In House: Book Blurbing – A Model of Good Faith

The Mighty Book Blurb holds a sacred space in our reading lives. The truth is that we do judge a book by its cover, and one of the components of book cover design (almost always) includes a blurb.

A blurb is a short, punchy communication about the overall readability of the book as written by another author who writes in the same and/or similar genre, and who potentially has some clout in the industry so their thoughts on the matter of how great the book is could motivate a book sale.

A book blurb can be a short paragraph included on the back cover or inside the book on the first few pages, or it can be 1-2 sentences on the back cover, or just a few words on the front cover. The book blurb is part of the design of the book cover.

The blurb comes to the author/publisher before the printing process so it can be included in the design, and is a dedicated part of the book publishing process. Getting a blurb from an author is an essential part of marketing. From multi-published, best-selling authors to debut, emerging authors, the book blurb is born out of a Model of Good Faith between authors in the writing world.

One does not (typically) get paid to write a blurb. In fact, in the 25+ years I’ve been in the biz, I’ve never met someone who was paid to write a blurb, nor who requested payment for a blurb. As a blurber myself, I’ve never requested payment.

The system, from my humble experience and from casual queries among literary peers, works like this:

An author and/or publisher makes a list of authors who would be a good fit to blurb the book. A good fit means that the blurber writes in the same genre (ex. a poet writes a blurb for a book of poetry), and/or the blurber is well-known in the community (ex. perhaps a poet with an award or a writer who writes across genres and has awards). It is understood that an author who has won awards is a best-seller, or who is famous (or all three!) is a Very Good Fit, especially for sales purposes. But that does not mean that an author who does not have these accolades will not also have a positive impact on sales.

This ask happens early in the publishing process, usually before a final proof (the book, in its digital form, laid out and ready to go to print) is ready. The blurber receives a pdf (digital) form of an edited version of the book to read.

Sometimes, the author makes the request directly to the blurber. In these cases, many times it’s because the author knows the blurber in some personal way, already has their contact info and feels comfortable making the request. Other times, the request comes from the publisher. Alas, it also happens that a cold ask occurs, and the author/publisher sends a request to the blurber they don’t know. All forms of requests are possible.

But what’s it like on the flipside for the blurber?

An important part of blurbing is being honest about whether you can commit to it. It takes time, effort, and energy to write a blurb. And, because of the unspoken-but-upheld Model of Good Faith, this is free labour we offer one another. If there’s truly no time or energy in your life for writing a blurb (essentially, reading a full book, thinking about it, writing a very brief, catchy synopsis and something cleverly/enticingly positive), the best choice is to say no. Part of the Model of Good Faith includes the asker trusting the potential blurber to give an honest response to the request itself. There are no hard feelings.

The job (because that’s what it is) includes:

1. Clearing time in your schedule to read the manuscript. Depending on the length of the book, this can take hours.
2. Clearing more time in your schedule to actually write the blurb. That is, create a positive, precise, catchy chunk of language that does not one but two things – tell the reader what the manuscript is about, and offer an enticing and positive reason to read the book. This too can take hours.
3. Being able to make the deadline. This is a due date form of labour.
   

This is not always a simple or easy task. The blurber wants to write something positive, wants to make the author and publisher happy, and wants to feel confident about what they’ve written because it’s their name on the book. It’s also possible that they have their own book coming out soon, and want to request a blurb from the author they are blurbing for. And so, the cyclical nature of the Model of Good Faith carries on.

Personally, I enjoy a solid one-word blurb: Extraordinary! or Transcendent! on the front cover. I’d really enjoy it if that was on one of my book covers!

Currently, there is no blurber database or official blurber request form. I’m not sure there needs to be. So long as we all continue to agree to the Model of Good Faith, this exchange of time, energy and positivity can be a part of the publishing process that is enjoyable, honest, and rewarding.