks, you really need to get out more.

Blurbs are trying to sell the book, that's it. If they compare the author to another, well-know..."

I wouldn't mind them saying "a sweeping epic reminiscent of Herbert's Dune!" Except that it invariably bares no resemblance to the work cited.If someone says THAT, then they better deliver Dune II. It's lame. It's lazy. It shows a lack of Iimagination. If an author has a good imagination, he doesn't need to use Dune as a crutch to sell his book. He can get me interested by telling me about the book.

[Michael]

Darren wrote: "Does anyone buy books off of blurbs, anyhow? I usually buy based on name recognition, recommendations from friends, or cover art. And not necessarily in that order."

I go in this order: TRUSTED friend's recommendation. If there's no recommendation, I look for authors I've enjoyed in the past. If none of that is there, then I look for a cover and blurb that seem interesting, andI read the sample to make sure the writing is something that appeals to me. So, yeah, the blurb plays a part sometimes. But not all that often.

[Rick]

Michael wrote: "I wouldn't mind them saying "a sweeping epic reminiscent of Herbert's Dune!" Except that it invariably bares no resemblance to the work cited.If someone says THAT, then they better deliver Dune II. It's lame. It's lazy. It shows a lack of Iimagination. If an author has a good imagination, he doesn't need to use Dune as a crutch to sell his book. He can get me interested by telling me about the book. ..."

It's a BLURB. Expecting a summary of the book in a cover blurb is... I can't even find the adjective. Unreasonable, perhaps. Blurbs are short sentences, not book summaries.

Now, I agree that a blurb that's misleading is annoying, but the blurb is there to get you to pick up the book. Once you pick up the book the chances of you buying it are MUCH higher than if you don't. However, you can actually... open the book. And read the inside summary, perhaps a few reviews if they've published them in the front matter, heck, read a few actual pages.

In short, I still think people are overreacting to what blurbs are there for. They're sales tools, that's it. If you buy solely on a cover blurb you're new. :)

[Ken]

Tamahome wrote: ""Younger writers are always looking for "blurbs", one of the few words that sound exactly as awful as the crime it's describing." – Brian K. Vaughan (Saga Volume 3)"

I like that quote. Sums it up succinctly.

[Michael]

Rick wrote: "Michael wrote: "I wouldn't mind them saying "a sweeping epic reminiscent of Herbert's Dune!" Except that it invariably bares no resemblance to the work cited.If someone says THAT, then they better ..."

I'm not saying it has to be a synopsis. I'm saying it should hint at the plot. Telling me it's like Dune doesn't tell me ANYTHING, because it could mean so many things. It might mean it's hero's journey. It might mean it's political. It might mean it's set on a desert planet. It might mean there is something like giant worms. Or none of the above. Abstracts and comparisons don't get me to pick the book up.

[Wastrel]

There's nothing wrong to comparing the work to someone else's work... so long as it's an interesting comparison!

"Jane Austen meets William Burroughs". "Michael Crichton meets Laurence Sterne". Those are books I'd buy on the strength of the blurb alone! Not "Sort of like Tolkien/Dune/whateverbookissellingthismonth".

In practice, though, I never read blurbs. Even before the internet, I don't think I ever bought anything as a result of one. They don't tell you enough to inform you, and if they do they spoil the plot. The only time I think I look at them is when I've already bought the book and have read it once and I'm going to re-read it and think 'oh, I wonder what they said about it?' and then laugh at how terrible it is.


I've sympathy for Robin about how difficult it must be to write those authorial recommendations. I have a hard enough time recommending a book to someone I know. On the one hand, you want to sell a book you like... on the other hand, you don't want to oversell it. And you want to give them enough information to intrigue them and make sure it's bought by people who like that sort of thing, but on the other you want to keep it as a surprise. So what comes out is likely to sound pretty generic, and it comes down to how much you trust the author. Unfortunately, even if you trust the author, you don't normally know a) whether you have the same taste they do and b) whether they can be trusted or whether they just go around reccing anything they're given. I'm not suggesting they do it just for the money, but I think some people are happier to put their name to any product they think is OK, and others will only want to support products they think are really excellent, and as a reader you don't really know that about the author.

Which is one reason it's good that authors like Robin have a genuine internet presence, so people can get more of a sense of who they are - I'm much more likely to be influenced by a reccomendation by someone like her or George Martin than I am by a quick quote by an author whose writing I like but whose character I know nothing about except through their work.

[L.R.]

I read Genesis by Bernard Beckett because of the Patrick Ness blurb on it and I was so glad I did because that book is amazing.