A Pair of Ragged Claws blog referred to an article about well-known authors being asked to provide “blurbs” for book covers. Laura Miller on salon.com pointed out that “blurbs” aren’t actually the publishers description of the book found on the back cover (which she says is called the flap copy) but that “blurb” really only applies to “bylined endorsements by other authors or cultural figures”.
She has some pretty trenchant things to say about the reliability and (perhaps) honesty of these saying that authors are asked by their publishers to do the rounds begging endorsements from “name” mentors, colleagues, friends of friends etc: “So when publishing people look at the lineup of testimonials on the back of a new hardcover, they don’t see hints as to what the book they’re holding might be like. Instead, they see evidence of who the author knows, the influence of his or her agent, and which MFA program in creative writing he or she attended. In other words, blurbs are a product of all the stuff people claim to hate about publishing: its cliquishness and insularity.”
This is all the more problematic because research from Book Marketing Limited found that the blurb makes 62% of consumers buy a particular book. Laura Miller’s article is here.