It's like [popular name]: yes or no?

[AndrewP]

Tomas wrote: "Well, the trick is in the fact that no one will know what kind of comparison/association will each reader make - which is one of the reason it can backfire. If someone tells me "Sanderson" or "Roth..."

I think you mean Martin instead of Sanderson :)

[Tomas]

I believe Sanderson has one book announced for a while as well, but yeah, Martin fits there too - even though he's not near the 10-year mark yet.

[Sarah]

I just read a blurb that made this topic come back to mind, it was described as: The Alienist meets The City & the City and "vivid atmosphere of Caleb Carr with the imaginative power of Neil Gaiman."

Laying it on a little thick, methinks. The blurb sounded genuinely interesting- really didn't need all those one liners near the top.

[Leah]

Tomas wrote: "I believe Sanderson has one book announced for a while as well..."

Sanderson tends to work on multiple series at once and bounces around a lot so some projects end up taking priority while others sit on a backburner forever. I mean we've been promised the Nightblood novel for like, what, 8 years or something now?

[Thaddeus]

I think it can be useful as a shorthand for genre and also how graphic any violence/sex is. If a book is 'like Game of Thrones' you can be pretty confident it's not Spot the Dog in a fantasy setting.

Beyond that, a compelling, or at least interesting, plot and characters need to be set out.

[Cheryl]

Remember one thing, if the hype in the description, including possibly the comparison, is too much, it can be deleted by a librarian. Blurbs are supposed to be descriptions... not hyperbole, not praise from other authors or critics.

I had three objections to Sarah's book, Westside, and though I am a librarian I decided to ask the librarian's group members for their opinions. They decided that two of the things that the blurb did were definitely removable. It's still an awfully hypey blurb but it's better.

[Sarah]

Cheryl wrote: "Remember one thing, if the hype in the description, including possibly the comparison, is too much, it can be deleted by a librarian. Blurbs are supposed to be descriptions... not hyperbole, not pr..."

It looks much better and is much more readable. Thank you!

[Sarah]

I just found another one that's way over the top: FKA USA

"Reed King’s amazingly audacious novel is something of a cross between L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, Douglas Adams’s A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Ernie Cline’s Ready Player One."

Weirdly- The description does sound a lot like Wizard of Oz meets Hitchhiker's, but my first reaction was, you've got to be kidding me.

[Cheryl]

Yeah, I personally think that's ridiculously hyperbolic, but I, myself, don't want to take responsibility or take it to the librarian's group.

I mean, 'blurb' technically does mean more than just description; it's just goodreads (policy as stated, and some users) that wants them to calm down. At least there is a good, thorough description embedded in that one.

[Sarah]

Hi Cheryl, I didn’t mean for you to keep changing them or suggesting it to the librarians. I was just sharing with the group because I thought it was funny. I’m sorry- I’ll stop derailing the thread now.

[Cheryl]

It is funny! And I don't think it's a derailment. Thanks for the clarification though!

[Tomas]

Sarah wrote: "I just found another one that's way over the top: FKA USA

"Reed King’s amazingly audacious novel is something of a cross between L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, Douglas Adams’s A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Ernie Cline’s Ready Player One."
"
At that point, I'd be like "Too many pointers in various directions, I'm confused - and out."

[CBRetriever]

I'd forgotten this blurb:

(For fans of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, Rick Riordan, Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Brandon Sanderson, Harry Potter, Eragon, Christopher Paolini, Robert Jordan, Tolkien, Lord of the Rings)

for Once We Were Kings which is truly like all those plus like almost every other fantasy book as the book had almost every standard fantasy plot device in it plus turned into what seemed like it was pushing christianity mode

[Sarah]

Yeah that sounds utterly forgettable. It’s not actually a good thing when it sounds like literally every other fantasy story out there. Smh

[Rachel]

My eyebrows raised higher with each name drop. One more they would have come off my head

[CBRetriever]

and I reviewed this book once on Amazon - I have no idea why my review no longer shows up. I remember the author was a tad bit confrontational asking why I'd rated it as a 3 (too high in my opinion - it was maybe a 2.5).

[AndrewP]

Related to this I find another overused tactic is describing a book/author as "the book/author that influenced ..........".
Honestly, I have read that so much recently that it's like George R R Martin never had an original thought in his head:)

[CBRetriever]

at least in the case of The Accursed Kings series Martin did write the introduction to the series plus specifically stated that it influenced him. Use the Look Inside here and you'll see what he wrote:

https://www.amazon.com/She-Wolf-Accur...